During our discussion of townhouse design standards last Friday, ignited by Southwest Design Review Board member (and West Seattle architect) David Foster‘s investigation of micropermitting (first report here; City Council President reaction here), it was suggested we should photograph some of the townhouse projects. So we did. Please keep in mind that unless otherwise noted, these are NOT examples of the practice he is concerned about – instead, the thought here was JUST to take a look at townhouse faces for some of the larger, newer groupings, for anyone interested in seeing examples of current West Seattle townhouse construction, somewhat side-by-side. Here’s a sample from a weekend morning drive: (PS: TUESDAY MORNING ADDITIONS AT BOTTOM OF POST)
First, the 7200-block-of-California (south of Morgan Junction) project that we documented last year, which IS on Foster’s list (and was actually challenged by nearby resident Vlad Oustimovitch, who has served on the DRB; here’s WSB coverage of how that turned out). 13 units, on land that was formerly home to a small building then-owned by the church across the street (then Gatewood Baptist, now Seattle International), first tracked here in November 2006; here’s how they look now:
Here is the 5900 block of California, also on Foster’s list, townhouses going up (permits first reported here last October) on the site that used to be fronted by the Guadalajara Hacienda restaurant (with another multiplex replacing a bemoaned teardown next door):
These are relatively new townhouses at Fauntleroy/Graham, former site of old apartments:
A little further north along Fauntleroy, 8 townhouses that replaced old houses (the development has a promotional site here):
Continuing north on Fauntleroy, a group of relatively new townhouses next to Fairmount Park:
Now over to the 3000 block of Avalon, where we’re not 100 percent sure this project is technically townhouses, but didn’t look like one solid apartment/condo building either:
Back over to California, these townhouses replaced two old houses (WSB coverage of their pre-demolition here) just south of the Charlestown Cafe:
And these North Admiral townhouses are at California/Seattle, on the site of an old brick multiplex torn down last May (WSB coverage here; JetCityOrange had demolition video):
We didn’t get a shot of the NoMo 12 development of which David Foster spoke so highly, but there are plenty of pix on its website. ADDED TUESDAY MORNING: WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli sends this photo of a 4-unit, David Foster-designed townhouse in West Seattle.
ADDED LATER TUESDAY MORNING: Christopher sent this photo of NoMo 12:
And Foster himself sent what he says would be his vote for “ugliest townhouses” in West Seattle — built last year at California & Spokane:
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