Slog - Comments on Live in Ivar's Old Place http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place The Smith Tower, our oldest and coziest skyscraper, may soon go condo.... Copyright 2008 Thu, 19 Jul 2007 14:05:50 -0800 Fri, 20 Jul 2007 18:11:23 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by Will in Seattle Cool.

Did I mention I'm opening a club there too?

I'm sure they'll love that.

]]> Will in Seattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766227 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766227 City Thu, 19 Jul 2007 14:37:52 -0800 Comment by JC So, where will all the junkies who sleep in the neighboring park go once they get chased away? Anyone want to take bets?

]]> JC http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766269 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766269 City Thu, 19 Jul 2007 15:07:28 -0800 Comment by Will in Seattle Hmm, maybe I can use my new club as a rooming house for the junkies after the mayor makes us stop serving drinks?

After all, it's only fair.

]]> Will in Seattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766279 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766279 City Thu, 19 Jul 2007 15:14:43 -0800 Comment by Chris RedFin: Do We Really Need All These Luxury Condos in Downtown Seattle?

"So how many condos over a mil have sold in the last three months? I only found three condos, that’s only one per month. At that rate, it’ll take quite a while to sell off all the listed inventory."

]]> Chris http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766303 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766303 City Thu, 19 Jul 2007 15:42:22 -0800 Comment by tomasyalba I'm not holding my breath. The linked article makes clear the owners haven't pulled the trigger, and are just moving the condo idea through the process with the City. This outfit bought Smith Tower at the peak of the RE market--from Samis, which timed its sale perfectly--and now has to be kind of wondering how to minimize their losses if our real estate market really has begun a slow, long cycle downward. Condos have the advantage for developers of permanently shifting economic risk onto whoever buys a unit. With commercial leasing your tenants can--and in the case of the Smith Tower recently, do--just tell you to fuck off, and leave you holding the bag. I'm guessing that since owner Walton is Chicago-based, Chicago's fast-tanking residential/condo market will make them look long and hard before doing a conversion like this.

]]> tomasyalba http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766315 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766315 City Thu, 19 Jul 2007 16:01:28 -0800 Comment by ecce homo The veryt op of the tower, with the pitched roof, is a sweet ass condo that one of chihuly's friends lives in. There is a picture tour somewhere on the internet with some sweet ass phtots.

I guess it used to be a water tank, now its a condo with 30 foot high cielings.

I would dig that!!

Oh, and to all you condo haterz, you are just jealous you can't afford a condo. Real estate is the purview of the people with jobs and lives. Pulling espresso, working at record store/clothing store/ delivering pizza don't cut it.

]]> ecce homo http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766325 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766325 City Thu, 19 Jul 2007 16:11:28 -0800 Comment by josef ecce homo @ 6:

It's now my turn to tell you to shut the fuck up. I make more than the King County median income, and I have an office with a door that closes and an assistant. I have a "good job" and I won't afford a decent condo. The damn things are too expensive. The market is over-priced. And, if you bought a condo in the last three years, somebody like me is going to take advantage of you about five years, by buying your condo for less than you paid for it.

]]> josef http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766331 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766331 City Thu, 19 Jul 2007 16:19:35 -0800 Comment by Amy Kate Horn I remember the photo tour of the home in the triangle in Pacific Magazine a couple years back. Here's a peek inside:
http://unusuallife.com/2005/10/21/smith-tower/
I think I heard Ivar himself used to reside up there.

]]> Amy Kate Horn http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766332 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766332 City Thu, 19 Jul 2007 16:21:12 -0800 Comment by ecce homo Thats it AKH!

Very cool stuff...

]]> ecce homo http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766333 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766333 City Thu, 19 Jul 2007 16:22:50 -0800 Comment by ecce homo Josef,

Don't complain to me about how poor you are. Its called the market economy. Its what the market will bear.

Besides, if all you can afford is a 250,000 dollar house, you shouldn't be living downtown with the rest of us. Move to the burbs dood.

These condos don't cost nothing to build. They have to make a profit. THats the way it works - a primer for all you aspiring marxists.

]]> ecce homo http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766336 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766336 City Thu, 19 Jul 2007 16:25:20 -0800 Comment by tomasyalba Ivar didn't live up there - it was where Ivar let his building's caretaker live rent-free. I remember an old TV news feature on it - the guy who had the job was groovy and unpretentious.

]]> tomasyalba http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766343 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766343 City Thu, 19 Jul 2007 16:33:20 -0800 Comment by fun shaped Ivar who?

As in, "Ivars"?

Did he own the building or what

]]> fun shaped http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766354 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766354 City Thu, 19 Jul 2007 16:45:20 -0800 Comment by SeMe ecce- take a break man. you dont have to be an oaf all of your life.

Cheers.

]]> SeMe http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766373 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766373 City Thu, 19 Jul 2007 17:15:51 -0800 Comment by Amy Kate Horn Yeah, duh, Ivar Hagglund of Ivar's. He bought the Smith Tower in 1976 and flew a huge salmon windsock from the top. History link has the details:http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2499

]]> Amy Kate Horn http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766379 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766379 City Thu, 19 Jul 2007 17:29:21 -0800 Comment by catalina vel-duray Something tells me that this ecce homo isn't the real ecce homo. While he's as bitchy as the real one, he doesn't seem as literate.

]]> catalina vel-duray http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766384 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766384 City Thu, 19 Jul 2007 17:43:17 -0800 Comment by KENTUCKY KERNEL OF TRUTH http://www.smithtower.com/History.html

L. C. Smith also manufactured typewriters - a lovely machine (now passe) that utilized ribbons and paper and carbon and made a comforting workplace noise). Fascinating to learn that the white terra cotta facing of the Smith Tower repels ordinary dirt. Wonder why they didn't think of something like that for the Seattle public library with its myriad window panels never again to be simultaneously sparkling and clean.

Per the snarky "I've got mine..." ripostes: "Living well is the best revenge - try it."

]]> KENTUCKY KERNEL OF TRUTH http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766385 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766385 City Thu, 19 Jul 2007 17:47:05 -0800 Comment by SISTER WENDY @15 - Well, he doesn't look too bitchy in this Renaissance candid camera shot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Quentin_Massys-Ecce_Homo-1520%2CDoge%27s_Palace%2CVenice.jpg

]]> SISTER WENDY http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766392 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766392 City Thu, 19 Jul 2007 17:58:50 -0800 Comment by NapoleonXIV What do you mean? EH is the one on the far right of the pic.

]]> NapoleonXIV http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766396 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766396 City Thu, 19 Jul 2007 18:12:45 -0800 Comment by lostboy The ecce homo here sounds about 14, and has a shallow and cheeful "If you're not rich like me you suck" kind of superiority, not like the normal EH's indignant and wounded moral superiority.

My guess: Today's EH may or may not have any money, but if he does he sure as hell didn't earn it himself.

]]> lostboy http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766397 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766397 City Thu, 19 Jul 2007 18:17:05 -0800 Comment by Amy Kate Horn I wondered, too, if this sloppier version was an imposter, but he's not. Thus far there's only one EH.

]]> Amy Kate Horn http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766569 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766569 City Fri, 20 Jul 2007 10:11:28 -0800 Comment by Will in Seattle re cts about condos - a number of us actually own our own - mine just got a tax assessment of $401,000 which is a rolling average of the last three years.

But you can find them for $125,000 in the city if you know where to look, including ones with views and near bus lines. Even in Wallingford.

]]> Will in Seattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766624 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c766624 City Fri, 20 Jul 2007 11:11:53 -0800 Comment by ecce homo New keyboard and tv monitor. Chalk it up to difficulty seeing.

Thanks for your concern everyone.

Hugs,

ecce

]]> ecce homo http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c767033 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/live_in_ivars_old_place#c767033 City Fri, 20 Jul 2007 18:11:23 -0800