Boom “Bank of Opportunities” to Be Demolished
posted by on August 20 at 16:26 PM
The Bank of America building, on the corner of Broadway East and East Thomas Street, was, no doubt, quite fresh in the 1960s—the slate on the exterior walls, the little moat of rocks, the windy plaza facing a blank wall. It is, needless to say, all quite stale now.
A chipper receptionist answered the phone today, “Thank you for calling Bank of America, the bank of opportunities.”
But the next opportunity will be a wrecking ball. SRM Development filed plans with the city this month to demolish the bank and rip up the adjoining parking lot, replacing them with two buildings. The first phase will be a four-story building on 10th Avenue; the second will be a six-story building over the bank site on Broadway. Combined, they will contain 13,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor and 113 apartments above.
SMR bought the land within the last month, says Melissa Wechsler, project manager for the Runberg Architecture Group. “One thing to keep in mind that the light-rail station will be a block from the site,” she says. She expects construction to begin in 2010. “The bank is going to be moved back there eventually,” she says.
An early-design guidance meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. on September 3 at 6:30 p.m. in the Seattle Vocational Institute, 2120 South Jackson Street. Interested folks should go to this meeting—the first in a series, and the best chance to frame the neighborhood’s needs.
In the last few years, we’ve seen several fugly new and proposed mid-rise buildings on Broadway (Brix is the exception). Particularly disappointing is the trash heap at the end of Broadway and the slapdash box under construction at the site of the old QFC. Don’t let it happen again.
Nothing could be fuglier than that existing building, good riddance.
PLEASE for the love of god let it be something that LOOKS COOL. Thats all I want. Aesthetics are sorely lacking on Cap Hill...
Only sadness here: the Broadway farmers' market, which I shopped at weekly until I left the Hill. I'm sure it'll find another good home, though; there's no shortage of surface-level parking lot wasted space in the city.
(Maybe we could close part of Broadway to car traffic once a week? Residents get farm-fresh produce *and* the Seattle Times explodes in anger. Everyone wins!)
I'm worried about the farmer's market. It's surprisingly weak compared to the others like the U District or Ballard, but by gum it's just down the street. I'll be sad if it doesn't find a new home.
Bank of America sucks warthog choad. Don't put your money in this hyena's poop chute. It's run by homophobic old white men. And racist middle-age white men.
I like the bofa building just fine. Hideous architecture from the 60s needs to go, but this isn't an example of that. It's a well behaved building, hugs the sidewalk, parking in back, not out of context for its surroundings and not hideous looking. As an example of 60s era architectural styles that didn't age horribly (a small percentage to say the least), I think that building is fine. c'est la vie, though. Dense up the dern street already.
With all the construction and empty buildings slated to be torn down soon, Broadway's gonna have more holes than a meth-addicts mouth.
I'd like to see a moratorium on new construction until anything that's currently being built gets finished.
here's runberg's site - this is what it will look like, basically:
http://www.runberg.com/Index.shtml
yeah, half-assed is what i'm thinking, too.
That was my first bank branch when I moved here in 1990 when it was a Seafirst.
Wow, they paid $9.3 million just for the land. Now on to construction financing. Good luck!
Reading the link for the QFC site I saw this little piece of Nostradamus shit from 2007:
"We should put a statue of J.P. Patches in front. That would add to the street cred."
Posted by Will in Seattle | November 7, 2007
That building smells like an old school. I get flashbacks every time I walk in there. More blocked sidewalks here we come.
God dammit, that's the most reliable parking lot in all of Capitol Hill.
All part of the conspiracy to keep us B&Ters (well, B&Bers would be more accurate) stuck in suburban hell, eh?
Damn Developers. In addition to the farmers market, there are millions of microbes on the windows, floors, air vents and ATMs of that building.
Won't somebody please think of the microbes?
Best banking staff in the city - by far - and, not a hit of homo shock
Not so in some other B of A branches, trust me
As far as the building - the faux stone on the exterior is horrid - the new Bwdway is going to be the best incentive to go somewhere else
Good bye - dear friend - good bye
Interesting how 12th has changed for only two or three blocks ... and 15th is still small town with a QFC
I like that building...it's a rare example of attractive 60's/70's architecture. It was a nice shady oasis on Broadway...And, judging by the pictures of other buildings done by the builders, the replacement will be another bland blob of a building.
Now, the Key Bank on 15th has GOT TO GO! Repulsive on the outside, and even more so on the inside...and it smells like mold.
attractive in that ugly nostalgia way.
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