(You can revisit those days—Remember them? Remember that replacement, the unctuous Corey Pearlstein? And the inscrutable board president Robb Kreig?—in a series of Theater News columns.)

^{Photos courtesy of Matthew Richter.}

Before.

After:

Richter has been hanging out at the demolition site and writes: "This morning I found, literally in a pile of rubble, this big Plexiglas sign that used to hang in the lobby welcoming people to ConWorks. If ConWorks gets a eulogy, this should be it."

Welcome to Consolidated Works. If you haven't been here before, here's the idea in a nutshell:

ConWorks is arranged architecturally like a wheel, with a hub and spokes. The lobby is the hub of this wheel, and the rooms laid out around it are the spokes. These rooms include:

* a 150-seat mainstage theater
* a 50-seat movie theater
* a 4,500 square foot gallery
* a music stage
* an arts resource center
* a full bar and lounge
* three artist studios
* offices for six fellow nonprofits

If you haven't seen the whole facility yet, please feel free to ask at the box office about taking a tour of the space. We love showing it off.

Our programming follows the same hub-and-spoke structure as our architecture, The hub, in this case, is theme, and each eight-week "Consolidation Series" examines a different theme--Artificial Life (Fall 1999), or Imagined Landscapes (Winter 2000), or Suspension (Winter 2004), for example. The spokes, in this analogy, are the various arts disciplines themselves.

Each Consolidation Series includes a film series, a music series, a visual arts exhibit, a mainstage production in our theater, and a series of lectures, all examining a common theme. The theme is the glue that ties the total ConWorks experience together. It provides our curators in each arts discipline with a common starting point and a common goal, and it offers you, the audience, a preliminary answer to the most common question heard around contemporary art -- "What was that about?"

This resource center is a good place to start exploring the current theme. Here you'll find statements by the curators and the executive director, displays tying into the theme and programming, and see and hear some of the upcoming programming in the series.

Consolidated Works is a nonprofit organization, supported by many individuals like yourself, in addition to private foundations, corporations, and municipal granting agencies. Please join us as a supporter by becoming a member or a donor today.

Help build Seattle the contemporary arts center it deserves.

Richter says he's been hanging out at the site, taking photos, and made friends with the demolition guys. They let him wander around and take photos (and took a few photos of dramatic parts falling when he wasn't there). "The demolition guys were incredibly curious about what had happened there," Richter says. "Far more curious than the board of directors ever was."

He also notes that the demo company takes the old lumber, mills it clean in Tacoma, and resells it as salvage lumber. "So if anyone wants furniture made from the old Consolidated Works," Richter says, "point them to xomonline.com."

Goodbye all over again, ConWorks.

UPDATE

Steven Vroom sent along some links to other digital panoramas at ConWorks from back when:

http://www.vroomjournal.com/panorama/lobbyvr.php
http://www.vroomjournal.com/panorama/conworks1.php
http://www.vroomjournal.com/panorama/conworks2.php

Even though the area is prime for more residential density--as per the city's plan for tighter, concentrated development--the decision was controversial. Under the rules approved today, developers must include 17.5 percent of the added floor area, above the previous 40-foot limit, as "workforce housing" (units affordable to people making 80 percent of the county's median income, or about $1,150 a month for a one-bedroom apartment). Affordable-housing advocates said developers should include over 20 percent, and the leading developer in the neighborhood, the Freehold Group, said that any requirement for affordable housing would render their building plans financially unfeasible. At a hearing last month, developers and activists formed an unlikely alliance to ask the council to delay the entire process.

Undaunted, Council Member Sally Clark, chair of the planning and land use committee, struck a compromise to create the workforce housing requirement above and appease the Freehold Group. With the help of Council Member Richard Conlin, she included a provision that exempts the developer from paying city property taxes for the first 12 years.

The building was nominated for historic landmark status in 2004 but failed to achieve the designation after nearly half the Landmark Preservation Board missed the meeting, the Department of Neighborhoods reports. Seven votes from the 12-person board are required to designate a landmark. But only seven of the members attended, says Sarah Sodt, coordinator of the Landmarks Preservation Board. Five voted in favor of declaring it a landmark and two opposed.

Although the five absent members of the board may have also dissented against declaring the building a landmark, if they had attended the meeting and two of them voted for it, the MJA Building would have won landmark status in 2004. But Sodt says there is no requirement for the Landmark Preservation Board members to attend the meetings.

Five years are required between each landmark nomination. “When next April rolls around, someone could again nominate it,” says Sodt. “But they slipped under that five-year timeframe.” Now, the owners have removed terra cotta--the very feature that qualified it for landmark nomination the first place.

The current owners, Iowa-based Principal Global Investors Limited, purchased the building in March 2007. The company had no comment today about why it was removing the terra cotta frieze work and trim (a spokesman did promise to call back next week). But a spokesman for Collins Woerman, a local developer, said the company was hired one or two years ago to study plans for a 20-story office building on the site.

I'll update when I hear more from the owner, and from the Department of Neighborhoods--are they doing to do anything to prevent this from happening again, like require the Landmark board to actually show up at meetings?

But Scott Shapiro and Liz Dunn aren’t waiting for the city to act. Over the past few years, the developers have gutted drab warehouses on 12th Avenue and renovated them into neighborhood icons. Café Press, Osteria La Spiga, Retrofit Home, and others are in their portfolio. Now they’ve set their sites down the barrel of Pike-Pine.

Two adjacent warehouses on Melrose Avenue lay low, an unmemorable olive green. But in February, Shapiro and Dunn will begin renovating them into restaurants and stores—injecting life into a historically dead wedge of the neighborhood.

“It’s a serious investment, but it’s worth it for us,” says Shapiro. “As long-term local owners, we believe we are creating something unique to a neighborhood that values creative and unusual spaces.”

These sorts of projects are labors of sacrifice. Choosing to limit a building to one or two stories represents potentially passing on millions of dollars in revenue because zoning rules through most of the Pike-Pine neighborhood allow developers to build up to 65 feet. Moreover, renovating these spaces—sandblasting the massive fir beams and bringing century-old buildings up to modern standards for retail spaces—costs even more.

“Some other developers are tearing down buildings that housed some really great places that people on Capitol Hill and the rest of Seattle value,” says Shapiro.

But existing city regulations work at odds this sort of renovation and restoration. Shapiro says the code requires many upgrades that may be unnecessary, such as throwing out old windows and purchasing new ones. While the new materials are more energy efficient, discarding the old material in a landfill and manufacturing new material is a net environmental and financial burden, he says. “That makes a new development cheaper because a developer doesn’t have to deal with the hassle and cost of the restrictive land-use code,” he says. “It would be great if there were more flexibility to allow a building to keep its existing character.”

“Our guess is that it had to do with taking down what would have been the historically significant portion, which is the terra cotta,” says Joe Woods, an architect at Hummel Architects, a tenant in the building. “[The owners] would have their hands tied if the historic process got further down the line."

The two-story MJA Building is a product of the downtown building boom of the early 1900’s, which was spurred by the Klondike Gold Rush. In 2004, a historic resources survey found that the building “appears to meet the criteria of the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Ordinance.” But for reasons that are unclear, the building didn't become a historic landmark.

New owners, calling themselves MJA Building LLC, bought the property late last year. Under zoning rules adopted by the city council in 2006, a new building on the site could be as tall as 400 feet. Until this week, it looked like this:

But today, Slog tipper Christine alerted us to the carnage occurring under the scaffolding that wraps the building. Construction workers are “taking the terra cotta off in such a way that there will be no way to salvage the actual material,” she says. The owner “is replacing it with one of those hideous fake stucco products.” She sent this photo of how it looks today:

“We are just trashing our history when we do stuff like this,” says Jeff Hummel, owner of Hummel Architects. “These buildings are our heritage.”

The property-management company, KG Investment, sent a notice about plans for stripping the exterior to the building’s six commercial tenants two or three weeks ago, calling it a “seismic retrofit,” says Hummel.

“They have been framing this as a seismic retrofit, which is total bullshit,” says Hummel. “It is not.” If it were a retrofit, he says, the owners would also reinforce entryways, the skin of the building, and other components of the frame. Building owners could retain the historic facade and still build a tower on the site, he argues, much like the Cristalla a few blocks north.

KG Investment and MJA Building LLC have not returned calls to comment.

Pb Elemental, the development firm behind some of Seattle’s most daring and innovative towers and houses, laid off 16 of its 50 employees last Friday. The layoffs are across the board, including architects, project managers, and adminstrative staff.

“It makes us heartsick,” says Michael Boyd, a spokesman. “This is a regrettable thing that we did but a necessary business decision.” He cites the ailing economy and credit markets for the layoffs, but he wouldn’t name the specific projects that may have been canceled or postponed. "We’re not breaking that out at this point," he says, adding, “The residential market is tough."

Pb Elemental has proposed a series of delightfully boxy town houses in the greater Seattle area, especially in the Central District. Many are already built. The company has teased us with the tapered Trophy Building, an ambitious residential tower that the company "moved away from," and the unapologetically stark I.D. Building, a mixed-use hotel. That building is delayed due to rezoning, he says, but is still on the table.

“I should point out that we don’t foresee any additional layoffs being necessary,” says Boyd.

To warm up the Mt. Baker Community Club, a Sound Transit spokeswoman described the East Link, which will connect Seattle to the eastern burbs if Prop 1 passes next month. She patiently answered the audience’s questions: “Yes, 55 miles per hour is as fast as it goes,” and, “Light rail does not refer to how light it is; it is actually quite heavy.”

Then to taller buildings. Ceis, along with new city planner Ray Gastil, told the group that the city aimed to increase density near the transit station. “The bad way to do it is to do nothing—leave zoning the way it is,” he said. Instead, he said the city would ask the residents to give their feedback and complete the plan in a year. Many neighborhood plans are drafted semi-autonomously by neighborhoods over several years.

Pat Murakami, president of the Mt. Baker Community Council, asked how many new apartment or condos the city planned for the neighborhood. She had heard the city was considering 3,000 new housing units near the station. Some at the meeting were concerned about the construction noise, increased property taxes, and towers in the neighborhood.

“I’m not going to sit here and tell you it will be all low-rise density,” said Ceis, waving his hands by his waist, without committing to a specific plan. “I would be lying to you.”

Indeed, under current rules, most of the properties on Rainier Avenue South around the Mount Baker Station already allow for 65-foot mixed-use buildings. Considering the pitch, I'd estimate heights will be set between 85 to 125 feet.

There is no valid argument against upzoning around this or any other light-rail station. The only argument is that it be done right. The city should involve the neighborhood. Developers must avoid building a dozen homogeneous slabs of housing. Good street life will require deep retail spaces of varying sizes affordable to small businesses—not giant retail that wraps around parking garages (those are expensive to rent, awkwardly arranged, and minimize the retail potential for a building). The bottom floor needs big glass storefronts, using warehouse style fronts like in Portland’s Pearl District. And the city should require a copious amount of affordable housing. Neighbors may moan, but it must be done.

The artists want to stay at Magnuson Park, the old Naval station where the city says the buildings are crumbling and uninhabitable without major upgrades—upgrades this developer is willing to do.

But the artists say they're trying to work out a development plan of their own for another building in the park, and the city sounds closed to that idea. City spokeswoman Dewey Potter said she'd provide more details in a forthcoming email, but today she said the artists will definitely not be able to stay in Magnuson Park. That's news to the artists.

Artists renting at Building 11, a humble and creaky building but one that's drenched with perfect studio light from the large windows overlooking the waterfront, include Claudia Fitch, Francisco Guerrero, Eugene Parnell, Juliana Heyne, Carolyn Law, Carolle Rose, Liz Bruno, Nancy Loughlin, Tom Collicott, and Anne Hayden Stevens. They opened their studios for the building's first open house this past Saturday, but got the bad news Tuesday. They say the developer plans to put in an Ivar's and a Kidd Valley, and to turn the converted studios into expensive offices.

More as I hear from various sources.

to this:

The renderings I've seen so far don't include a full front view (i.e., what things will look like from where I was when I took that first shot of Columbia Plaza), but here's one that includes the ugly-ass Bank of America drive-through building in the front (which, unfortunately, was not sold as part of the development):

There's a lot I like about this project. Foremost: It will replace one of the worst-used lots in Columbia City--a lot that effectively walls off downtown Columbia City from the Columbia City Park and the renovated Columbia City branch library--with a development that will extend the downtown area to its logical terminus at Alaska Street. All that dead space will be gone (and RIP, Columbia Plaza, but there are plenty of places that sell wares similar to yours right down the street), replaced by retail and (God willing) restaurants, which the growing neighborhood desperately needs. Second: I really dig that the parking is all underground. Granted, that's kind of a given on a small lot in a dense area, but--if the renderings can be trusted--the parking will be practically invisible. That's good planning--especially for a building on the street (Edmunds) that Sound Transit's planning to turn into a pedestrian link to the light rail line a few blocks west on MLK. Third, while I don't know how much these will sell for, I like that the units are small--between about 500 and 800 square feet, which will (I hope) translate into lower prices than some of the large, two-story luxury lofts that have been going up around the neighborhood. ($725,000-per-unit converted apartment building, I'm looking at you). Finally, if the developers do actually put in a green wall facing the Bank of America, it'll be an awesome visual fuck-you to a squat gray relic on an increasingly pedestrian-oriented street, making it look more than ever like the out-of-place car-centric anachronism it is.

Now, a few cautionary thoughts: It would be nice if the open space weren't clustered in the center, where only residents of the building can really access it. Why not next to the park instead? And these drawings show a muted, conservative palette--but will the developer stick to it, or fall prey to the still-trendy "throw a few buckets of primary colors on it and call that massing" school of design? Finally, if there is a "road diet" on Rainier, narrowing the highway-like road from five lanes to four or less, will the developers do something to plan for that? Right now, the side that faces Rainier looks pretty monolithic. That won't work very well if and when Rainier is narrowed to be more user-friendly for cyclists and pedestrians.

The city released an audit a couple weeks ago that calls for improving pedestrian mobility around construction sites. While the city figures out how to do that, Dan Bertolet of Hugeasscity has a post on the stroller revolt around the Four Seasons hotel construction site. What happens when pedestrians are faced with a "sidewalk closed" sign on First Avenue during rush hour? Mothers carry babies, fathers push strollers, and scofflaws tote bouquets into the path of oncoming traffic.

“There are places around city where a sidewalk has to be closed due to safety considerations,” says Rick Sheridan, spokesman for the Seattle Department of Transportation, when I called him today. Gee, it looks more dangerous to have it closed. Shutting down a sidewalk, he says, “is allowed by Seattle Department of Transportation, but we always make sure that one side is open to pedestrians and cyclists.”

Several other major cities require developers to provide covered sidewalks for pedestrians. But not here in Seattle. “Hills make it impossible” for staging construction equipment on certain side streets, says Sheridan, requiring developers to use the sidewalk for equipment. In those cases, other cities require barricaded walkways on the street. But here in Seattle, this is what we do to pedestrians in the street. Sheridan says, “To close a lane [on First Avenue] would create a lot of complications just for traffic.”

To remedy the problem, Sheridan says, “We are going to Washington, D.C. to see how they accommodate that traffic and see if there are techniques we can adopt in Seattle."

More pictures at Hugeasscity.

The New York Times explains:

The investigators determined that debris from the falling twin towers ignited fires on at least 10 floors at 7 World Trade Center, which was about 400 feet north of where the city’s two tallest buildings once stood. The blazes burned out of control for six hours, as the city fire department, devastated by the collapse of the twin towers, abandoned its efforts to extinguish the fire, and the sprinkler system was incapacitated.

The heat from these fires, the investigators said, caused the beams on the lower floors of the east side of the tower to expand, ultimately causing a girder on the 13th floor to disconnect from a critical interior column that supported the building’s long floor spans. Once the 13th floor gave way, a cascade of floor failures started down to the fifth floor, leading to the overall collapse of the tower.

(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

The largest earthquakes of the last week (count: 181).

The largest earthquakes of the last week in North America (count: 131).

The largest earthquakes of the last week in the Pacific Northwest (count: 27).

From the always-fun-to-refresh USGS earthquake charts.

(Thanks to Slog tipper Kevin S.)

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.

In May of 2007 there was a splash of news … about a four-star hotel to be built on Ballard Ave. It was big talk back then, but nothing seems to have happened, and I wonder if developers thought better of it. But I can't find any updates anywhere on the web. I'm curious whether Sloggers can sleuth out the latest. Thanks!

Brooks.

Dearest Brooks, the Slog Bloodhound Gang is at your service. Malli Anderson, a land-use planner for the city, confirms that in 2006 the Olympic Athletic Club applied to build a shmancy five-story hotel on Ballard Avenue NW, across the street from Hattie’s Hat. But those applications have since stagnated. The permit, she says, “is not even close to being issued.” However, she didn’t know why.

“I believe the owners are trying to find the best financing,” says project architect Gordon Lagerquist, who adds that the market for new construction is shitty right now. “We’re just trying to stretch the permitting process as far as we can," he says. Rather than the original completion date of January 2009, he says the owners now don't expect to break ground until later that year.

So is dragging out a permit this long weird? “Not to me,” says Anderson. “Usually it’s hurry up and wait.” But she says things have been slower at the Department of Planning and Development lately. She says when she used to work in the application service center, where developers and architects go to file plans and ask questions, "We used to have 400 people a day." But when she worked last Friday, she says, "We had one person all afternoon."

The industry now has about 6,000 new hotels, with nearly 800,000 rooms, under development, a 27 percent increase from last year, according to Lodging Econometrics, a consulting firm in Portsmouth, N.H. About 2,000 of those hotels are already under construction, and construction is scheduled to begin on many more in the next year….

But perhaps more telling is the number of projects called off in the last three months — 327 — after investment banks like Lehman Brothers, UBS and Merrill Lynch began to reduce financing for new construction, according to Lodging Econometrics. It was the highest number of cancellations since immediately after Sept. 11.

Construction will certainly halt in some of the most obvious tourist destinations—such as Vegas, Hawaii, and beach towns—but what’s going to happen in Seattle?

Prospective demand for more hotel rooms has driven many developers to propose hotel-condo hybrid towers--for example, the Candela Hotel and Residences, the AVA tower, the ID Building, the tower on 2nd and Virginia, and the Heron & Pagoda Towers. Those projects haven't broken ground, but 1 Hotel & Residences, which broke ground and stalled, leaving a hole on 2nd Avenue, is overhauling its luxury hotel concept.

Meanwhile, local realtors, developers, and economists foresee that demand for condos here will resume in a few years, just as the supply from buildings currently under construction runs dry. So I’m guessing we'll see a pre-building conversion wave--in which hotel plans will be scrapped and replaced by condos.