Last night, developers unveiled plans for an eight-story building—Market Street Landing—on the site of the former Ballard Denny’s. MyBallard has a brief write-up about the presentation before a city design-review board and neighbors. I gotta say—man, this is an ugly building.

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Freiheit & Ho Architects

And it’s not that all new buildings are crap, or that condos are invading our sacred burg, or that this design doesn’t relate to the neighborhood, or those other red-herring excuses from people who want to send Seattle back to 1974. And it’s not that the Denny’s was especially special. The problem here is that this eight-story building, donning little pitched rooflets, is attempting to look like a set of small Craftsman-style houses. But it can’t look small: It’s a huge building. If you’re building big, go big. Be bold.