South Waterfront News

[PacificNW]

Diffbean....you don't owe anyone an explanation...Your post was obvious that your "only" problem with the project was the design....not with the future tenants.

[zilfondel]

Okay, I was probably a bit harsh there. However, it was also my intent to ruffle some feathers and generate discussion - way too many of these threads are turning into the same old rehashed comments year after year..

It will be the first building people see when they enter SoWa from the South. Nice representation of the neighborhood.

Diffbean, I have a serious problem with your comment above - it seems flippant and, like the article that was posted, superficially categorizes the architecture as being subpar.

From the renderings I have seen - as well as some examples of similar construction (Lexis next to Tanner Springs in the Pearl), these buildings appear to have a high level of detail, decent structural systems and high quality external finishings.

Not to mention the public plaza space that Block 46 will provide.


block 46 - provides an urban plaza like the new Civic project

block 49 - this just doesn't look like a cheap building to me

More than anything tho I thought you were just against those people (categorical anti-poor person snobbishness) from living in your neighborhood. Which generally pisses me off to no end, particularly in a city-subsidized brand new neighborhood. The city is having a hard enough time to provide low-income affordable housing, and I think the SOWA should suck it up and allow at least 25% of the units to be built to be affordable.

related note - over 1/3 of all households in the US consist of single people living alone.

[zilfondel]

Originally Posted by Diffbean

Zil, I am only against the design not against who is living there.

To answer your question regarding millions, that would be a NO. Just a modest middle class dual income with no kids. The main reason we moved to SoWa is so that we were not stuck sitting in traffic for half the day getting back and forth from work.

Have a great weekend and I think you need to re-assess your thoughts on the neighborhood.

So I take it that you just want towers then?
One of the main points of the article was bemoaning the fact that the affordable units aren't big enough for two parents with children (kind of a rarity these days tho), so they shouldn't be built.

I have actually spent dozens and dozens of hours in SOWA photographing, touring, and writing dozens of urban planning and architecture papers for class on it. In fact, I am taking a class at PSU right now where we spent 2 weeks debating the pros and cons of the district. I've also been biking through both the Pearl before most of the towers were built, and down in SOWA before they ever moved a shovel of dirt.

[rsbear]

Originally Posted by zilfondel

block 49 - this just doesn't look like a cheap building to me

It looks like a cheap rabbit hutch apartment building to me. Because of the extreme difference in height, design style and exterior finishing this building screams cheap to me. But to each his own and taste is a very personal thing so if you like it then bully of you.

[MarkDaMan]

The only thing I'm puzzled about, the people opposing this building are the residents of SoWa? Renderings for this building, while recently updated but not significantly changed, were introduced long before I think even the ground was broke on any of these towers...maybe the Meriwether. If opposition is to the height, than why the approval of the low rise super-block only one block away? I just don't see why the Simpson Housing project is great for the neighborhood, but this looks cheap and squatty?

[zilfondel]

Originally Posted by rsbear

It looks like a cheap rabbit hutch apartment building to me. Because of the extreme difference in height, design style and exterior finishing this building screams cheap to me. But to each his own and taste is a very personal thing so if you like it then bully of you.

Wow, Europe must look like a hell-hole squatters camp to you then!

[tworivers]

I have actually spent dozens and dozens of hours in SOWA photographing, touring, and writing dozens of urban planning and architecture papers for class on it. In fact, I am taking a class at PSU right now where we spent 2 weeks debating the pros and cons of the district.

Lucky you! You should start a new "pros and cons" Sowa thread with an encapsulation of your thinking at the end of the class.

I don't understand the opposition to this building, either. It actually looks pretty solid to me, affordable housing or not. And I actually WANT to see more of a dramatic difference in scale between future buildings down there. Bring on the low and mid-rise. I hope they save some of the warehouses along the western edge, too.

[PacificNW]

Delete

[rsbear]

Originally Posted by zilfondel

Wow, Europe must look like a hell-hole squatters camp to you then!

I lot of post-war, mid-century European architecture does look like a hell-hole to me. And it's my right to think so. And it's your right to think not. And it's my right to not like this building for SoWa. And it's your right too do so. But you really need to stop your personal attacks on others in the forum.

[bvpcvm]

i think this building looks ok - and, it's only a rendering. so far, i've consistently been happier with the final product than i am with a rendering.

[WestCoast]

looks like the lovejoy fountain apartments in downtown.... not nice, but generally at least unoffensive.

[BrG]

As I understand it, the building will be comparable in quality to the Sitka in the Pearl. Different style, but comparable materials and construction type.

That will be a good goal. A difficult one to acheive (as the Sitka was), for sure.

It always amazes me how people ignore the financials when they complain.

"I want nicer, higher quality, perfectly located, better housing, but I want it to be cheaper."

Being realistic, it's always about balance. Make it as nice as possible, given the financial circumstances that constrain the project. Ignoring them or marginalizing them, just undermines the discussion.

[Okstate]

has anyone been inside the Sitka before?

[Okstate]

Dp

[dkealoha]

I had a friend that lived in one of the corner units in the Sitka and it was surprisingly nice for "low income" housing. He said he could hear his neighbors pretty well, but then again, I pay a pretty penny at Kearney Plaza and can hear my neighbors having a conversation as if they were standing next to me.

[bvpcvm]

Notices in the streetcar say that the stop at Lowell and Bond will close from February 18th to Fall 2009 for construction of a new building. I assume that's for construction of Block 49 (but isn't that building being appealed? Maybe it's actually Block 46? But that's across Lowell...). Anyway, SOMETHING's breaking ground soon.

[tworivers]

49, I bet. City council denied the appeal.

No idea about 46.

[PacificNW]

Here is the (reduced in size, sorry) pic Dougall5505 posted a while back. I thought it might be a good idea to repost:

[zilfondel]

I took this pic on Feb 13th.

[tworivers]

I saw this past weekend that the closure of the Lowell streetcar stop had been postponed. Not sure if this means construction has been set back, or if, for some reason, the stop will remain open for the time being while construction proceeds.