Civic Square

[BellevueBoy]

I'm excited about the increased height for this project. With the Schnitzer project at 5th and Madison and the First Methodist tower, that's 3 new 500 footers for the CBD. I believe they are trying to raise the height limit for the proposed tower at the King County Administration building site to 500 feet as well. I love seeing this area get denser.

[bgwah]

Originally Posted by BellevueBoy

I'm excited about the increased height for this project. With the Schnitzer project at 5th and Madison and the First Methodist tower, that's 3 new 500 footers for the CBD. I believe they are trying to raise the height limit for the proposed tower at the King County Administration building site to 500 feet as well. I love seeing this area get denser.

I think Ron Sims wanted a 40 story King County office building, but the city won't let the county go above 28? I remember reading something about that.

I'm glad the Civic Square project's height got increased, although another >70 story skyscraper would be better.

[saurdemol]

Realmente soy malo para el inglés, pero me gustan sus proyectos.
Un abrazo gente!!!

[testdrive]

Mi español es también malo, pero gracias por el comentario

[Seattlelife]

I am shocked that so many people are down on this project because of the prospect of homeless people hanging out there. Is that all there is to the matter? Since some parks are havens for homeless people we shouldn't build more parks downtown? That's just plain foolish. Perhaps you should consider why there are so many "bums" in some of the parks instead of blaming parks for being homeless hangouts.

I'm not entirely sold on the renderings but I don't see how someone can complain about a "civic center" in that area.

[bgwah]

We need someone like Giuliani to kill all the homeless people for us--I mean, uh, "clean up" the city. Yeah. That's the codeword.

[SeaGuy]

I don't believe that Civic Square will have the same problems as the park in front of the King County building (which is being done over to minimize the amount of homeless people that hang there). Civic Square will be bustling with an underground light rail station, lots of retail, people from office buildings having lunch, the two new hotels in the Arctic & Dexter Horton buildings plus people from the new tower. I am just really excited to have a Foster & Partners building in Seattle!

[SeattleRedhawk86]

How tall is this project going to be?

[uwhuskies]

Originally Posted by saurdemol

Realmente soy malo para el inglés, pero me gustan sus proyectos.
Un abrazo gente!!!

Recepción al blog de Seattle Skyscrapercity. Me animan para ver a visitantes de lejos. No soy fluido en español así que tuve que doblar el cheque la exactitud usando http://world.altavista.com Babelfish. Espero su algo exacto.

Translation:
Welcome to the Seattle Skyscrapercity blog. I am heartened to see visitors from afar.

I am not fluent in Spanish so I had to double check the accuracy using http://world.altavista.com Babelfish. I hope its somewhat accurate.

[mhays]

Originally Posted by Seattlelife

I am shocked that so many people are down on this project because of the prospect of homeless people hanging out there. Is that all there is to the matter? Since some parks are havens for homeless people we shouldn't build more parks downtown? That's just plain foolish. Perhaps you should consider why there are so many "bums" in some of the parks instead of blaming parks for being homeless hangouts.

Our lack of parks is the #1 reason that certain parks have so many bums.

Double the park acreage and the bum density will fall 50%. This, plus proximity, will encourage more regular people to use parks.

Yes we should build more low-income housing. The Langdon and Anne Simons project that just completed is yet another good step in this direction. Non-profits are opening two or three Greater Downtown buildings per year I'd guess. There's an opposite tide of cheap buildings raising rents, and that's not ending soon, so the battle needs to be constant.

[mokocoko]

What are you talking about?
Seattle is the number one city in america on parks acreage/total acreage.

[mokocoko]

Oh and the reason there are so many bums downtown? The whole county ships their bums to the city b/c king county jail is there.

[mhays]

Originally Posted by mokocoko

What are you talking about?
Seattle is the number one city in america on parks acreage/total acreage.

I assume you're joking!

Back in my Seattle Commons days, I spent countless hours taking to other cities and coming up with statistics. Seattle was near the bottom in terms of parks downtown, and pretty average citywide. That was true regardless of what was being measured, like acres per capita, acres per area, etc.

[mhays]

Originally Posted by mokocoko

Oh and the reason there are so many bums downtown? The whole county ships their bums to the city b/c king county jail is there.

That's one reason among many. Another is a lack of low-income housing. And location of shelters combined who let people sleep nights but lack daytime programs. And federal/state policies of not institutionalizing the insane, which is both policy and funding. And a lack of tent areas. And leniency by Seattle officials. And location of soup kitchens.

I hope you don't really think it's that simple!

[Brandon1978]

Originally Posted by uwhuskies

Recepción al blog de Seattle Skyscrapercity. Me animan para ver a visitantes de lejos. No soy fluido en español así que tuve que doblar el cheque la exactitud usando http://world.altavista.com Babelfish. Espero su algo exacto.

Translation:
Welcome to the Seattle Skyscrapercity blog. I am heartened to see visitors from afar.

I am not fluent in Spanish so I had to double check the accuracy using http://world.altavista.com Babelfish. I hope its somewhat accurate.

I get so excited when I can use my linguistics background.

Altavista is better than nothing, but it doesn't translate syntax or pragmatics. In other words, the "grammar" will not sound natural, and idioms won't get translated. So you might enter "I love to monitor the progress of skyscrapers under construction" and end up with "it is of my heart the building in height the sky attains". Cute, but screwed up-sounding.

[mokocoko]

Originally Posted by mhays

I assume you're joking!

Back in my Seattle Commons days, I spent countless hours taking to other cities and coming up with statistics. Seattle was near the bottom in terms of parks downtown, and pretty average citywide. That was true regardless of what was being measured, like acres per capita, acres per area, etc.

You just totally made that up.
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/money...ngs/parks.html

[mhays]

I'd say #13 out of 30 is pretty average citywide.

As for Downtown figures, do the following: Go to the main library and ask for the Seattle Commons Draft II Plan from 1993. Look at the table on page 32. According to numbers I put together, Downtown Seattle was 2.1% parks compared to 8.5-17.6 for Miami, Boston, St. Louis, Portland, and Pittsburgh, and we were substantially behind Cleveland, Houston, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Denver.

Why do you spout off without knowing anything? Seems to be a habit of yours.

[citruspastels]

I think that a lack of downtown parks will hurt us in the long run. If we ever want to get to a downtown where families can live we need more green space plain and simple. Also, we have a beautiful city, but in an age where info tech companies can be located wherever they want to, Seattle needs serious competitive advantage with other cities and I think more parks downtown is going to be an important key to that. The waterfront, Denny Triangle, and the Seattle Center are all areas that I would look at expanding green space.

Also, as we build rail to the outlying neighborhoods that will help immensely. If we can't get to our amazing parks by walking, rail would be a good second choice.

[mhays]

I should add that we've been adding parks and the situation is improving. Unfortunately they're mostly on the fringes of Downtown -- South Lake Union Park which is being expanded in phases, Olympic Sculpture Park, and Cal Anderson Park are the notables. We really need a full-block park or three in the CBD, in the Denny Triangle, and in Belltown. Lacking that, a few quarter-block or half-block parks would go a long way.

Portland does a great job with parks. Lots of very inviting, well-designed spaces.

[citruspastels]

Originally Posted by mhays

Portland does a great job with parks. Lots of very inviting, well-designed spaces.

I know. Portland does alot of things better than us and I'm getting pretty sick of hearing about it... >:-(

To put it simply, we need more of Vancouver's density and Portland's liberalism and urban planning.