Artist Hallman inside The Square Room one last time (Image: CHS)

E Pike’s The Square Room is hosting a brief four-day open studio and exhibit by artist Jason Hallman, one of the founding partners behind Capitol Hill vintage and design shop Area 51. While Hallman’s “artist of life” approach is worth a visit, the active gallery is also noteworthy as the art space prepare to move just three months after CHS reported that its landlord had put its space and the space of adjoining restaurant Ballet up for lease.

Dear Friends,
As square room at 910 E Pike St. comes to a close Dec 31st, we’d like to thank you for 5 years of continued success as we transition into our new studio space on Capitol HIll.  

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We are grateful for you and for the opportunity to have had such a wonderful location.  We are celebrating square room with a final show, Finding Home, by Jason Hallman. We celebrate Jason’s love for expression and his passion for art.  As many of you may have noticed, Hallman has been working out of square room for the last few months, creating several amazing new works inspired by his spiritual personal journey, Finding Home. Please join Leif and myself on Thursday night for for the opening reception.

Thank you,
Brian McGuffey
Leif Holland

In August, Square Room’s Brian McGuffey told us he had no plans to leave the space. “I have five more years here,” McGuffey said but declined further comment.

This weekend, Hallman’s work fills the gallery with his Finding Home works. What comes next for the retail stretch of E Pike and where The Square Room will end up isn’t clear.

Ballet’s owners, however, have said they were able to work out a month-to-month solution to stay in their space until either they find a new nearby home or the building’s landlord lines up another tenant.

The property is owned by Ron and Edel Amundson who bought the 1908 3-story masonry building in spring of 2007 for $2.4 million according to King County records. The Amundsons have been involved with several properties around Pike/Pine and Broadway. Previous attempts to contact the owners about the building were not successful.

The explosion of the Capitol Hill food and drink economy — and especially the Pike/Pine segment of that revenue stream — has pushed restaurant and land owners to consider how best to optimize their assets to keep up with competition and maximize their profits. Most commercial storefronts along upper Pike/Pine have been put to use and other spaces like the venerable Rosebud have succumbed to the pressure and undergone overhauls to be part of the boom.