Heartwood and the eight-story affordable housing development’s first-of-its-kind cross-laminated timber plans has been given the green light by the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections.
The project will be the first in the city — and possibly the country — to be developed with plans allowing full exposure of mass timber in the structure.
“The project will make use of an innovative, eco-friendly building material: cross-laminated timber (CLT), which lowers the overall carbon footprint of the structure,” the description of the project from Community Roots Housing reads.
The Capitol Hill-based affordable developer says when it opens by early 2023, Heartwood will be one of Washington’s tallest cross-laminated timber buildings. Continue reading →
Exploring the stubbornly reopening shops, cafes, restaurants, and bars of Capitol Hill might leave you feeling like you are in a different neighborhood. It has been a long time and things have changed. At Broadway and Pike, CHS did a double take at one of those uneasy changes.
The shifting tides of the major players in the transnational petrochemical industry have quietly redesigned a core corner of the neighborhood. The megacorp red and yellow are gone. In their place? A fresh coat of advertising nostalgia orange. The Broadway Shell is now a Broadway 76. The new look provides a new backdrop for nights out in Pike/Pine.
Owners Cyrus and Jinus Fiuzi purchased the station and the Capitol Hill property in 2009 for $1.35 million from Shell’s real estate wing and continued to operate the business under the brand. Previously, Shell acquired the property in its merger with Texaco. Operating a gas station in modern day Seattle is a complicated affair. The Fiuzis’ company must maintain licenses related to liquid fuel, underground storage, “vapor product,” retailing, tobacco sales, and liquor sales, in addition to being responsible for environmental factors of the business and the property.
CHS asked the gas station’s owners about the change but they declined comment.
Phillips 66, owner of the 76 brand, has been upgrading its stations and its “wholesale branded business, which encompasses some 6,500 sites in the U.S.” Continue reading →
The Naked Grocer concept signage (Image: Design by Parker)
A new experiment in grocery shopping is coming to Capitol Hill but the new venture is not backed by a retail giant . “Waste-less grocery store” The Naked Grocer is making plans to open its “packaging free” shopping concept on E Pine at the corner of Boylston, joining the block home to Rudy’s Barbershop, Realfine Coffee, and Fogon. The new business on the block will also mean a new start for neighborhood pawn shop Capitol Loans.
Jayne Truesdell, who cut her entrepreneurial teeth working with Autumn Martin to grow Seattle’s Hot Cakes, tells CHS the Naked Grocer is born out of the recent loss of her father and the realization that our time on the planet is dear.
“It brought home to me my time on this planet is incredibly finite,” Truesdell says. “I’m going to start spending my energy on something that holds value for me.”
When it opens late this year in the transformed former pawn shop space, Truesdell says Naked Grocer will be “nearly a one-stop shop” for grocery needs for those seeking retail that cuts down on the environmental impact of modern food shopping as much as possible. Continue reading →
The epic five-year battle from a group of neighbors and slow growth advocates to stop a mixed-use apartment and grocery development in Madison Valley on the property home to the City People’s garden shop has ended in defeat at the city level.
The Seattle Hearing Examiner last week denied an appeal against permitting the project from the Save Madison Valley, overturning its previous decision siding with the neighborhood group that the development’s environmental review didn’t adequately address climate change.
The Tales from the Seattle Hearing Examiner account on Twitter was the first to report the latest twist in the long fight which could now move to the courts — though that fight would be much more expensive to mount.
CHS last reported in 2019 on the plans for the mixed-use development from Velmeir Companies along E Madison with a PCC grocery as its street-level anchor. Continue reading →
Already home to the greenest office building in the world and still set to be transformed by 2024 into a transportation corridor optimized for public bus transit, Seattle’s efforts to add more infrastructure for electric cars are driving a new construction project in the surface parking lot of a Capitol Hill bank.
Electrify America, a nationwide electric vehicle charging station company, is constructing a new Seattle charging station in Capitol Hill at 1300 E Madison St in the parking lot of the Bank of America branch currently closed due to COVID-19 restrictions.
The Madison station is projected to open this summer, Electrify America told CHS, and it will have four DC (direct current) fast chargers that can charge capable vehicles at up to 150kW. Electrify America stations normally have at least one (often two) CCS and one CCS-CHAdeMO style chargers, the two of which together cover almost all types of electric vehicles. Many of their chargers in metropolitan areas, including the majority of the ones around Seattle, also include a level 2 charger.
Electrify America is an expanding company that has 556 live locations across the country with 143 more coming soon, according to their website. They currently have two fast charging locations open in the city of Seattle, and more than 300 open stations across the state of Washington. Electrify America is planning on building six other stations in the city of Seattle, including a few near downtown including one in Ballard, the U-District, and Queen Anne, to go along with the Capitol Hill station.
The parking lot off E Madison, where the charging station has been approved by the City of Seattle and welcomed by Bank of America, is currently unused by customers and the construction for the charging stations is underway.
The stations will be placed in the middle of the parking lot, and there is an entrance to the lot from both E Pike and E Madison.
Electrify America’s expansion into the center of Seattle highlights Seattle’s continued push to encourage electric vehicles and the need for a stable infrastructure for electric vehicle charging stations. The priority of Electrify America, according to them, is to expand access to fast charging in metro areas and along major highway routes. They also put their resources into a “future-proof” network by deploying exclusively 150kW and 350kW chargers, which are the fastest speeds available currently. Continue reading →
In 2019, CHS called it the King County election nobody has heard about. In 2021, we’re pretty sure you still haven’t.
There’s an open seat again on the King County Conservation District board and the vote, unlike any other civic election you can currently participate in, happens online. You can learn more — and cast your ballot — here.
The district works “directly with private landowners to care for the land and resources” that helps “farmers and other landowners voluntarily preserve and enhance our natural resources through cost-sharing, education and technical assistance.”
Eight people are vying for the six-member board’s Position 3.
Kali Clark
Melissa Tatro
Wayne Gullstad
Brittney Bush Bollay
Doug Hennick
David Toledo
John Comerford
Natalie Reber
Happy voting.
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The expected push of heavy smoke from West Coast wildfires arrived across the Seattle region late Thursday night as air sensors tipped from “moderate” to “unhealthy” readings across the area.
The city woke up to a grey, fog-like layer and predictions that the smoke will last through the weekend and possibly into Monday. Continue reading →
GOES imagery from Wednesday morning shows smoke moving northward
Unhealthy levels of wildfire smoke and ash that arrived in Seattle following the Labor Day holiday will likely persist and — possibly — increase in the skies above the city into Friday, forecasters say.
Seattle’s air quality Wednesday was considered “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups,” according to official guidelines and authorities continue to encourage people to stay inside and limit exposure. Continue reading →
It’s a natural pairing. Seattle-based Grist, the Seattle-born media nonprofit that has been dedicated to environmental news, commentary, and ideas since 1999, is joining the Bullitt Center, 15th and Madison’s “living” office building.
Even as COVID-19 has changed the way we work, the environmental nonprofit say it still wants a central core where its staff of around 20 can collaborate.
“Grist employs staff all around the country, so we have been well equipped to effectively transition to remote work here in Seattle, too,” a statement sent to CHS about the planned Bullitt office reads. “We foresee using the Bullitt Center space for staff to engage in collaborative work and not necessarily use the office as an everyday destination, though, we might get back to that given a change in the current circumstances.” Continue reading →
Moodie at a conference with Capitol Hill business owners discussing the COVID-19 impact earlier this month (Image: CHS)
By Andrew LaChapelle, UW News Lab/Special to CHS
There are other problems in the world — and opportunities to address them — beyond COVID-19. Donna Moodie, a longtime Seattle restaurateur and owner of 14th and Union’s Marjorie, is already thinking about how to solve them.
Moodie took the helm as executive director of the Capitol Hill EcoDistrict program to start 2020.
Her organization is dedicated to equity and sustainability.
“I’ve been really inspired with the youth movement, trying to be more aware of the state we are leaving things in for the next generations to come,” Moodie said. Continue reading →
