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A view from the Capitol Hill WeWork (Image: CHS)
There was a time in the mid 2010s when Capitol Hill’s leading real estate and development experts were making a big push to create more office space projects in the neighborhood to better balance what they said had been a flood of housing and nightlife investment in the area.
They could not have known, exactly, what was coming next but the last thing Seattle needs now are more desks.
The Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development has put out “a competitive Call for Ideas” for how the city could convert its increasingly unused downtown office space into housing.
“Share your vision for the future of a Seattle Downtown that is more balanced between residential uses and civic and office uses than today,” the city’s call for submissions reads. “We seek ideas to create vibrant neighborhoods where people live, work, shop, and play.”
The effort comes as Seattle grapples with how to bring more people into its downtown as COVID-19 “working from home” trends have continued.
If you’re looking for ideas on how to better mix office space and more diverse daytime activity, you might want to look at Capitol Hill where a recent rush to create new office development seems to have left the neighborhood with a better mix of uses.
On Capitol Hill, a push in the mid-2010s added new office development to areas of Pike/Pine instead of more new apartments. That trend also brought major office space player WeWork to the neighborhood on 11th Ave where it somehow survived opening just before the pandemic hit. Other developments like the Pivot on Pine at the base of the Hill were already backing off the office space rush even before COVID-19.
Today, the neighborhood continues to be home to niche office spaces and buildings like the Odd Fellows Building with tenants including global puzzlemaker Ravensburger makes its home or the super green office development, the Bullitt Center, that rises with its massive solar arrays above E Madison.
Capitol Hill also continues to support a robust population of cafes where people can get some work done, hold a meeting online or face to face, and answer email or take calls. And new projects
The city’s “call for ideas” explores the potential for conversion of office spaces to residential uses and adding activated ground floor uses, the city says.
“Building owner/architect teams are invited to share innovative solutions that will identify obstacles to conversion and lead to potential policy and regulatory changes,” the notice reads.
The deadline is May 12th. The city is putting up $10,000 for the top submission, plus two $7,500 awards.
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The city should START with 0 tents in the city. 0. Not “a few”, not “a couple”. Zero.
Then ensure that we have “involuntary commitment” laws passed and deployed across the city for anyone who refuses shelter or other help.
We’re too UNKIND to people who are suffering on our streets who need to be getting the help they deserve, including mental, medical and addiction treatment.
This is a VERY solvable problem. We have the money, we have the people. It’s too late already, needs to happen tomorrow.
0 tents. 100% Involuntary Commitment when people need it.
The rest will come. Seattle is beautiful, has a lot of jobs, strategically placed, and a relatively new city which means it’s ideally poised for the next 100 years.
You do know that we have involuntary commitment laws?
https://kingcounty.gov/depts/public-defense/our-practice-areas/involuntary-commitment.aspx
No, thank you for educating me. I appreciate it – while I think the specifics of the law is not representative of the real world conditions (14 and 90 day periods don’t seem to reflect how serious some people’s issues are and likely are not sufficient; and can use at least a 100% increase) the good part is – we have the laws we just have to enforce them!
Then let’s use ’em. Ensure we have facilities to support the process, remove bottlenecks in the judicial system. Half the problems we spend time fixing are likely due to not enforcing the rules, regulations, and laws we already have on the books!
We have the money!! Who is we
The billions we have spent already since the homeless situation was declared “a crisis” by Seattle’s mayor in 2015.
The billions more we’re already in the process of spending.
We have the money. What we do not have is the accountability or the guidance to spend it in a way that address the issues. Which tends to be drug abuse and mental illness.
We don’t have the political will, because it will anger progressive activists. Therefore, we will continue to pour more money down the drain on a homelessness response grounded in ideology not reality. Without a balanced approach we are actually growing the problem.
Please share this data on how we are growing the problem?!?
Interesting perspective.