A demolition on Millionaire’s Row

Face masks helped filter the smell of dust and mildew as a crew set about the unusual task Thursday of tearing down an original house of Seattle’s Millionaire’s Row, the 14th Ave E entryway to Volunteer Park.

Also unusual for a Capitol Hill demolition: The house will be replaced by another single-family home — not apartments, not townhomes. Continue reading

Demolition clears the way for Broadway Whole Foods and 16-story apartment building

Demolition season continues around Capitol Hill. Here is the apocalyptic scene currently underway where First Hill meets Capitol Hill and the 16-story Whole Foods mixed-use apartment building is slated to rise.

Crews have spent the week tearing down the 1928-built, three-story masonry medical building at the tri-corner of Harvard, Broadway, and Madison. They have plenty more to go. The work at the corner is heavy with the smell of mildewy dust and the satisfying thuds of large vehicles of destruction laying waste to decades-old infrastructure. Continue reading

Weatherford House died so that 42 new neighbors could rise on Capitol Hill

Screen shot 2013-03-26 at 9.12.56 AMThe Weatherford House, currently being demolished atop Capitol Hill, will once more rise.

CHS has received many messages alerting us that the end of the line has been reached for the former home of Weatherford Antiques as it is demolished to make way for this four-story apartment building.

The more than 100-year-old house was rejected as a candidate for Seattle landmark protections last year. It was too much of a mish-mash. Too lacking in the notable history department. Too funky. It’s not alone in its rejection.

[mappress mapid=”13″]With regional planners expecting Seattle’s population to continue booming through 2030, even with landmark status, we’d still need new places to put our incoming neighbors.

The 42 units coming thanks to developer Murray Franklyn will house some of them. Six stories atop the former home of B&O Espresso will house hundreds more.

The new buildings are probably more useful than an antique store or a coffee shop and, who know, perhaps there will be room for new shops in the thousands of square feet of new retail also part of many of these Capitol Hill projects. It won’t happen at 14th and John, however. The building’s new commercial spaces are being positioned as live/work studios.

Thanks to @aboscardin for the picture