Tag Archives: harvard belmont

City to unveil design concept for Kay Bullitt property, ready to start talking cost for a new Capitol Hill park

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The property from above in the summer of 2022

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City planners are ready to show off the first design concept and proposed elements for a new park on Capitol Hill. Talk of a price tag for developing the donated parkland will soon be on the table, too.

The 1125 Harvard Ave E project will meet its next major milestone Saturday with a community meeting to unveil the proposal held at Volunteer Park’s Asian Art Museum:

125 Harvard Ave E Park Public Design Meeting
Sat, Oct 15, 2022 , 10:00am-11:30am
Seattle Asian Art Museum, Alvord Boardroom 1400 E Prospect

The 1.6 acres of land and 1955-built home on the property left to the city after the death of philanthropist Kay Bullitt stretches out on the northwest slopes of Capitol Hill in the prestigious Harvard-Belmont Landmark District.

CHS reported here on the early planning for the project including a survey that planners said showed preferences for developing the new park land “as a quiet, contemplative place” while making space for theĀ Cass Turnbull GardenĀ as part of the site, a project from Seattle nonprofitĀ Plant Amnesty honoring its late founder.

A plan must also be shaped for the 1955-built Bullitt residence ā€” ā€œa unique A-frame houseā€ designed by Pacific Northwest architectĀ Fred BassettiĀ that stands on the property. The one and a half story, 3,400-square-foot open design home must be structurally assessed and could be worthy of historical protections while remaining a centerpiece of the new park.

The full Seattle Parks document including survey responses and answers submitted by community members about the planned park is below: Continue reading →

‘A quiet, contemplative place’ — Plan for turning Kay Bullitt property into new Capitol Hill park moves forward

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For most respondents, a new Capitol Hill park at 1125 Harvard Ave E would be a 10 to 20 minute walk and have strolling paths, an open lawn, and would be a special place to picnic or wander through speciality gardens.

There probably would not be pickleball courts.

The Seattle Parks and Recreation process to shape the Kay Bullitt property in the northwest of Capitol Hill as a new public park is moving forward after a community survey and early August meeting at the site of the 1.6 acres left to the city by the philanthropist at her 2021 death.

CHS stopped through the August 3rd meeting and tour on the property as the city works to transform a private Capitol Hill yard already promised and in use as a community garden space into a public park serving communities far beyond Capitol Hillā€™s northern mansions and the overgrown greenbelt surrounding St. Markā€™s Cathedral.

Most attendees had never been on the property before. Continue reading →

Police investigate after North Capitol Hill bout of gunfire and road rage

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“Police have closed the road at Harvard and Prospect. Neighbors saying there were two cars shooting at each other on this block. No injuries. Police investigating”Ā  (Image: @whocanstandit via Twitter)

There were no injuries and no arrests in a Saturday afternoon bout of gunfire and road rage incidents on the usually quiet streets of North Capitol Hill west of Volunteer Park.

According to East Precinct radio updates, a series of road rage calls and hit and run collisions began on Belmont just after 2 PM and continued with gunfire reported near Prospect and Harvard and a hit and run and road rage incident at Broadway and Roy. Continue reading →

Kay Bullitt: A legacy of Seattle philanthropy — and a new Capitol Hill park

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A view of the Cass Turnbull Garden (Image: Plant Amnesty)

Kay Bullitt

On the Capitol Hill of the future, the Bullitt name will evoke ideals of environmental conservation, public space in the shape of a northern Capitol Hill park, and gardens — in its past, a legacy of lumber and broadcasting, and a remarkable Capitol Hill resident who used her family fortune to support “a dizzying array of causes spanning education, racial justice, international relations, politics, historic-landmark preservation and the arts.

It’s a legacy strong enough to create something nearly impossible on an increasingly packed Capitol Hill — a new park. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill’s Rainier Chapter House plans a Revolution-ary celebration of its new historic status

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By Tim Kukes for CHS

The Rainier Chapter House in the Harvard-Belmont District of Capitol Hill, the meeting hall for the Rainier Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, was built in 1925. Ā This spring, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Thatā€™s not just something that just happens. Someone must care, and someone must do the work.

ā€œWeā€™ve been talking about it for a few years. Ā Our current regent ā€“ regent is kind of the top person of the chapter, runs the meetings and whatnot ā€“ she just kind of put it into full throttle last July,ā€ said Diana Prigger, 1st Vice Regent of the Rainier Chapter.

The process is time consuming and involves a lot of documentation. Ā At one time the nomination form was 41 pages, according to Cindy Johnson-Sakuma, Regent of the Rainier Chapter. They managed to cut it down to 31 pages.

ā€When you first look at it you think, ā€˜oh, well, this is no problem,ā€™ and it kind of like just grows,ā€ Johnson-Sakuma said. Continue reading →

‘A sense of home’ on Capitol Hill: a look inside the new Consulate of Mexico in Seattle

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Two times a week, its legal protection team visits many of the some 200 immigrant women — most mothers separated from their children —Ā  currently held in the SeaTac Federal Detention Center.

“This is something we work on every single day,” Roberto Dondisch,Ā general consul at the Consulate of Mexico in Seattle, tells CHS.

But like many efforts at the consulate, the team’s work is not about politics or trying to change Trump administration policies. Instead the team checks in on the women’s well-being, helps connect them to lawyers and organizations that can help, and is there to make sure its citizens retain their human rights.

“We are very active,” Dondisch said. “Everybody has the right to ask for protection.” Continue reading →

Street Critic | Kerry Hall, a palace on the Hill

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Kerry Hall East Elevation (Image: John Feit)

One of my favorite Capitol Hill buildings is Kerry Hall, home of Cornish College for the Arts’s Dance and Music departments, on the corner of Harvard Ave E and E Roy. The sole extant building of Cornish’s original Capitol Hill campus, Kerry Hall was built in 1921 in the Spanish Colonial Revival style and was designed by Seattle architect A. H. Albertson. Its Mediterranean-inspired design reminds me of the work one of my favorite American architects, Irving Gill, as well as one of my favorite buildings, the Dogeā€™s Palace on the Venetian Lagoon, in Venice, Italy. Kerry Hall is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Continue reading →

Clever Cook Weaver: Now hosting nightly Capitol Hill ‘dinner party’

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The “inauthentic Eurasian” tagline isn’t the only thing clever going on at Cook Weaver, newly opened in Capitol Hill’sĀ historic and really quite lovely Loveless Building.

“We’ve been in here every day for three months,” front of house guy Nile Klein tells CHS. “When I see people walk by, I go out, introduce myself, tell them what we’re up to, and give tastes.”

One by one, Klein and chefĀ Zac ReynoldsĀ — the back of house guy — have already won the neighbors in the slice of Capitol Hill including the dense cliffs of I-5 Shores and the stately avenues of the Harvard-Belmont district.

The new restaurant opened for business Saturday with hopes of creating a new dining experience north of the Broadway core that is just clever enough to be intriguing to draw in the increasingly competitive Capitol Hill food and drink sceneĀ while still giving neighbors a place to call their own. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill man walking his dog dies after being struck by driver at Belmont/Bellevue

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The intersection where Wednesday's collision occurred (Image: CHS)

The intersection where Wednesday’s collision occurred (Image: CHS)

Max Richards at a playwriting class one week before he died. (Image: Marilyn Black)

Max Richards at a playwriting class one week before he died. (Image courtesy Marilyn Black with permission to CHS)

Max Richards was walking his Labrador RetrieverĀ Wednesday morning just blocks from his Capitol Hill apartment when the unthinkable happened.

As the 79-year-old and his dog walked across Belmont Ave E near Bellevue Place E, a vehicle struck Richards. He died later that evening from head injuries sustained in the collision. Pink, the dog, was unharmed. An officer who responded to the scene later told Richards’ wife Pink refused to leave the man’sĀ side until he was taken to the hospital.

According to Seattle Police, the driver, a woman in her 40s, showed no signs of impairment. She was interviewed and released pending further investigation. A SPD spokesperson told CHS further details on the incident are not yet publicly availableĀ as the investigation in ongoing.

Marilyn Black, Richards’ wife of 20 years, told CHS her husband loved to walk around the neighborhood and make his daily stop inside nearbyĀ Barjot for a croissant. “It was a beautiful fall morning, I bet he just felt on top of the world,ā€ Black said. Continue reading →

Meet the Harvard Ave Neighbors mounting a fight against microhousing

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This probably isn't the first Capitol Hill triplex you'd choose to start a legal battle over (Image: King County records)

This probably isn’t the first Capitol Hill triplex you’d choose to start a legal battle over (Image: King County records)

Lawyers and money: neighborhood activists in Capitol Hill are deploying a classic arsenal in their fight against local microhousing. At issue is how to count the number of units in a microhousing building and, as a consequence, whether a proposed project at 741 Harvard Ave E. is subject to design review. In the wake of a summer ruling that effectively stopped the project — and others like it —Ā the Harvard developers are fighting back with an appeal that could put theĀ development back in motion.

To keep that from happening, the Harvard Ave Neighbors group has lawyered-up to prevent the project from skipping the review process.

Organizer Larry Nicholas says at question is whether wealthy developers with ā€œan unending amount of money to throw at a projectā€ are subject to the same laws as everyone else. Continue reading →