Georgetown Needs You

This weekend Seattlest was standing outside of Jules Maes in Georgetown trying to explain to someone which part, exactly, of the Rainier Cold Storage compound across the street was about to be torn down. It's the Stock House which is north of here a bit--it's, uh...no. Ok, it's down there near the...no. Not thirty feet from us and directly across the street there's a sign that says "Stock House." Yep, that's it.

Rainier Cold Storage owners Sabey Corp are currently polling the public for design ideas. Actually, the deadline for input has come and gone, but since their timeline depends largely on the Historic Landmark status of the building (and the lifting of said honorary) there's still time to let them know what you'd like to see in place of the Stock House building. Here's some of the community input they've accrued so far:

That is the light as it strikes the bricks within an hour or two of sundown. As someone who spends most of my time on the west side of the street facing the buildings I have had plenty of time to observe this phenomena and it is remarkable. I've been in the 9lb and seen the bar empty as people rush outside to see a particularly dramatic color appear on the bricks. I've seen people sit at the stop sign on Vale until the cars behind them begin to multiply and eventually honk, just because the first driver was transfixed by the effect.

While I still hope that the facade of the Ice House can be saved, I know that's not really a possibility.

If I can show an example of what I'd like to see, it's the Ecotrust Building in Portland's Pearl District.

I don't want to see sleek nor do I want to see pretty. Not lots of glass (easy target for rocks thrown after bars close). I hope the architect and design can think beyond the normal parameters and really take the neighborhood into account. The combination of retail on bottom, office/living on top is an easy cookie cutter design in Seattle: let's aim for something better.

I'd like to see areas where people can walk and it's inviting. I hope there is public open space. These buildings are the neighborhood.

The new building could have a rusted, steel frame abutting Airport Way that acts like a flying buttress to a new building set back off the street. The frame could have steel plate where the rusted color would blend with the old brick of the surrounding buildings that stay.

I, too, was thinking of the Pearl District in PDX when reading this. In a rather similar example, they took the old Henry Weinhard's brewery building and made classy apartments/condos/restaurants out of it while maintaining the building's original character and feel.

And this extraordinary post from the Mid Beacon Hill Blog can't really be paraphrased or clipped, but should be read.

Get in touch with Sabey soon if you want to stem the tide of 'Recreate the Pearl District' votes. The best case scenario for us, personally, is that the building is torn down, the huge iceberg that lives underneath it is melted (or, hey, broken into cubes--we'll drink a Jules Mae Greyhound over seventy-year-old rocks), a new foundation is poured and then the Stock House is restored--brick by brick--to its original condition. Riiight. Otherwise, it's easier to know what we don't want. No throw-away condo crap. No Walt Disney recreations. How about no building at all? If you're going to mess up the great wall of Georgetown anyway--and Sabey has indicated somewhere that they're unlikely to build anything out to the street; brick, stucco, glass, plastic or whatever--than why not just use some of the brick to build a small square.

Or maybe some tiny Modern shed might look cool, but what are we, an architect? However, maybe you are. Or, maybe you just have something new to say. This is the internet, afterall. Say it. Comment here, email Sabey or go across the street from Jules Mae and nail your blueprints to the wall.

Photos courtesy of Scott Mongrain.