Ballard Denny's Vote Today
Archie McPhee's latest bumper stickers, posted in Seattlest's Flickr Pool
Ballard residents, tired of seeing their local landmarks and homes swallowed by condos and "multi-use buildings," have taken a stand on one beloved icon of "Old Ballard." The icon? The Denny's on the corner of Market and 15th Ave NW, long a late-night stop for drunk bowlers from the now departed Sunset Bowl, bearded fisherman and other creatures of the night, including Seattlest.
The interestingly shaped building has been boarded up for months upon months now, and like most available property in Seattle, is being eyed for new condos, the already named "Ballard Commons." For Ballard residents, this was the final straw. Advocates petitioned for the building to be considered for "landmark status." If landmark status is granted, the building would be saved from demolition.
After a number of preliminary votes and one delay, the final vote on the landmark status of the Ballard Denny's is today. The Seattle Landmark Preservation Society will be voting on the issue at their scheduled 3:30 meeting, held at the Seattle Municipal Tower in room 4060. Are any Ballard based Seattlest readers planning on going to the vote?
It would seem that the effort behind saving the building, which let's be honest is not the most stunning example of architecture, is less about the desire to save the facade and much more about what it stands for. A Seattle that is rapidly disappearing, a skyline that hardly recognizable from the one we had 5 years ago, much less ten or twenty. It is the quirks and the oddities that made Seattle so incredibly lovable, the Ballard Denny's included, and it is those that are being destroyed. We hope, even if it's a symbolic battle, that it is won.
