The Wall of Georgetown (and this kind of similar thing next to it)

The coolest building in Seattle was destroyed last year because it froze the earth under it after decades as a cold storage facility (and because, Skeptical Seattlest says, it was a billion square feet of prime Georgetown real estate that was scary and dark inside). The Sabey Corporation that owns the old Rainier brewery complex on Airport Way has been trying to figure out what to replace the cold storage building with since before it was made into rubble. We were at a community meeting hosted by Sabey in the fall where neighborhood residents openly revolted against their initial design drawings. Scrap what you've got, add brick, add arches, beef it up and start it at the street so that the Wall of Georgetown remains unbroken, they said. Sabey's current design looks like this:

Arches and brick! And a little bit beefy! Sabey really, really wants to want to set the building back from Airport Way a little ways so that people can walk on that side of the street. You could walk on that side of the street when the old Cold Storage building was there. You just had to press your ass against the building and kind of shimmy between the brick and the speeding traffic. Anyway, it looks like they're getting closer to something that will pass both the unofficial Georgetown community design review board and the absolutely official Architectural Review Committee of the Landmarks Preservation Board whom they're meeting today. You can comment to the committee via Beth.Chave@seattle.gov.