tiki style denny's avoids wrecking ball!!

Whoa...look at all those Herman Miller Ceiling lamps....$$$

Landmarks Preservation Board gives owner OK to tear down Ballard Denny's

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004430839_dennys22m.html

....tell the fat lady she's on in 5 minutes......

Board member Ronald Martinson, a structural engineer, said the process requiring the board to consider Benaroya's financial hardship had to be followed.

The fuggin guy can't be that hard up for money if he could afford to buy and develop the land in the first place....What a crock of political red taped bullshit!
More condos so everyone can fester and live like rats ontop of each other.It seems Seattle isn't too far off from shadowing L.A.
It almost smells like the preservation board in Seattle is in on a little take action. I know that is a stretch, but I'm just saying....Since when should preservationist committees worry about how deep developers wallets are? Maybe Mr. Nichols can enlighten me? He is all knowing and a front leader when it comes to this kind of stuff, and a true asset to the preservation of Los Angeles, make that Southern California...What are the conservancy guidelines when it comes to this kind of situation, Chris, if you don't mind me asking?(refering to when a board is concerned about developers pockets)

[ Edited by: Tom Slick 2008-05-23 22:08 ]

"What a crock of political red taped bull...It almost smells like the preservation board in Seattle is in on a little take action. I know that is a stretch, but I'm just saying..." -Tom Slick-

My friends and I generally feel that most aspects of official decision making in Seattle are either due to gross incompetence or corruption.

The decision to take down the Manning's/Denny's isn't really surprising for Seattle. There is almost no official interest in history here nor is there any concern about the quality of life in neighborhoods. Our historic buildings are still torn down on a regular basis and projects that destroy the personality of old neighborhoods are usually always given the OK.

Seattle is annoyingly called The Emerald City because of all our tress, yet the mayor wants to sell city green space to developers because the tax revenue it would generate.

Tax revenue and "affordable housing" are the first thing out of official lips when they again want to make another sweetheart deal for the hand over of city property to private concerns. Oddly the city still has to constantly raise local taxes and fees and housing prices have never leveled out due to an abundance of new places. (Though technically a $500,000 1 bedroom condo is more affordable than one that costs a million.)

I'm actually not against dense housing in urban areas, I just wish it were more skillfully addressed. In Seattle zoning guidelines are regularly waived so standard sized house lots can be covered with 6 "townhouses" that have no yards (the kids literally play in the street) and not enough room for the 2.5 cars everyone seems to own.

There are also no aesthetic considerations. A neighborhood of single level bungalows with yards can have a 3 story box house built right to the edge of the sidewalk.

There's an interesting contrast between Seattle and Portland, OR. Portland seems to have had vision from the very beginning (downtown city blocks are smaller than average making it more people friendly) and Seattle seems incapable of looking beyond the $$$.

Back to the Manning's/Denny's...

Here's a proposed compromise from hugeasscity:

Their full story: Genius Compromise On Ballard Denny's

now put that denny's up on the roof, rebuilt to the look and scale of the old kahiki, with a huge rooftop deck...and you got yerself a compromise!!!

...michael tsao had it wrong the whole time.....he was looking for a new location for kahiki on flat land.....but never thought to build it up in the air on top of million dollar condos!!

[ Edited by: Tipsy McStagger 2008-05-24 14:33 ]

Are you sure that picture isn't of downtown Long Beach on Pine Ave.????? It looks exactly the same, minus the Dennards restaurant on the roof. Long beach calls them "Lofts" and there are small retail businesses on the ground level floor facing the street. All of what Woof said is happening everywhere. my neighborhood was once filled with all single story ranch houses. Now, the developers are buying up ALL of the for sale houses to squeeze a minimum 2 units on each lot. The lots not zoned for multiple housing receive the big 2 story box with no backyard and a patch of grass frontyard treatment. They call it "Mediteranean" style, but we just call it ****.

Thanks for the nice words, Mr. Slick. Preservation laws vary from place to place. In California, you can nominate a building as a city, state or federal landmark. We have something unique called the California Environmental Quality Act (http://ceres.ca.gov/ceqa/), which compels developers to look at the impact their project will have on traffic, water, cultural resources, etc. If a building is recognized as important, it alone can trigger CEQA and a full review would have to be done. After all of this (and more) is complete, a developer can still claim economic hardship, they can say that the project won't pan out without that extra square footage, etc. and a DIFFERENT review board can decide that the new project is more important than the destroyed resources. Nothing is safe. The first step is always to landmark the important stuff so you have a chance to debate it. Many things disappear without a fight.

The Seattle area (which is where Ballard is) has decided to mash as many of those CrackerJack boxes in as little space as possible. No one here seems to know how to take a bus, so there is very little in the way of public transportation - even though the city is getting more dense, they still won't add more buses - very frustrating. Then they build these monolithic pieces of crap without parking spaces and the people who buy these things have 2 plus vehicles and nowhere to park them except where anyone wanting to come into the area to shop would park. So, that makes it not worth the trip into the city. Lost revenues to businesses (and the folks that buy condos there don't usually shop there except groceries). It's very sad to see the city I grew up in turning into some cookie-cutter center of bordom. Not many interesting buildings left, old homes have been torn down to put in McMansions or developments where you can reach out your bedroom window and ask the neighbor if they have any Grey Poupon, no road improvements and higher taxes. Sigh.

There are also no aesthetic considerations. A neighborhood of single level bungalows with yards can have a 3 story box house built right to the edge of the sidewalk.

There's an interesting contrast between Seattle and Portland, OR. Portland seems to have had vision from the very beginning (downtown city blocks are smaller than average making it more people friendly) and Seattle seems incapable of looking beyond the $$$.

Well if you stick your head outside of the Alibi next time your in town young man you will see that the neighborhoods in P-town are also being subjected to this Urban blight of "shot gun" block houses being fit into double lots in the city. Stupid city council a few years ago changed the zoning laws and now there are these tall long skinny shitty built houses everywhere. There is also a zoning law that says in order to get a "remodel" permit instead of a new construction permit - you have to leave a majority of the old existing structure - which entails two walls and the chimney from my observations.

Drove past the Denney's/Mannings last Friday and it looked pretty rough encased in it's cyclone fence.

The end of an era. Tiki style Denny's torn down today!

http://www.komonews.com/news/20737314.html

That totally sucks! Another piece of mid-century design gives way for a generic, faceless strip mall.

Ugh!

On 2008-06-24 12:18, thefuzz wrote:
The end of an era. Tiki style Denny's torn down today!

http://www.komonews.com/news/20737314.html