Esker: A Greener Seattle, One Building at a Time

Amid all of Seattle’s new development, I’m particularly excited about Esker, an seven-story, mixed-use building that will green-ify a significant piece of Capitol Hill. This thing looks cool. It’s a giant “living wall” terrace system, and in the developer’s (SolTerra) own words: Each of these terraces have been articulated around the range of the summer…

Read More

The Bogue Plan – A Better Seattle

Seattle voters authorized a Municipal Plans Commission on March 8, 1910. The city was growing, and they needed a game plan for long-term development. The commission selected Virgil G. Bogue to plan and beautify Seattle’s future. “Virgil G. Bogue, who is not unknown locally, will draw the substantial salary of $1,500 a month, and be…

Read More

People on People on People

Seattle is now the #10 U.S. city for density. Density isn’t what usually comes to mind when most people think of our city. I know I used to picture the waterfront, the comfortably impressive skyline, and the charming village-esque neighborhoods. But I’ve watched more and more people move into those charming neighborhoods, and I’ve noticing…

Read More

Battle of the Big Tunnels

Bertha isn’t Seattle’s first major tunnel project. Almost 100 tunnels totaling 40 miles lie beneath our city, including the record-setting Great Northern Tunnel, built in the beginning of the 20th century. Let’s see how that mile-long train tunnel compares to Big Bertha’s tunnel.   Great Northern Tunnel The Great Northern Tunnel runs for one mile…

Read More

Spotted: Light Rail Progress

We saw new light rail maps this week! The signs have a new stop added to each end of the existing route, and they change “the only light rail line in Seattle” to the Red Line, a piece of a bigger, more effective system. Light rail will keep expanding over the coming years, and these…

Read More

PARK(ing) Day

Good luck parking downtown tomorrow, but there’s reason to go anyway—and even more reason to bring your camera. Tomorrow is PARK(ing) Day, an annual, worldwide event that transforms parking spaces in one-day parks. PARK(ing) Day falls on the third Friday of every September, and this year Seattle will celebrate in force. More than 50 parking-spot-parks will…

Read More

2015–2035: Seattle’s Comprehensive Plan

Seattle will gain 120,000 residents, 115,000 jobs, and 70,000 housing units over the next 20 years, according to the Department of Planning and Development (DPD). That’s an 18.7 percent population increase, and when that number gets into the double digits, we know we’re in for significant changes. But what changes? Today, the city told us. The DPD…

Read More

New Ballard Remembers Where It Came From

The new Seattle, offspring of Amazon and the ever-growing tech industry, could change everything. We’re already watching a new waterfront spring up, along with a new Pike Place and a host of new transit options. We’re seeing unprecedented population growth, and we’re jumping out of the way as skyscrapers shoot up like weeds. Does this new Seattle threaten the old? Could we lose…

Read More

State of the Market Address

It’s a once-in-a-generation real estate market in Seattle this year, with record-low inventory and unbelievable prices. What’s a low inventory? Well, we consider a healthy inventory of homes to be five months of sales. In other words, if you take the number of homes sold in an average month and multiply it by five, you…

Read More

Gals Tell It Straight

Just last week, Johnine talked a Wedgwood client out of moving. A husband and wife wanted to partner with us to sell their house and buy a new one, and we convinced them not to. Why? Why would we turn away good business? Because although it would have helped us, it wouldn’t have helped them.…

Read More

Seattle’s Next Urban Campus?

Urban Visions recently released an update on Stadium East, the 1,000,000-square-foot office and retail campus. That update, we have to say, looks awesome. Stadium East would be a massive eight-story urban campus, with 860,000 square feet of office space, 130,000 square feet of retail space, and 1,000 underground parking spots. As the name suggests, it…

Read More