August 2009

The Kenney's Seaview building, as well as the site it sits on, will henceforth be a historic landmark.

On Aug. 19, the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board voted unanimously to declare the Seaview building and site a landmark, with a number of exclusions, including the Sunrise building.

According to the members of the board, the Seaview building qualified because it is associated with a significant aspect of the cultural heritage of the community, in this case the history of retirement living facilities in Seattle.

It also embodies the distinctive visible characteristics of an architectural style or period, the board said.

The Seaview building is also an easily identifiable visual feature of the neighborhood and contributes to the distinctive identity of the neighborhood, according to the board.

The Sunrise building was excluded from landmark status, as was the Ballymena and Lincoln Vista.

On Wednesday, Aug. 18 at approximately 11:15 p.m., officers responded to a call in the 3600 block of 2nd Avenue Northwest, for a male victim who had been stabbed and was outside an apartment building.

Following the stabbing, the suspect, who was armed with two large knives, fled back inside an adjacent apartment that had two other unknown subjects inside.

There was a woman with the victim when he was stabbed and she identified the suspect by name and the two other individuals who were inside with the suspect.

The witness further advised that the suspect’s girlfriend had been evicted by King County Sheriff’s Office earlier in the day and had returned to the unit with the suspect, who became involved in a verbal altercation with the victim and stabbed him in the arm.

The victim was treated by Seattle Fire Department medics for non-life threatening injuries to his arm and taken to Ballard Swedish Hospital.

ArtsWest’s Summer Theater Conservatory presents "Dark of the Moon" for five performances only, starting today, Aug. 20.

"Dark of the Moon," performed by students ages 12 to 16, is a classic tragedy based on the folk song “Barbara Allen” and runs Aug. 20 through 23.

"Dark of the Moon" is a tragic play in the vein of "Romeo and Juliet" and "Twilight" set in the Appalachian Mountains during the 1920s.

The play centers around the character of John, a witch boy, who seeks to become human after falling in love with a human girl, the beautiful copper-haired Barbara Allen. John tells a Conjur Woman he will pay any amount and agree to any terms just so long as he can be with his mortal love.

She agrees, and he marries Barbara Allen; if Barbara is faithful to him for a year, then John will remain a human. Meanwhile, the rest of Barbara's clan doesn't much approve of John, or Barbara's strange newborn baby.

The ArtsWest Gallery is launching its 2009-10 season with Altered Associations, a show featuring surreal oils on canvas by Jeff Mihalyo, Lucy Carpenter working in reclaimed plastic bags and chicken wire, and Therese Buchmiller with minimalist re-creations utilizing various appropriated materials.
 
Altered Associations was curated specifically to complement the concurrent stage production at ArtsWest, "Dead Man’s Cell Phone," Sept. 9 through Oct. 3.
 
“Just as the play crosses and recrosses the line between everyday reality and The Other Side, these three artists cross the line connecting the real to the surreal,” said Gallery Director Nichole DeMent. “Beyond the thematic connection of everyday things altered out of their expected contexts, there are also more overt connections of the visual art to the script that won’t be clear until after the performance. So the interplay between the gallery and the stage will evolve as the evening progresses.”
 
The exhibit is free from Aug. 25 through Oct. 3, noon to 7 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.

The King County Water Taxi will run on a extended schedule Thursday, Aug. 20 to accommodate fans going to the Sounders game.

It will operate with the Friday schedule, similar to what's used for Mariner games.

Also, the water taxi is scheduled to operate with later hours for the Seahawks game on Saturday, Aug. 22.

Information about the water taxi is online here.

In 1994, the space that had housed the New Melody Tavern on Ballard Avenue became available. It needed a sound system, but rent was cheap, and Dan Cowan saw an opportunity.

"It was a bit of a lark," Cowan said. "But, music has always been important to me."

Cowan, who had worked in clubs and owned a cafe where Madame K's currently is, turned the space into the Tractor Tavern, the Ballard music venue that will celebrate its 15th anniversary this month.

"My initial thoughts were to not be doing indie rock bands," Cowan said. "There seemed to be a hole in the market for more folk-oriented music."

That original business plan fizzled, as Cowan learned more about the industry, customer spending habits and where the audience is, he said.

The venue attempted a jazz night early on that had amazing music but no audience, Cowan said. It was hard to tell what the draw would be on any given night. Sometimes bands would show up to play to 12 people, he said.

"You have to go through those nights," he said. "That's part of the learning curve."

The Tractor gradually opened its doors to more genres and local bands.

"Now we do pretty much everything but metal," he said.

Mayor Greg Nickels is looking for two new members to serve on the Landmarks Preservation Board, one architect position and one at-large position.
 
The 12-member Landmarks Preservation Board makes recommendations to the Seattle City Council for landmark designation and reviews all proposed physical alterations to designated features of landmark properties.
 
The board is composed of two architects, two historians, one structural engineer, one representative each from the fields of real estate and finance, one member from the City Planning Commission, a Get Engaged member, and three members at-large. 

All appointments are made by the mayor, subject to city council confirmation.

Board meetings are held on the first and third Wednesdays of each month at 3:30 p.m. The architect members also serve on the board’s Architectural Review Committee. Board members generally must commit approximately 10 hours per month to board business.

Interested applicants must be Seattle residents, and board members serve without compensation. Those interested in being considered should send a letter of interest and resume by Sept. 15.

The Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board will hold a hearing and vote today, Aug. 19 at 3:30 p.m. on whether to designate The Kenney's Seaview and Sunrise buildings as historic landmarks.

The hearing will take place in the Seattle Municipal Tower 700 5th Avenue, 40th Floor, Room 4060.

On July 15, the Landmarks Preservation Board unanimously approved a nomination to designate The Kenney's Seaview and Sunrise buildings as historic landmarks.

The building was self-nominated by the retirement home owners in hopes of preserving and protecting the buildings.

"We recognized the significance of the building in the West Seattle community," said Kevin McFeely, chief executive officer of The Kenney. "We wanted to make sure that as we use the building going forward we’d be able to acknowledge that it does have historical significance in West Seattle."

The Landmarks Preservation Board will spend the next few weeks touring The Kenney and will determine whether the buildings should be designated in a public hearing on August 19.

The East Ballard Community Association is looking for volunteer pledges to bring more than 30 planters to 14th Avenue Northwest.

The planters were removed from Third Avenue in downtown Seattle by the Seattle Department of Transportation and are in need of a new home.

The East Ballard Community Association is applying for a Department of Neighborhoods Small and Simple Matching Grant, up to $15,000, this month.

The community association needs pledges for volunteer hours, services and material donations to provide with their grant application.

The association has received verbal pledges from local businesses and schools for materials, consulting and meeting spaces, but still need more, according to the East Ballard Community Association Blog.

According to the blog, the planters will transform 14th Avenue into a more beautiful and walkable boulevard.

The design, planing and maintenance of the planters would deepen connections between neighbors, local businesses and our schools, according to the blog.

After a community meeting on how the neighborhood would like to update the infamous Troll site underneath the Aurora Bridge, the Fremont Neighborhood Service Center will be teaming up with city of Seattle for the annual Clean and Green in Fremont this coming weekend.

Kristen Scrivner, a Fremont resident, started an effort in early July to name and clean up the park surrounding the Fremont Troll.

“When I started this project about a year ago I mostly envisioned something on the west side because that's the side the sun hits and it’s a more open area that can be converted to a community space,” Scrivner previously told the Ballard News-Tribune. “But there is quite a lot of land there.

At the committee’s July 15 meeting, about 25 people came to show interest in the project.

Scrivner said they discussed visions for both the east and west sides of the green space; possible names for the site, such as “Troll Knoll” and “The Troll’s Knoll." There was also strong support to clean, maintain and improve the area.