At its fourth time before the Northwest Design Review Board, the Market Street Landing development was somewhat reluctantly approved by the board with some conditions.

Though approval was granted, allowing developers Rhapsody Partners to move forward with obtaining a Master Use Permit from the city, board members never seemed quite satisfied with how the design treated an iconic corner in Ballard.

The tower element, designed with glass and brick vertical elements, is planned for the corner of the development on 15th Avenue Northwest. It would would be "softly" illuminated in the evenings and at night, to serve as a sort of "beacon" for Ballard, said Arthur Chang, the architect designing the building.

The look of the tower took up most of the discussion, with much back and forth about whether it looked too "commercial" or "corporate."

At one time, board member Mark Brands even joked, "Should we just design it?"

In the end, the board decided to approve the proposal if the developers would work on designing the tower more as a "separate" entity from the rest of the building, and with less vertical, more horizontal, expression.

"It isn't the landmark corner I would hope for," said Brands.

"For better or worse, you picked the most important corner in Ballard," said board member Bill Singer as an explanation for the board's scrutiny. "We want this to be a really good building."

"We've made great efforts to show that we also believe it's an important corner," said Katie Vance with developers Rhapsody Partners, adding that her company has met several times with different community groups to get an idea of what they would like to see at that corner.

The five to eight-story, 261-unit condominium at the corner of Northwest Market Street and 15th Avenue Northwest, is located where the once historic Manning's/Denny's building stood. It would include underground parking for 437 and about 32,000 square feet of retail, with Bartell's drugstore as its anchor tenant.

The development process was held up for about a year because of an effort by some community members to landmark the old
1960's diner. It was deemed a city landmark, but the decision was quickly reversed because the designation would have prevented the owners from seeing a reasonable economic return on the property, which had been purchased by Benaroya Co. for $12.5 million.

Other conditions added by the board included reducing the height of the smaller building on 15th and adding a community bulletin board added to the bus stop on Market Street. There was also some debate about the lighter color chosen for the top floors of the buildings, which is supposed to make it appear less massive. But board member Jean Morgan said she thought it made the building look larger.

The board was also concerned at this review and previous meetings with the lack of public amenities offered. This time around, the developers expanded small public areas within the development, such as a bus stop and main entry way.

"We looked at several ways to do it," said Katie Vance, with Rhapsody Partners. "Do we want to do it? No, but we were willing to try ... "

The next step, after addressing the design issues, is to apply for a Master Use Permit with the city's department of planning and development. Then the developers will seek financing for the project.

"OK, we'll make you guys proud," said Chang.

Five members of the public attended the design hearing, and two spoke positively about the project. One Ballard Place Condominium resident did say she was concerned about the amount of traffic that will be "dumped" onto Northwest 56th Street with this project and Phase II of Hjarta, both across the street from her building.