TO: Seattle Department of Planning and Development FROM: Tony Black, President, Madison Tower Homeowners Association RE: Project #3021574 site of former Federal Reserve Bank I write with concerns and questions regarding the design of the building proposed to be built at 1015 Second Avenue. Architectural Expression I am frankly mystified that this design review is taking place prior to resolution of issues surrounding the historic status of the property. I do believe those discussions will take place before other boards, however it seems presumptive to be at the design review stage with the City of Seattle. It would appear that the developer’s solution is to build on top of the existing historical building, which results in mash-up of old and new in the same vertical column that is, quite frankly, ugly and disrespectful to the historical building. Scale The proposed tower is massively out of scale with the surroundings. I have a concern that the drawings in the developer’s package do not reflect the true scale. On pages 14-17 of the developer’s package, the proposed building is represented by two parallel vertical lines without a horizontal cap at the top. Is this an artifact of the tower size being truncated in the printing process? It would be useful for the true height and scale of the building to be accurately represented and called out numerically.
Air circulation, light, and privacy The developer’s package gives scant treatment to the impact of the building on air circulation, light, and privacy on the Madison Tower to the southwest of the proposed building. By design, the sheer wall of the proposed tower signif icantly impacts $20,000,000 worth of residential real estate directly across an undersized alley by cutting off the light and air, and placing offices within 15 feet of people’s homes, specifically their living rooms and bedrooms.
Alley between Madison and Spring This undersized alley is already a congested and contentious space. Hotel 1000 has trash pickup 5 days a week, and many deliveries for hotel services and car movements for hotel guests and residential vehicles. The developer has not addressed how these problems and the inevitable increase in them will be mitigated when hundreds of additional vehicles per day access this alley. Both Madison and Spring Street in the vicinity of the proposed building will soon impacted by the Madison Street Corridor Bus Rapid Transit, which is planned to have stops on both streets adjacent to this alley. The developer’s plan does not account for this. In summary, I find the developer’s package to be incomplete in many key aspects including presumption of the historic building status and impact on design, clear depiction of the massive scale, the impediment to light, air, and privacy to the nearby building, and the lack of planning for the undersized alley considering access, circulation, and services.