With the recent decision to fund the addition of a bike lane on Southeast Blvd, the thought that Spokane may one day become a biking city is gaining traction. When put in place, the Southwest Blvd. strip of bike lane will cost about $50K. Money well spent on a critical piece of transportation infrastructure. But even if money was not an issue, not every street needs a bike lane. In some cases a simple visual reminder that says, "Hey there Mr./Ms. Driver, bikes use this road frequently, so be on the lookout," can be just as beneficial. Enter the "sharrow".
As if dominating the East Sprague furniture scene isn't enough, Tin Roof is expanding downtown. On the right, the entry into Tin Roof's new downtown digs is coming together. To the left, blue plywood covers another potential retail spot. Called Concept :: Home, the sign points to an inventory chock full of casual contemporary. A local slugging it out with the big guns over on the west side of downtown? We like options. First and Washington is going to look significantly different in a few months.
Everyone has that one intersection in their neighborhood that could just be so much better. For whatever reason, the cars seem to drive through too fast, the crosswalks are non-existent, or there is no place to comfortably sit and wait for the bus. We found a neighborhood-based event profiled on the most excellent Streetfilms.org called Intersection Repair.
North of Downtown sits one of Spokane's most recognizable buildings - The Boulevard. Less known by name and more known by location, anyone familiar with Spokane knows of the The Boulevard and exactly where it's located - Northwest Blvd and Monroe.
Fast on the heels of last week's market dump correction, little yellow 3x5 postcards began showing up in the mailboxes of some Spokane residents in the 99201. Now this could either be just the best freakin' timing ever, or a shrewd maneuver by the folks over at Northwest HomeBuyers. We tend to think it's the prior.
Time for housing data, friends. With the Zillow 2007 Q2 update in hand we explored a new offering: home type. It's a handy way to peel back the proverbial onion and see how condos are performing versus single-family homes. No need to dirty your hands, we did the work for you.
Years ago when bowling was king and Earl Anthony absolutely dominated the PBA, Spokane had lanes-a-plenty. In the case of Colonial Bowl and Northbowl, either Spokane was nutty for bowling or someone didn't pay for decent
site location services as they were literally just a
few blocks from each other. Colonial Bowl fell to the wrecking ball and became the new Kennedy Apartments we profiled the other day. Northbowl, on the other hand is still alive and kicking.
So how do you help revitalize a tough part of town along one of the busiest arterials in the City?
Drop a few million on a new residential apartment building
Invite 225 upperclass-men/women to live there
Sit back and watch it happen
What was once Colonial Bowl has been reborn as the Kennedy Apartments-after a fire setback the opening. Slated for occupation this fall, the presence of hundreds of new students is going to give new life to a neighborhood that is home to a great collection of warehouses. The building also boasts a Gonzaga bookstore and a cafe on the street level.
From a longtime reader in Seattle we received the following question over the weekend:
"I went to brunch in Belltown this morning and passed by the Expo 62 condos near Seattle Center of Course. Seattle's EXPO62 Condos Now why hasn't some developer in Spokane thought of honoring Expo 74 with a set of condos? Maybe whomever buys the YWCA should name their condos Expo 74. Spokanites would love it."
This has to be the most brilliant idea we've heard of in a long while. With as much veneration that people give the event that "put Spokane on the map", imagine for a moment what a condo development based on EXPO74 would be like.
When you step back for a moment and look at the Metropole Building on 2nd and Howard it isn't overwhelming. A three story brick with residential up and commercial below. A simple formula that has worked for this building for probably the past 100 years. On a tip from a reader, we dropped by the other evening to see what had been happening. Apparently lots.
Tyler Durden is that you? Via the MetroSpokane tipline some pics and a heads up of new signage down in our fav nabe of Peaceful Valley. If Heloise was an anarchist, she'd be spreading the same kind of love and helpful advice that someone has wheatpasted on various bridge columns throughout Peaceful Valley.
We have a couple issues with the signs. First, what's with open threats toward YUPPIES? That term is so 1987. Second, honestly, just how many young urban professionals around here can afford to snap up a condo down there? Finally, why bilingual? The good thing is that most all appeared to have been peeled off or at least partially peeled off. Now that's the Peaceful Valley we know.
There's a new tenant in the Arts District. The modest two story brick building located at 912 W Sprague Ave. across from the Bing Theater looks to be the new home of the architecture firm Nystrom | Olson | Collins. Our readers will most certainly recognize the building as the former home of Rings of Fire tattoo and piercing. The brick archway is no more and in fact the entire facade on the first floor has been nicely rebuilt and opened way, way up. Man, if those walls could talk...
Nystrom? Olson? Collins? If any of you are out there, and you have a web address drop us a line and we'll add it.
Imagine for a moment that you were to draw a line on a map north from the Farm-Credit Bank Building (Wells-Fargo) along Howard Street to Spokane Falls Blvd, then left to Wall Street, and back south towards the viaduct; you've just approximated Spokane's financial district. For whatever reason these blocks have historically been home to the institutions that financed Spokane's growth over the past one-hundred years. Wells-Fargo, Bank of America, Sterling Savings, Wheatland Bank, and Bank of Whitman...all are located here even to this day.
With all the talk these past few weeks about the highs and lows of cycling in Spokane we wanted to learn a bit more about transportation alternatives and the people behind them. When taking such a bold step there's no better way to pigeon-hole an entire group of people than by looking at median income.
Architizing-Advertecture...Call it what you will, but the four story sign on the Davenport Tower has been updated and is now hocking office space a the top-o'-the tower. 12,000 square feet of office space, in fact, with views that easily rival the Paulsen building. Please enjoy this latest installment in the downtown advertecture scene.
With the recent decision to fund the addition of a bike lane on Southeast Blvd, the thought that Spokane may one day become a biking city is gaining traction. When put in place, the Southwest Blvd. strip of bike lane will cost about $50K. Money well spent on a critical piece of transportation infrastructure. But even if money was not an issue, not every street needs a bike lane. In some cases a simple visual reminder that says, "Hey there Mr./Ms. Driver, bikes use this road frequently, so be on the lookout," can be just as beneficial. Enter the "sharrow".
