Mayor Ed Murray stated in his State of the City Address in February 2015, “Seattle must become more affordable and more equitable if it is to remain a leading city in the region and country.” Despite Murray’s position, gentrification is becoming more and more a reality in Seattle neighborhoods, with big businesses moving in and pushing out the poor and lower income of all races. Local politicians strive to disassociate themselves from gentrification, but they can only get so far. While development in our communities has economic benefits, it also has drawbacks.
Pioneer Square is currently at the center of this debate with the construction of a seven-story building on Occidental Avenue South directly behind the historical McCoy’s Firehouse built in 1895. This will be home to Weyerhaeuser’s headquarters, now located in Federal Way, bringing some 800 employees to Pioneer Square. The project complies with Seattle Municipal Codes, and the Pioneer Square Preservation Board is supportive of it, even though the building itself disregards much of the intricate brickwork and historic nature of the buildings that surround it.
The Weyerhaeuser building will have a glass facade (rendering above), which does not exactly fit in with the architecture of Pioneer Square. According to the Preservation Board, the compromise is that the building will have a “strong emphasis on brick and the rhythm of large ‘punched’ windows that respond to the surrounding historic buildings along the South Main Street, South Washington Street, and alley facades.” Using modern techniques and reinterpretation of the buildings in Pioneer Square, the street-level design will incorporate steel framing reminiscent of historic wood storefronts. Other similar Pioneer Square projects are slated to begin next year.
With construction full-steam ahead, Occidental Park has shifted dramatically from a place where homeless people congregated to a playground for the middle-class, complete with a stage for live musical performances, ping-pong tables and trendy food trucks. Not only have high rents pushed out many small businesses, Pioneer Square’s homeless population is being squeezed out as well. The city, and the majority of people living here, may view this as an improvement, but where will homeless people go without available affordable housing? How can we revitalize Pioneer Square without compromising its character? How can we strike a balance between the bottom line and life at the bottom?
What is needed is affordable housing. Major companies are not the problem. The problem is development that only benefits the affluent, at the expense of aesthetics, history and the poor. We don’t have to ban the Weyerhaeusers of the world from Seattle, but, Mr. Mayor, if you are going to remake downtown Seattle to benefit corporations and white-collar workers, then we need better incorporation of historical preservation and accommodation of lower-income interests, especially affordable housing.