I’m a big fan of Vulcan and I don’t mean Spock and his kind. No, I mean Paul Allen’s real estate development company which has transformed the South Lake Union area after the bid for a large public park failed with the voting public of Seattle (I voted yes). Paul Allen had bought up most of the land in the SLU area to donate to that park project and when it failed the back up plan that the city had already approved was for his company to be able to redevelop the mostly run down part of Seattle. Of course, with any new development comes controversy so many people protested it happening and there are still many divided on how it’s turning out.
What I think is a beautiful way of giving back to the community turned even more beautiful in my eyes when Vulcan decided that the majority of what it would develop would be as environmentally sensitive as possible. Green and LEED were words and terms that were beginning to be thrown around in the commercial real estate sector but not everyone accepted it with open arms because it often is more expensive to develop this way. But Vulcan chose the path least traveled and helped start a revolution in our own green back yard. Plus, they promote all kinds of sustainable community practices. I love also the idea of bringing corporate businesses, retail and living spaces into one community because it promotes urban density in a similar way to larger cities around the world. It also got a trolley brought back into the history of our city and it may soon connect with the currently non-working waterfront trolley and a connection to the Central District that I’ve written about recently.
One of the projects that is an example of a Green Building is the Alycone Apartments. It’s nice to see an apartment building that has the health of the people residing there as a priority.
If you want to learn more about what Vulcan and the community around SLU are doing, sign up online for their monthly newsletters. There are lots of cool activities, stores, and places to live in this renovated community.
