Tag Archives: University of Washington

75 Attend Lake City Visioning Project Open House

Saturday’s open house for the Lake City Visioning project was a great success. The event drew some 75 people (on a sunny day) to review the work of UW Architecture and Planning grad student Katy Haima on a vision for redevelopment of the Pierre family properties on Lake City Way.

Katy displayed her work in 3 stations, looking at Land Use and Programming; Urban Design and Density; Open Space and Circulation. A brief questionnaire helped attendees state preferences and generate their own ideas based on broad concepts and specific examples. Mapping exercises were set up, and Katy and other students gave brief presentations. There was also a display of some of the work of the Landscape Architecture students who recently worked in Lake City on creating and linking open spaces.

Visitors look at UW Architecture and Planning grad student Katy Haima's work.

Visitors look at UW Architecture and Planning grad student Katy Haima’s work.

This event was an important milestone in the ongoing work by neighbors and by facilitators like Katy to create a vision for the future of Lake City Way. Katy’s work brought many of us closer to understanding how we can participate in the transformation of our community.

There will be more opportunities to work with Katy as she finalizes her project—and more ways to be involved as we get closer to redevelopment. Stay tuned.

Pierre Redevelopment Open House

Stop by the Lake City Library this Saturday, March 30th, any time between 2:30-5:30pm to learn the latest in the Lake City Way Visioning Project.  This will be an interactive & informative event. UW students will staff several different stations and invite your critique, comments and ideas on everything from open spaces and circulation to land use and programming.

 

Katy Haima, a graduate student with UW’s Department of Urban Design & Planning, has been working with Marty Curry and the Pierre representatives all year and has some exciting visuals and design ideas to share with area residents. She’ll provide a short formal overview during the session, but the majority of the time will be available for residents to simply stop in, interact and enjoy.  This is a great opportunity to participate in this ongoing design process.

 

Just a small sample of some of the impressive graphics and design ideas you'll see at this Saturday's Open House

History

While the Pierre family properties were the catalyst for this, the Lake City Visioning Project has morphed into something even larger – a neighborhood working cohesively to solidify its identity and determine its future.  As such, the UW students have been busy creating and designing ideas that apply even beyond the potential redevelopment of the Pierre sites.

 

In Spring of 2012, UW students began outreach to the Lake City neighborhood through mental mapping exercises.  A large visioning workshop was held at Nathan Hale High School in May of 2012 to solicit further community input. Since then, a variety of UW students have continued outreach to the Lake City neighborhood.

 

In Fall of 2012, a team of UW students from the Dept. of Urban Design & Planning worked to build a toolkit to aid Lake City residents in working with developers and city officials.  The toolkit provides design ideas and resources, such as neighborhood grant information. In Winter of 2013, students from the UW Landscape Architecture Neighborhood Design Studio focused on assessing and developing Lake City’s open space and pedestrian and recreational needs.  Most recently, students from UW’s Dept. of Health got involved in Lake City too, focusing their attention on assessing some of the unmet needs in the Little Brook community. (Little Brook is the small and densely populated northeast corner of the Olympic Hills region of Lake City – just west of Lake City Way and south of 145th.)

 

For more information on the Lake City Way Visioning Project , visit the Lake City Way Visioning Blog.  Please help spread the word about this Open House to your fellow community members. Project questions may be directed to lakecityprojectteam@gmail.com

 

Coffee Talk Series Begins Tonight

Wondering how you can have a say in the future development of Lake City? Join your neighbors for this first in a series of Coffee Talks.

 

This series is intended to help Lake City area residents better understand key urban planning concepts that will guide our work with both the Pierre Property redevelopment and City agencies.

 

Tonight’s speakers include Kay Knapton, known for her work directing a Business Improvement Area which helped revitalize the West Seattle business district and Greg Easton, an economist with Property Counselors. Their presentations will be followed by open discussion with community members.

 

Coffee Talk #1

6:30-8:30pm

Lake City Community Center – Rm #8

Open to the public

 

This series is jointly presented by the Lake City Neighborhood Alliance and the Washington Chapter of the American Planning Association’s Community Planning Assistance Team (CPAT).

 

Fiber Optic Network

Back on December 13th of last year, the Mayor's office announced a public / private partnership with Gigabit Squared and the UW to connect businesses and residences to the city's fiber optic network It is called the Gigabit Neighborhood Gateway Program.

The connection speeds are expected to be up to 1,000 times faster than currently available high speed internet. The map below shows the 12 neighborhoods that will have the fiber connections pulled directly to buildings. Current plans for Lake City are to have wireless towers at 145th / LCW and 125th/ LCW to provide wireless connections to the fiber.





This project is still at the front end and we may still have an opportunity to be selected as a neighborhood. Members of Lake City Neighborhood Alliance have requested information on how Lake City can be included. Stay tuned for more information.