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Approximately 90 people from the community attended this meeting to discuss the current schematic design for the new Northgate library, community center and park, and preliminary designs for street improvements. Deborah L. Jacobs, city librarian of The Seattle Public Library, started the meeting with welcoming comments and introduced Ken Bounds, Seattle Parks and Recreation superintendent. Jacobs and Bounds introduced Greg Maffei, Library Board member and steward for the new Northgate Branch; Bruce Bentley, chairman of the Parks and Recreation Board of Park Commissioners; Erin Devoto, Parks planning and development director; David Kunselman, Library project manager for the Northgate project; Tim Motzer, Parks project manager for the Northgate project; Teresa Platt, Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) project manager; Claudia McCain, Library director of neighborhood libraries; Andy Bates, Neighborhood Library Services design team liaison for the new library; and Maureen A. O’Neill, Parks sector manager. Also attending were Alexandra Harris, Library capital program director, and Grace Crunican, SDOT director.
Jacobs and Bounds gave a quick recap of the project’s history, including the site planning and design processes. They turned the meeting over to Teresa Platt from SDOT, who explained the street improvement project and showed renderings and schematic views of the site. Platt introduced Rob Spillar, director of traffic management for the city of Seattle, who described the Coordinated Transportation Investment Plan (CTIP) and SDOT’s plans for traffic calming and cut-through traffic. Next, Kelly Davidson, Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs project manager, briefly discussed the art program for branch libraries and explained the artist roster and panel process used to choose an artist for the library project. The selected artist, Dana Lynn Louis, works primarily with metal and glass, and Davidson described her work as bold and colorful. Davidson introduced Marcia Iwasaki, Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs project manager, who discussed the art program for community centers and the selection process. She described the work of selected artist Nikki McClure, whose work uses paper cuts and includes sandblasting artwork onto metal and stone. Davidson turned the meeting over to Bob Hull, principal with The Miller/Hull Partnership, the architects for the project. Hull briefly spoke about the design process and schematic design stage, and described the design team objectives.
The members of the design team stood and introduced themselves: Kurt Stolle and Ruth Coates, The Miller/Hull Partnership; Bob Shrosbree and Mark Brands, Site Workshop, the landscape architects; and Doreen Gavin, AHBL, civil and structural engineers for the project. Hull showed images of the site, and reviewed the program elements, including the park as streetscape. Shrosbree discussed details of the park and site plan, water treatment/filtration systems and the change in the elevation of the site between the branch and community center. Hull outlined the architectural plan for the buildings, beginning with the branch, which will be located along Fifth Avenue Northeast for visibility and access. He showed the layout and elevations for the branch, and described the building as transparent, with a glass wall looking out over the park. He explained the design of the plaza area, and the decision to place it so it can be seen from Fifth Avenue Northeast. Hull then showed the layout and elevations for the community center, outlining the various program elements, including the gym, multipurpose room, children’s play area, large kitchen and activity rooms. Doreen Gavin then talked about Thornton Creek and stormwater management, outlining the proposed storm water systems and how they would act to reduce runoff.
Harris and Devoto facilitated questions from the community members:
Q. What is the width of the overhangs?
A. The overhang at the library, along Fifth Avenue
Northeast, projects over the sidewalk a maximum of
6 feet to comply with code. Other building overhangs
range from 6 feet to 12 feet, depending on sun exposure.
Q. The community center has a ramped corridor
that leads to the gym and other rooms. How do you
enter the rooms off the ramped corridor?
A. The ramp is a very gentle slope that goes down
about 3 feet, at a rate of 1 and 20. The rooms off
the ramp have flat landing-like areas at the entries.
On the other side of the corridor, there will be a
brick wall that we would like to hollow out into cubbies
for seating areas. We are hoping to really activate
the space.
Q. Could there be a way for people to enter the
gym from the plaza?
A. We have not planned for an entrance to the
gym from the plaza, in part because of the slope of
the site. In order to keep the majority of the community
center at the same level, we created one entry point
at grade. This also allowed us to maintain security
and monitor the entrance for control and access. There
is a visual connection from the gymnasium to the plaza.
Q. Why are the children’s daycare and outside
play area not in the same place?
A. The design allows for easy drop-off and pick-up
of children attending the daycare. The larger play
area on the south side of the lot is not only for
children who attend daycare, but also for neighborhood
children. In addition, there’s a play area outside
the front door of the daycare, specifically for very
young children. Children from the daycare would not
go to the playground unattended. They would always
have an adult with them.
Q. How friendly is the project for seniors, especially
the community center ramp?
A. The community center ramp is a very gentle
slope with a smooth transition, which is barely noticeable.
The standard wheelchair ramp is 1 and 12, so this
ramp, at 1 and 20, is much more gradual.
Q. It looks like there might be a choke point
at the north end of the ramp in the community center.
Is there any way to alleviate that?
A. The ramp is wider now than in earlier drawings.
We believe this allows for easy passage through the
building. Also, we feel that there are certain places
that should be pedestrian gathering areas –
and the north end of the ramp is one of those places.
We will continue to review the width of the ramp as
we move through the design process.
Q. Regarding the wall at the west edge of the
park, will it be high enough to keep kids and balls
out of the street?
A. It’s designed as a “seat wall,”
ranging in height from 16-24 inches as the ground
slopes; it will keep kids from running directly out
into the street.
Q. Can we get a bigger sidewalk? I also have concerns
about where the playground is located; security could
be an issue.
A. The sidewalk is 12 feet wide; other sidewalks
in the neighborhood are currently 5-6 feet wide. The
size of the sidewalk has been set by the Fifth Avenue
Northeast Streetscape Plans, and cannot be changed
by the design team. Regarding the location of the
playground, we have made every effort to create visibility
to the playground from various points throughout the
site.
Q. The design is beautiful, and it’s nice
to see the library and community center together.
This plan gives a strong sense of community. What
about parking for events? Please also look at lighting
levels at crosswalks and entry points.
A. We are looking closely at crosswalks, entry
to the site, and tree planting. We will make sure
the trees are trimmed, and are set far enough back
not to block visibility at the crosswalks. There are
currently 66 planned parking stalls; this may go down
to 64, which is the minimum per the code that can
be put on the site. The project had to be designed
to accommodate not just vehicles, but pedestrians
and mass transit as well. The main entrances to the
library and community center, and the main entrance
across the street to the Northgate Mall will be prominently
marked so pedestrians don’t forget they are
entrances and exercise sufficient caution. SDOT will
be looking at the street lighting to make sure it’s
adequate at night.
Q. What are SDOT’s plans for 105th Street
Northeast?
A. The plan is to maintain it as it currently
is, while creating pedestrian improvements. SDOT retains
the right to improve it in the future.
Q. What is the material planned for the plaza?
A. Probably concrete, some type of exposed aggregate,
which will be striped or broken up in some interesting
way.
Q. What about Library expansion?
A. It is feasible the library could be expanded
by up to 5,000 square feet on the south side, since
the project is designed to allow for such a future
possibility.
Q. I appreciate the attention stormwater has
received. Have green roofs been considered? What about
pervious surfaces for the plaza and parking area?
Could landscaping in the parking area be used to relieve
the stormwater runoff, perhaps with stormwater flowing
into landscaped depressions or medians?
A. Medians might be possible, but because of the
elevation and cross slope at the upper part of the
parking area, we would have a hard time getting a
depression in there. These kinds of details are well
worth exploring. We looked at green roofs, but they
aren’t in our budget. We are planning to allow
for stormwater detention in other ways, with external
gutters on all structures and a rain garden. We haven’t
fully decided yet on pervious pavement; Parks has
tried pervious surfaces in Greenwood Park.
Q. Was underground parking considered?
A. Yes, we looked into the possibility of an underground
parking structure, but it’s not in our budget
(the projected cost of underground parking was $1.4
million to $1.6 million). Major considerations were
the cost, the need for shoring and concern for the
adjacent steep slope, and access from the parking
structure into the buildings to maintain security
and monitoring of the parking area.
Q. I’m disappointed that the Library is
right against a noisy street and isn’t set back.
The horizontal design looks very suburban, almost
like a mall. The entrances are all off the parking
lot and are not pedestrian-friendly. I suggest reversing
the placement of the library and community center.
A. The placement of the library advertises its
presence. We are confident that acoustic controls
will be sufficient to control noise. The main reading
space is focused toward the park and away from the
street. We will install non-operable windows in the
library to control noise and the indoor climate. We
did look at various ways of laying out the site. We
wanted to make sure that the park could be seen from
the street, and the buildings had some separation.
The height of the buildings approaches 22 feet, and
the gym is 35 feet high, with ceiling heights of 15-16
feet to the bottom of the wood deck.
Q. The stairs around the plaza will be difficult
to navigate for moms with strollers and older folks.
What about on-street parking?
A. There are two small sets of stairs, which can
be avoided, depending on your route. We feel this
provides extremely effective access, given the topography
of the site. Stairs are also places where people can
sit. SDOT has committed to study and evaluate on-street
parking as part of the CTIP. We have endeavored to
provide ADA-accessible grades throughout the site,
including the entry to the library (users have the
option of taking either the stair or an accessible
pathway).
Other comments included:
Greg Maffei discussed next steps, saying the design presentation of schematic work to the Seattle Design Commission would take place Nov. 6, and the Library would give another design update to the community in the spring toward the end of the design development phase. Plans will be available on the Library’s Web site at www.spl.org and will also be available for viewing at the Northgate Temporary Service Site. He thanked everyone for coming and invited the attendees to pick up materials and fill out comment forms, to send comments to Library staff or e-mail the capital program office at capital.program@spl.org. People can also contact Library project manager David Kunselman at 386-4096 or by e-mail at david.kunselman@spl.org, or Parks project manager Tim Motzer at 684-7060 or by e-mail at tim.motzer@seattle.gov. He invited the attendees to stop in the back of the room, at the six stations set up for the Library Design, Artwork, Site Work, Community Center Design, SDOT, and the Mayor’s Initiatives, and ask further questions of staff at each station.
Bruce Bentley thanked everyone for coming and stressed the productive collaboration between Parks and the Library. He told the crowd that staff members were available to take their questions, and that their comments would be given careful consideration. The meeting ended at 9 p.m.
Content Modified: 18 November 2003
12/30/2005
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