Public Art Installed on WSECU Parking Garage

Above: Workers install public artwork on the Washington State Employees Credit Union parking garage on 10th and Jefferson in downtown Olympia this week. The work is by internationally known artist Christian Moeller.

By Janine Gates

Little Hollywood

https://janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com

What are they? Bottle caps? Marshmallows? 

And what is that design? Hubcaps? Film reels? For some, it’s hard to tell. But back up and look at it from another angle, and you may see something different.

Whatever you see, the parking garage owned by the Washington State Employees Credit Union (WSECU) in downtown Olympia has received an artistic makeover.

Located across the street from the Olympia post office on 10th and Jefferson, the six story building has been “naked” for several years.

Tempered glass panels which originally surrounded the brick building to better obscure the sight of vehicles in the garage were removed after one spontaneously exploded on a hot day in August, 2013. For safety reasons, all the panels were removed.

After an investigation, it was determined that there were impurities in the glass making process.

Staff admitted in a 2013 Little Hollywood story that the garage was pretty ugly without the panels, and the city expected the credit union to get the building back to a state of being more visually appealing.

At long last, after a public process involving credit union members, staff, and neighbors, international artist Christian Moeller was chosen as the finalist to create the new exterior design.

Moeller is a professor and department chair of Design Media Arts at the University of California, Los Angeles.

According to his biography, Moeller is an artist “working with contemporary media technologies to produce innovative and intense physical events, realized from handheld objects to architectural scale installations. Over the past two decades, his body of work represented one of the original and most complex investigations of what is possible to be revealed by the intersections of cinema, computation, music and physical space.”

Above: Looking northeast, the Washington State Employee Credit Union (WSECU) parking garage as seen from the roof of the WSECU building on Union Avenue in downtown Olympia. The artwork by Christian Moeller is titled, “Buttons.”

The artwork is 42 feet tall and covers the WSECU parking structure over a surface of approximately 24,000 square feet. The “canvas” of the artwork is made of galvanized chain-link fence and mounted with the help of vertical tension cables in 12’ wide panels.

A total of 235,000 white “pixels” or disks made of injection-molded vinyl are attached to the fence. Their contrast with the darker background of holes not filled by a disk form large images.

The artwork came in large, numbered panels in rolls wrapped in plastic. Workers were seen this week mounting the rolls from the top of the garage and securing them in place.

Moeller explored and mulled over a variety of thematic concepts around the credit union’s values of community, family, and connections, explained Ann Flannigan, vice president of public relations for the Washington State Employees Credit Union. 

Flannigan provided Little Hollywood a tour of the facility on Wednesday.

“His work, titled “Buttons,” is inspired by the idea of a grandmother’s old button box, a treasure chest of disks, all with different patterns and shapes. 

“Buttons evoke connectivity, fastening, holding, and the joining of two pieces of fabric. For us, that fabric is community....I’m hopeful it will be an iconic part of the Olympia landscape. Even though it’s our garage, it belongs to the community. We wanted to make it interesting to look at and enjoy,” said Flannigan.

Above: A close up of the artwork titled, “Buttons,” by Christian Moeller at the Washington State Employees Credit Union parking garage in downtown Olympia.

Editor’s Note, May 3: Asked to clarify the information gap between the 2013 Little Hollywood story that described a different proposed art design, Ann Flannigan, vice president of public relations for WSECU, responded:  

“Our Board of Directors considered several approaches for recladding the garage during the past few years.  The “art panels” concept was going to be married with replacement tempered glass panels. Ultimately, the Board asked for additional options from our developer for their consideration, and we were presented with Moeller’s approach, which they ultimately endorsed.

“Then new artwork didn’t go through a full design review process because city staff were of the opinion that it was substantially similar to the original design intent, which was our mandate.  WSECU received approval for this latest concept when presented to the city in 2016.” 

Also, artist Christian Moeller is a professor and department chair of Design Media Arts at the University of California, Los Angeles, not Berkeley, as originally reported. 

Little Hollywood appreciates the clarifications.

For more information about the design review process and building history, Little Hollywood wrote a story, “WSECU Proposes Garage Art Wall Installation,” on December 13, 2013, at http://janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com/2013/12/wsecu-proposes-garage-art-wall.html

Columbia Heights…Take Two…or Three…or Four….

Above: Big, yellow, official public notice signs....When you see one of these, don't just walk on by! Stop and read it! It may have more to do with you than you may think! This one on 4th Avenue illustrates the land use intentions of Columbia Heights Partners, LLC.

 

By Janine Unsoeld

www.janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com

A new, new, new public notice for a proposed downtown Olympia project called Columbia Heights was issued a couple hours ago by the City of Olympia. 
 
The land use application, submitted by Columbia Heights Partners, LLC, is for a proposed mixed-use, seven story building with 138 market-rate residential units in the 100 block of 4^th Avenue West.

Mostly notably, the latest notice says that a public meeting of the Design Review Board has been rescheduled from March 13 to March 27, 6:00 p.m., at Olympia City Hall.

Due to errors in previous notices, this is the third notice issued for this site under the current owners. The property, sold by the city, was owned by previous owners who intended to build residential units on the site, and was approved to do so, when the company went bankrupt before the project began. The previous permit approvals expired, resulting in a new city and public review process.

The other public meeting dates for an upcoming informational meeting, an extended written comment period, and a public meeting of the city site plan review committee remain the same as written in the second notice issued, and mentioned in a March 7 article by Little Hollywood.

For more information about the proposed Columbia Heights project, go to www.janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com and type keywords into the search button or contact Steve Friddle, Principal Planner, City of Olympia, (360) 753-8591 or sfriddle@ci.olympia.wa.us.

Downtown Business Owners, Residents Discuss New Building Proposal

Above: The parking lot adjacent to several downtown Olympia businesses is the proposed site for a new, mixed-use, seven story building with 138 market-rate residential units.

 

By Janine Unsoeld
www.janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com

Over 30 downtown business owners, employees and residents attended a city sponsored neighborhood meeting last night at Olympia City Hall to discuss the permitting process and proposed plans for a new, mixed-use, seven story building with 138 market-rate residential units in downtown Olympia.

The proposed building address is 123 4th Avenue West and borders Columbia Street, Capitol Way, 4th Avenue, and 5th Avenue.

The applicant, Columbia Heights Partners, LLC, of Seattle, is planning 7,600 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor and structured parking for 121 vehicles. It is uncertain if the applicant will allow the public to park in their garage.

The space is currently a parking lot, next to the New Moon Cooperative Café, and the former Ken Schoenfeld’s furniture store on the corner of 4th Avenue West and Capitol Way, and Olympia Federal Savings, which is on the corner of 5th Avenue and Capitol Way.

The lot was sold by the city in 2002 to the Colpitts Development Company who intended to build residential units. The permitting process was approved by the city, and then the applicant went bankrupt.

Steve Friddle, lead city planner for the project, convened the informational meeting to explain the new proposed project and answer questions and concerns. Some questions went unanswered until more is learned from the applicant. There are several known differences between the previous application for this site and the current one.

The commercial element is new and there are more residential units, but with a smaller square footage per unit. Because of the commercial element, and the proposed building is in a historic area of downtown, the city’s Heritage Commission will also be involved.

This morning, the city issued a revised, second notice of application for the project with several new dates. The first notice of application was issued February 18 with several errors.

A second neighborhood information meeting will be held March 26, 6:30 p.m., at Olympia City Hall, and an extended comment period will end at 5:00 p.m. on March 28.

The city’s site planning review meeting for the proposed project is now scheduled for April 2, 9:00 a.m., at Olympia City Hall.

However, a city Design Review Board meeting for the proposed project has not been changed. It is still scheduled for March 13, 6:00 p.m., at Olympia City Hall.

Friddle said that the proposed project is expected to get underway in May, and estimated that construction will last for about 14 – 18 months, which will include a loss of parking on Columbia Street, pile-driving, noise, and emissions related to construction.

Several people expressed concern about the financial viability of the applicant, and named other projects that were begun before the recession, but not completed, such as the barely-begun eyesore on Capitol Way near the Olympia Farmer’s Market and other proposed high-end residential projects that were never begun, such as the residential and mixed use Larida Passage project proposed for the isthmus in downtown Olympia.

Simon Gorbaty, one of 14 owners of the New Moon Cooperative Café, which is located adjacent to the project, is concerned that the original public notice contained incorrect information and does not give citizens adequate time to comment. The city received the application during the week of February 13 - February 18.

Late tonight, Gorbaty says he is aware of the revised land use application, but is still upset that the date of the Design Review Board has not been changed.

“The Design Review Board meeting date applies to the previous notification which was in error and doesn’t allow the public enough time to find out about the project and comment on it.”

Gorbaty says that as of 4:30 pm today, over 130 Olympians, employees, and/or owners of several downtown businesses, including Bamboo Garden, New Moon Cooperative Cafe, The Spar, Spider Monkey Tattoo, Last Word Books, Café Love, Rainy Day, Dumpster Values, Danger Room, Earth Magic, Hannah’s, Chopsticks, Saigon Rendezvous, and G. Miller have signed on to a petition expressing concerns about inconsistencies in the application process of the project.

It asks, in part, that the city postpone both the Design Review Board and Site Planning Review meetings to allow downtown residents, workers, local property and business owners time to assess the impact and understand the implications of the project.

“Basically, I went down to City Hall and started to review some of the documents for this project and it seems to me that they are using proposal information from 2008, including the traffic impact analysis, and may be taking short cuts on some important environmental regulations. It's hard for me to read through all of these documents but some obvious red flags are coming up,” Gorbaty told Little Hollywood several days ago.

At last night’s meeting, Micheal Snow, another owner of the New Moon Cooperative Café, said, “We’ve been doing very well since opening, but we still owe $70,000 on our loan, and we pay $1,500 a month….We can’t sustain a loss in business….If our sales drop just three percent, we’ll go under.”

David Scherer Water, vice president of operations at Deskoba Inc., a commercial property development and management firm, has lived in a building on the corner of 5th and Washington for the last fourteen years, and supports the proposed Columbia Heights project. At last night’s meeting, he urged some creative thinking and suggested that the New Moon Cooperative Café owners contact the Columbia Heights applicant directly to start a conversation.
 
In a letter provided to Little Hollywood today, Scherer Water says that less than four percent of Olympia’s population lives downtown.

“This is the lowest this ratio has been in the city’s history. A hundred years ago more than half the population of Olympia lived downtown. Fifty years ago it was about ten percent. Today 96 percent of our population comes downtown to visit, to shop, to party and they leave. I believe this is the source of most if not all of the complaints commonly made about downtown. We need more people to live downtown. Downtown Olympia will be a better place for everyone when there are more people who go to sleep and wake up here, and downtown will be less reliant on paid staff and police.

“I think the forested areas around Olympia are beautiful. By comparison, I think downtown Olympia is ugly and the perfect place for big buildings. I love the idea of big apartments going up in downtown Olympia, it represents less land that gets cleared for developments. As far as I’m concerned, you can wall off the waterfront. I could care less about blocking the view. If the Columbia Heights project caters to rich people, I say great, we could use some rich people. As far as I can tell, there aren’t any living here now. So, bring them downtown, put some high-density McMansions downtown -- safely away from forested areas.”

Scherer Water understands that small businesses will suffer during the construction of the proposed Columbia Heights project.

“I encourage all concerned shops, restaurants and property owners to reach out to Columbia Heights LLC. I suspect that they'll want to have good neighbors, that they'll want to avoid negative public relations, that they'll want to get this building up without incident and are willing to help. Why? Because there's more profit in being good neighbors. That's just a fact. They're going to spend millions putting this thing in the ground. They'll want a return on their investment. Having the support of one's neighbors and helping neighbors remain whole during a construction is a smart investment that pays back over time.

“If I'm wrong about this last point, if they reject a request for help, then they don't know Olympia and this project will die from the negative public relations like so many others have. But, if I'm right, everyone will come out of this ahead, including them….There’s a consensus, based on a simple thing that seems self-evident, but it has been tested and it has been proven successful by numerous urban planning studies: the best way to improve a downtown area is to get more people to live there. And, the best people are all people, a mix of rich and poor.”

Skeptics and optimists for downtown projects abound: If built and occupied, the units would boast views of the state Capitol Building to the south, and Budd Inlet and the Olympic Mountains to the north. Even after an eventual sea-level rise takes over, the top floors may still have a view, unless liquefaction from the Big One brings it down first.


For more information about the proposed project, contact Steve Friddle, Principal Planner, Community Planning and Development, City of Olympia, (360) 753-8591 or sfriddle@ci.olympia.wa.us.
 

Written comments about the project are due by 5:00 p.m. on March 28, 2014 and should be directed to Steve Friddle, City of Olympia, Community Planning and Development, 601 4th Avenue E., P.O. Box 1967, Olympia, Washington 98501-1967. The proposed Columbia Heights project file number is 14-0015.

 

The City of Olympia website address is www.olympiawa.gov
 

To learn more about the New Moon Cooperative Café, go to the Summer 2013 issue of the South Sound Green Pages, “Cooperative Model,” at www.oly-wa.us/greenpages.

 

Above: Steve Friddle, principal planner for the City of Olympia, explains the proposed Columbia Heights land use application last night at Olympia City Hall.

 

Proposed Hilton on Henderson Concerns Neighbors

Above: At a community meeting last night, Wildwood Neighborhood Association members look over the proposed plans for a Hilton Garden Inn on Henderson Boulevard.

By Janine Unsoeld

www.janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com

Members of the Wildwood Neighborhood Association came out in force last night to learn more about a land use application recently submitted to the City of Olympia for a proposed Hilton Garden Inn. The public meeting held at city hall allowed citizens to ask questions of city staff and representatives for the hotel applicant, Capitol Hospitality, LLC.

The construction of the 122-unit hotel on Henderson Boulevard near Watershed Park is proposed to be five stories and is expected to provide 115 parking spaces and employ 25 people.
 

Janae Huber, president of the Wildwood Neighborhood Association, submitted a three page letter to the city citing numerous concerns about the project. The association of 200 households borders I-5, Capitol Boulevard going toward Tumwater, Moss Lake, Trillium Park, and Watershed Park.

Various property owners have come and gone over the past few years for this parcel, and development proposals have included office buildings, restaurants, multi-family dwellings, and a hotel, the latter of which resulted in the clearing of the property and the building of a roundabout on Henderson Boulevard. The clearing of the property has caused the neighborhood additional noise pollution from I-5.

Neighbors asked questions regarding construction and operations noise, traffic impacts, stormwater plans and environmental impacts to nearby trails, Watershed Park, Moxlie Creek, and Moss Lake, signage and light pollution, building design and color schemes, and more.

Leonard Smith of PacWest Engineering represented the applicant, who was unable to attend the meeting. Smith said that he was pleased to have this level of interest in the property.

"We want to hear your ideas, comments and concerns and we will give them serious consideration - we're here to listen," he said. Regarding the current noise pollution, he said that the hotel, when completed, will in fact act as a noise buffer. Neighbors were polite but weren't quite buying it.

 

Above: The view of Olympia as seen from the bridge over Capitol Way of I-5, heading north near Exit 105. The Eastside water tower can be seen in the distance. The trees on the right border the Wildwood neighborhood and are in the area of the proposed Hilton Garden Inn. Neighbors are concerned about the hotel's height, signage, visibility and impact on neighborhood homes.

 

Another citizen asked about the noise from refrigeration trucks that need to run all night in the parking lot. Hotel representatives said they don't see that being a problem.

Don Johnson of DJ Architecture said that the facility will be a business-class, high-end facility that is typical of other Hilton Garden Inns around the country and will include a pool, restaurant, a small bar and lounge, and fitness facility for its guests.

The Hilton Garden Inn website lists six other Garden Inns that have recently opened, and 14 more are listed as upcoming, located throughout the United States, Turkey, the Russian Federation, China, and India. It also says, "All Hilton Garden Inn locations strive to be involved in our local communities."
 
Asked by another citizen why Olympia needs another hotel, representatives referred to the city's zoning and wishes of the city council to allow growth in this area.

Johnson said that it has been determined that there is a shortage of rooms in this area and added his opinion that "the hotels here are old and rundown, not the kind that people want to stay in." 

While Johnson said many of the building features are dictated by the franchise, he does have some flexibility when it comes to exterior colors. The colors on display at this meeting included "Super White," "Spectrum Brown," and "Whisper."

Geoff Glass, a representative of the Woodland Trail Greenway Association, expressed his concern that this area is the epicenter of the city's proposed trail network, and that it sounds like the hotel representatives have "lost the spirit of the benefit" of being able to develop in this area.

"Maybe you don't understand the benefit the trail has to Hilton - think about the connections - it's an amazing amenity for this building. Your collaboration with the city would be appreciated," said Glass.

In about three weeks, a city site plan review committee will review the project and make comments. City of Olympia senior planner Cari Hornbein said that after that review, staff will most likely have further questions of the applicant. She tasked herself, based on the comments heard, to continue researching the project's impact on parks and trails.
 
She also said the project must also be reviewed by the Olympia's Design Review Board, which is currently scheduled for November 14.

The city invites comments and participation in the review of the project. Comments and inquiries regarding the proposal, File Number 13-0089, can be directed to Cari Hornbein, City of Olympia Community Planning and Development, 601 4^th Avenue E., PO Box 1967 Olympia, WA 98501, or go to the city's website at  www.olywa.gov for more information.

Above: The roundabout on Henderson Boulevard and a partial road and sidewalk indicate previous efforts to develop this property near I-5 and Watershed Park.

A letter submitted to the city from the Wildwood Neighborhood Association says, in part, "Critical nearby watersheds are little or not acknowledged in application materials. The neighborhood would like to see analysis of watershed impacts and significantly greater attention to water treatment and runoff during construction and operations" noting that Moss Lake is both a surface watershed and comprises significant area groundwater, and Moxlie Creek is a salmon-bearing creek.