For me, this house has really nice proportions so the flatness stands out less. The window pattern really leans into the old rowhouse aesthetic.

Flat facades are especially ugly when a building has been arbitrarily broken up into senseless blocks. Yes, this is an anti-design review post.

Another way to add a tiny amount of depth is by installing a rainscreen. This detail pushes the siding off the exterior wall sheathing by 3/4". Not much, but it creates SOME visual difference. There are newer drainable house wrap products that have an integral rainscreen, but it's only 1 mm.

Pretty much all windows here have an integral nailing flange and are installed at the outermost layer of the wall to make a continuous drainage plane. When this is coupled with a lack of continuous insulation outboard of the structural sheathing, you get very flat facades.

Thanks Jason! I'm working on a more serious presentation to hopefully get the Seattle contingent of the ST Board interested, but our proposal is to run elevated all the way through downtown, SLU, and Seattle Center to Interbay. In theory this should cut the construction costs in half.

It seems like the Times is suffering from something akin to Who Was the President in 2020-syndrome

I recently saw that there's a coop EV carshare based on Bainbridge but they apparently have locations in Ballard.

Zev.coop

This should be a "yes, and" scenario.

Yes, we now allow more homes to be built on all lots, and we also still allow DADUs in rear yards! We should be opening more opportunities to build homes of all sizes and types.

@councilmember-amr.bsky.social

Why?

- You get a safer transit system if more people use and rely on it.
- $275k buys a bunch of service hours for more buses, more places, more often.
- This directly duplicates the county, which runs Metro.
- Voters didn't vote for this in the STM renewal, stop messing with what we vote for.

We haven't developed this level of technology yet. Maybe someday!

True! Hopefully state leg will maintain momentum to eliminate design review entirely.

Perfect Days

Aliens

Alien

I think it would be better to permanently eliminate design review! If we do a better job of incorporating urban form into our planning process, we wouldn't need to micromanage individual building design. That's likely a long-term effort. Sign me up for the rest of your recommendations!

Please! I've read the Chris Magwood book and pored over all the technical docs from ecococon as well as the few North American straw panel manufacturers. Now I need to build one myself.