The opening of Blake House marks the city’s first high-rise affordable housing project in half a century.
Two new affordable housing communities, Blake House and The Rise on Madison, are opening in Seattle this spring, adding more than 350 new units to the city’s housing stock, reports Marc Stiles explains in the Puget Sound Business Journal.
Apartments at Blake House, developed by Plymouth Housing, are reserved for 55-and-ver veterans making less than 30 percent of area median income (AMI), and will include on-site health services. “Plymouth's partner on the $150 million tower — Seattle's first affordable high-rise development by a nonprofit in 50 years — is Bellwether Housing, Seattle's largest nonprofit provider of affordable housing and the operator of the 250-unit Rise on Madison.”
Units in The Rise will be available to residents making 50 to 60 percent of AMI, with rents ranging from $1,600 to $1,900. According to Stiles, “Various factors allowed the building to pencil, from the nonprofits contributing equity and Sound Transit donating the development site to the building not having costly parking, plus efficiencies derived from having one set of building systems for two projects.”
Read the full story: Seattle's first new low-income high-rise in decades opens on First Hill
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
If the state plays its cards right, it may be able to store a billion acre-feet of El Niño’s water in aquifers.
Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
In Texas, data centers are swallowing promised parkland
Residents who moved to Taylor, Texas for a rural community now have to contend with three data centers in their backyard.
How a Chicago-sized wind farm beat the odds and powered on
The project spanned five presidential administrations and a standoff with a U.S. military base.
MTA gives itself 30 days to transform pit into basketball court
The site has been under construction since 2022; the city originally estimated it would finish the court in 2024.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority