Meanwhile, Just Down the Street...

Once a charming cottage, now parking.

Construction on the new Covenant House isn't the only activity happening in the Downtown stretch of A Street. A block away, an old cottage on 6th and A that housed a small Russian Orthodox museum in the last decade was recently demolished. Upon noticing the disappearance of the oddly shaped cottage, my excitement kicked in as I fell under the presumption that a new larger building will fill its spot, but I guess I should have known better. Earlier this week the site was paved and yellow parking lines were added :(  This is at least the 6th building in Downtown Anchorage to be demolished for parking in the last 5 years. Among the more famous buildings to be demolished since 2007 were the Alaska Experience Theater, and of course, Wings n' Things, which sat at the corner of I and 6th and was a chicken wings institution for decades before its sudden closure which left many fans baffled. It's embarrassing that we demolish buildings that house people so we can have a place to house machines. Not to get deep, but the destruction of the cottage for parking is a sad commentary on where our priorities are when it comes to urban planning. I'd much rather we kept the cottage...

The corner of 4th and A.

But all is not lost! Three blocks down, again on A Street, a lease sign showing a classy upscale building has been placed on what has long been an empty site across from Fire Station 1 on 4th Avenue. The sign is a little confusing though as the artist rendering shows the buildings length going down A Street, which does not make sense. The top half of the block is already occupied by a building while the bottom half, which runs along 4th Avenue, is empty and for which I would assume the new building would be placed. In other words, that should say 4th Avenue rather than A Street. But whatever the minor mistake, in the end, I love this building. A number of signs have been posted throughout Anchorage in the past showing exciting new buildings only for them not to materialize -- I really hope this building avoids becoming another statistic and instead becomes a reality.

6th and A, before it became parking.

Rendering of what may be built on 4th and A.