909 Ninth Avenue Makeover

The building as it looked this spring.

 For those who have not noticed, the old glass curtain of 909 Ninth Ave has come down and been replaced with a more appealing dark blue facade of glass. Work started this spring and finishing touches are currently under way. The building was built in the 1970s and housed Union/Unocal 76, a California oil company, until it merged with Chevron in the mid 2000's for which a Chevron sign adored the top of the building. After Chevron's Anchorage headquarters left the building for the new JL Tower in Midtown a couple years ago, the building had since sat empty. The Alaska State Legislature had taken interest in possibly occupying the building as it (still) looks to leave its small crammed 4th Avenue offices. Of course now former (as of this most recent primary election) state senator Linda Menard had particular interest in seeing the Legislature occupy 909 Ninth for she happens to own property right across the street from the building (which explains why that property had long displayed [and still displays] a Linda Menard sign despite the fact that her district is way out in the Valley). Now it appears that the NANA corporation will be taking over as the main tenant for which they have apparently decided that their new digs needs an update. And thank goodness for that. I had long thought that the gold tinted glass needed to come down as it just screams corporate 1980s Trump-esque glam.

Artist rendering of the new facade.

Facade work earlier this summer.

Juneau's Zoning Changes to Beef up Density

This is very impressive news coming out of Juneau. Juneau's assembly and planning commission are very much ahead of the curve here. From an article by the Juneau Empire:

“People may be surprised,” Chaney said. “Something may go up in their community that they hadn’t anticipated.”

The new code allows for apartments in general commercial and light commercial areas that can be “pretty large,” Chaney said.

However, the new codes and guidelines also mean new opportunity, Chaney said.

The new code smooths the transition from commercial to residential zones and allows for a significant increase in residential density. 

Also:

Willoughby developers can also benefit from “significantly reduced parking requirements,” Chaney said. A development’s parking requirements in Willoughby are now 60 percent below less congested areas, he said.

“A large amount of this district is occupied by surfaced parking lots,“ Chaney said.

New apartments and condominiums in the area “won’t have to build a huge parking lot,” Chaney said.

Read more here.

Fourth Avenue Cabin may Disappear, Along With its 100-Year History

Just wanted to forward this ADN article written recently about an old cabin that is under threat of demolition. Seems quite ridiculous that the cabin has to be demolished as a condition for the sale of the property, especially with our 100-year anniversary as a city approaching. Last time I was in the area (this last Sunday), the cabin was still there.

Title 21 Effects on Anchorage

Near Arctic & 36th Avenue.

For those following the process that Title 21 is going through with the Municipal Planning and Zoning Commission, you have every right to feel despair and hopeless. I know I do. 2012 marks ten frickin' years since the Title 21 rewrite initially got underway. And the goals and ideals outlined have since been filtered out, diminished, and in some cases outright eradicated. I understand that there must be compromise and was fine with the way Title 21 looked like by 2010, even with some of the goals and ideals gone. It was a long process, but in the end, the public got what it want, as did business. Since then, however, Title 21 has again been put through scrutiny, this time from the idiotic and cold-hearted Dan Coffey (I call him cold-hearted for what he said of the late Allen Tesche at a tea-bagger rally some time ago). Coffey's recommendations were so outrageous that most of them didn't even get the rubber stamp of approval from his good buddy, Mayor Sullivan. The recommendations that did survive, however, have gone on to be reviewed with seemingly no opposition from the planning and zoning commission. And to top it, the commission has thrown its own weight onto the rewrite, as the panel of members discussed eliminating the requirement of sidewalk access to commercial buildings, along with eliminating the requirement that sidewalks be on both sides of Anchorage streets. I don't follow the process terribly closely, so I don't know if these latest proposals are now set in stone or not. From what I understand, mixed-use districts have definitely been eliminated.

Anyways, I had meant to write just a brief blurb as a lead in to this editorial published in Sundays ADN, which is written by two real estate brokers concerning the commission's latest recommendations for Title 21. The co-authors end their editorial pondering whether future generations will be able to thank us for making Anchorage the way we thought it could be. I can tell you that nobody thanks the planners who ran Anchorage during the last 50 years. Will we be able to correct this? With Anchorage running out of land to expand on, the ad hoc mindset we have toward development will have to shift gears toward redeveloping what we have now. We are at a pivotal moment for this almost 100-year-old city, and we can't afford to mess it up.

Trouble at Augustine Tower Property

Inlet Inn hotel

Well what do you know, just a week after posting about the Augustine Tower that never was, an article relating to the property that the tower was to be built on has been published. In particular, there is trouble at the Inlet Inn hotel on the corner of 6th and H. For those who have paid attention, trouble at the inn is hardly a surprise. The numbers published in the article, however, do tell the story of just how bad it really is over there. The article provides some background information on the developers who own the property and how they had intended for the junky hotel to be non-existent by now and instead be replaced with the 21-story Augustine Energy Center. It looks like my suspicions were right about the economic downturn of 2008 being the reason for the Augustine project's death. The Augustine Energy Center was supposed to be completed in 2010.

Augustine Tower no More

Replacing the image of the proposed tower

Symbolizing the toll that the Great Recession has taken, the lease sign advertising the Augustine Energy Center in downtown Anchorage has been taken down after four years. It has been replaced with a generic sign from the developer advertising that just about anything can be built on the site now. It is henceforth to be known as the tower that never was. The Augustine Energy Center was to be a 21-story tower built on the corner of 6th and G Street, which is currently a surface parking lot and formerly the home of the Alaska Experience Theater (as noted in the previous post). In fact it's safe to say the theater was knocked down back in 2007 in anticipation that the tower would soon be built while a surface parking lot would act as temporary revenue. Those mid-2000's were good economic times after all, but the Augustine Center had the misfortune of having its blueprints drawn on the eve of economic destruction. Now I can't personally say that the economy is the sole reason for Pfeffer Development to pull the proposed tower as that has not been stated yet, but being that this project surfaced in 2008 of all years... Augustine Center is not the only project in downtown to have construction be eminent back in 2008 only for it to be cancelled.

Artist rendering of the building.

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.

New Covenant House - East Downtown

As seen from the corner of 8th and A.

I drive down A Street into Downtown Anchorage on a regular basis and thus immediately noticed the demolition of an old Salvation Army chapel and the erection of a sign showing a rendering of what was to be built in its place. Going at 35 mph, it's kinda hard to read what exactly was being built, but the quick glance I was able to get of the building made me think maybe it was new office space. A few days later I walked up to the sign to get an actual reading of what was going up only to learn of the grim news. Yes, Covenant House, the shelter for homeless runaway youth, is at full capacity and needs a new, larger home. Like the Neighborhood Clinic being built in Midtown (see earlier post), the new Covenant House apparently also needs more financial donations ($2M more) in order for the project to meet its completion. Among the top contributors so far for the project is First National Bank Alaska, the Gillam Foundation, and the Rasmuson Foundation. In seeking continued financial support, Covenant House has also launched a campaign called Our House is Full along with the website www.ourhouseisfull.org. Construction is taking place on the block bordered by A Street, Barrow Street, 7th, and 8th Avenue. If there's any bright spot to this new development, it's that the Covenant House will be located away from the more healthier west-end of Downtown. It seems over the years Town Square Park has become a haven for troubled youth, and it's safe to say that the location of the Covenant House right across the street from the park was a major factor in contributing to the erosion of the parks attractiveness. We'll be following up on this project as it continues its progress.

Demolition of the old building.

Seward Highway Reconstruction Begins

The good news: the Seward Highway will be elevated just enough for the Campbell Creek trail to actually go under the bridge. The "meh" news: the highway will be widened from four lanes to six starting at Tudor Road and going south to Dowling. Only those who get the most out of short-term relief will greet the latter as great news. For those who know better, the Law of Peak-Hour Traffic Congestion will come into play. The new lanes will indeed bring relief to rush hour traffic, but only briefly. As stated by the law, more lanes will only encourage those who had second thoughts about taking the highway on their commute to actually go ahead and use it, and thus quickly fill up the new space that the extra lanes provide. Once upon a time, the New Seward Highway (as it's called within Anchorage city limits) was the driver's savior from the Old Seward Highway. Gone were the frequent stoplights and low speed limit, and in was an expanse of road in which stoplights were absent and drivers can breeze by at 65 mph into and out of midtown. Today, traffic on the Seward Highway literally comes to a complete standstill at times during rush hour (as it does on the Glenn Highway), and cries are made by commuters for more lanes. The cycle will only repeat into the future. 

But hey, lets focus on the good news! As one of two major east-west trails crossing town, the Campbell Creek trail will finally have its missing link added. The highway, along with its frontage roads, will be raised to provide 10 feet underneath of lighted pathway for trail users down below. Currently, bikers have to dismount from their bikes and duck under a clearance of 5 feet while skirting along the edge of the creek. All told, this two-year project will have a price tag of 40 million dollars. Check out the ADN article for yourself. There's a lively discussion in the comments section below the article too.