Legislature Building Remodel Takes Shape

I was downtown today and just thought I'd snap a pic of the new facade going up on the western side of the Alaska Legislature building on 4th Avenue. This is the culmination after years in which the legislature looked around for a new place to do business. Eventually they settled on staying in their current digs but not without an extensive remodel. Originally the Interstate Bank building when it opened in the 1970s, the original facade had no windows. Later on some windows were punctured through, but they appeared more like peep-holes in the overwhelming concrete wall. In addition to the current remodel of the six story high-rise, the former Empress Theater next door was demolished so as to expand the footprint of the tower. Not many people realize that the Empress Theater building still existed for its original façade was replaced when the theater gave way to becoming a bank. Mark Pfeffer, the developer overseeing the project, wants to utilize a piece of the old theater in the remodeled building. LaBomba Shelter blog has great coverage on the fate and history of the old Empress Theater. I encourage you to check it out.

I suspect that the reason the original façade had no windows was because the developers of the building assumed that it would not be long before their new high-rise would be sandwiched between two other buildings of good height. With high-rises sprouting allover in late 60s/early 70s downtown (and midtown), it was inevitable, they may have reasoned, that high-rises would show up on 4th Avenue. In a way, this is kind of sad for the new glass curtain gives nod to the fact that any building of measureable height will not be built on the neighboring parking lot. I'm not saying I necessarily want high-rises, I think they're out of scale for 4th Avenue. But any building on that parking lot would be nice. Way back in the day, a three story building sat on the site of the present day parking lot.

While I'm at it, here's a look at another pipeline era building that recently got a face lift. Built in the 1970s, 909 Ninth Avenue once housed Union, then Unocal, and then Chevron in the later 2000s before being restored to host its new main tenant, NANA Corporation. I was most especially happy to see the building stripped of its gold tinted windows. Interestingly, the state legislature was looking at this building as a possible site for re-location before the deal fell through.

Low-rise Proposed for Midtown

Summer has returned (as have I), which means that another construction season is upon us. While this will not be a truly busy summer like that of 2008, when midtown saw the simultaneous construction of two 14-story towers, or the even more active summer of 1983 which saw two 20+ story towers go up in downtown, this summer at least looks to be better than some of our more recent ones. It may not be much, but for what it's worth, CIRI is building a new eight-story low-rise on the former site of the Fireweed Theater (newsflash to my outside readers: the Fireweed Theater was demolished) at the corner of Fireweed Lane and New Seward Highway. On the opposite boundary of midtown, there is currently a four-story office building going up just south of the newish Anchorage Neighborhood Clinic on C Street. Now it appears that Pfeffer Development, which earlier built two one-story buildings along 36th Avenue, may be getting ready to place a five-story low-rise between them. I cannot confirm that this will be built for it may depend on whether Pfeffer can secure tenants, but from what I've learned, the building will be called the AIDEA Building. A quick googling shows that AIDEA stands for Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority. So there ya go.

Architecturally, the building looks good. It kind of reminds me of 188 WNL, which of course is a compliment. If it went further and had ground-floor retail like WNL 188, I would be even more pleased. The good thing is the building is proposed to line up against 36th Avenue, with only a strip of landscaping separating the building from the sidewalk. This would run consistent with Pfeffer's other buildings on 36th which also come close to the sidewalk. In its immediate vicinity, this will be the "tallest" building as the nearby Tatitlek Corp. building and Denali Alaskan headquarters are each four-stories high. Again, just because these renderings are floating around does not mean it will be built. Keep in mind that Pfeffer Development was behind the Augustine Energy Center, a proposed 21-story tower for downtown that was to be the tallest building in the city but ended up falling through due to the Great Recession. Six years later, a parking lot continues to sit where the tower was supposed to be. Let's hope its five-story kid brother in midtown pulls through.

Spenard Adopts Two-Lane Plan

Spenard Road

Read all about it here. While the ADN refers to the plan as 3 lanes, it's really just two for the center turn lane really shouldn't be counted as a travel lane. For a neighborhood that likes to talk up its progressive credentials as a forward looking neighborhood, it's nice to see Spenard finally join the 21st century. Unlike bohemian neighborhoods in cities in the Lower 48, it's hard to take Spenard seriously when considering that it is surrounded by traffic going at 45 mph while the commercial heart of the hood is a strip mall surrounded by a sea of asphalt that is almost always packed with cars. And to top it off, much of the business community fought hard for many years against making the road safe for bicyclists and pedestrians. 'Embarrassing' would be my word to describe the current state of Spenard. Hopefully this is the start of more dramatic changes to come in the next several years.

btw while we're at it, here's a look back at a quick concept I drew up for Spenard a couple years ago.

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.