Skip to content

Protecting Neighbourhood Character While Allowing Growth? Pike/Pine Conservation Overlay District, Seattle, Washington. Planning Perspectives

Kuriyama, Naoko; Ochsner, Jeffrey Karl. (2021). Protecting Neighbourhood Character While Allowing Growth? Pike/Pine Conservation Overlay District, Seattle, Washington. Planning Perspectives, 36(6), 1195 – 1223.

View Publication

Abstract

The City of Seattle created the Pike/Pine Conservation Overlay District in 2009 to preserve the character of the Pike/Pine Corridor (neighbourhood) while simultaneously accommodating substantial growth in the number of residents and the size of buildings. Pike/Pine is known for its adaptively reused collection of early twentieth century 'Auto Row' buildings and for the diversity of its population. Since the year 2000, proximity to downtown has made this area attractive for development, and the city has designated Pike/Pine as a growth centre in its comprehensive plan. The city's implementation of the Pike/Pine Conservation Overlay District (one of the first uses of a conservation district in a commercial/mixed-use neighbourhood in the United States) seeks to address the conflict inherent in accommodating growth while simultaneously trying to protect older architecture, small-scale local businesses, and a diverse mix of housing. This article analyses the elements and impacts of this unusual district, considering its application of facade retention for townscape conservation as well as analysing its broad approach within the framework of integrated conservation. This article argues that the Pike/Pine Conservation Overlay District offers a useful case study for other cities looking to support growth while also retaining elements of the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]; Copyright of Planning Perspectives is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Keywords

Pine; Neighborhoods; Urban Growth; Twentieth Century; Transportation Corridors; Seattle (wash.); Conservation District; Design Review; Facadism; Historic Preservation; Integrated Conservation; Overlay District; Pike/pine Corridor; Seattle; Washington

2022 CBE Inspire Fund awardees announced

In 2021 the College of Built Environments launched the CBE Inspire Fund, designed to support CBE research activities for which a relatively small amount of support can be transformative. The second year of awards have just been announced, supporting five projects across 4 departments within the college as they address topics such as food sovereignty, anti-displacement, affordable housing, and health & wellbeing. This year’s awardees include:  Defining the New Diaspora: Where Seattle’s Black Church Congregants Are Moving and Why Rachel…

Rebecca Habtour

Research Interests: Designing built environments to enhance human happiness, and related principles: Justice, Nature Integration, Access, Identity, Well-Being, Resiliency.

Hyein Chae

I have a strong interest in urban conservation, which aims to enhance sustainability in old urban areas physically, economically, and socially. I would like to study management of changes in old (historic) urban areas, specifically focusing on creative approaches such as adaptive reuse projects, contemporary designs, and long-standing communities. In addition, I am also interested in urbanism issues in developing countries in East Asia, international preservation principals, gentrification, public places.

Helen Beck

My research is focused on the management of public park and recreation services in urban areas. I am particularly interested in the role of the modern green space manager and the way in which our public park services are delivered in the face of extreme poverty. Public parks are on the frontline in our cities responding to complex social and environmental challenges. This role is likely to get more important in the future. Short-term, broken window styles of park management that try to control and sanitize park use are not sustainable. I am exploring the application of an ethic of care to the delivery of park services, what this could entail and how this would change current practice.

Ziyang Liu

Research Interests: Urban resilience, disaster risk reduction, climate change, community engagement.

Keisha Bharath

Research Interests: Urban Sustainability Indicators, Small Island Developing States, Climate Change, Natural Resource Management, Urban Design.

Living Landscapes Incubator receives research funding

Living Landscapes Incubator is a recently awarded project led by School of Environmental and Forest Sciences‘ Joshua Lawler along with Co-Principal Investigators Dan Brown (Director, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences), Jen Davison (Director, Urban@UW, Assistant Dean of Research, College of Built Environments), Ken Yocom (Chair, Landscape Architecture; Interim Faculty Director, Urban@UW), and Mike Yost (Chair, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences). In the last year, the global pandemic and the restrictions that have followed have shown how important…

Urban@UW Publishes Report on the Lessons and Levers for University Collaborations with Governmental and Community Partners

Jennifer Davison, Director of Urban@UW & Assistant Dean for Research of the College of Built Environments here at UW, and Thaïsa Way, Founding Director of Urban@UW, current Director of Garden & Landscape Studies at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections, Harvard University, and Professor in UW’s Department of Landscape Architecture, have published a report titled, Lessons and Levers for University Collaborations with Governmental and Community Partners: A Synthesis of the Bullit Foundation’s Thought Leadership and Innovation RFP. This report, developed…

Qing Shen’s proposal among those selected for funding by PacTrans

The Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium (PacTrans) announced in January 2021 the project proposals selected for funding. Qing Shen, Professor of Urban Design and Planning and Chair of the Interdisciplinary PhD Program in Urban Design and Planning is among those selected for project funding. Shen is working alongside Co-Principal Investigator Catherine (Casey) Gifford–Innovative Mobility Senior Planner–on the applied research project titled “Supplementing fixed-route transit with dynamic shared mobility services: a marginal cost comparison approach”. The project goal is to address a…