via hugeasscity
Cruising by Northgate Mall on I-5, the nearly completed Thornton Place evokes images of sci-fi outposts rising from the barren landscapes of distant planets. In reality, Thornton Place
is, in fact, a daring pioneer in a built environment that is likewise
hostile to human life. And the conversion of nine acres of asphalt into
the development shown in the photo above is phenomenal accomplishment: Thornton Place is Seattle’s first real transit-oriented development (TOD).
Aye, it’s a big one: 109 condos, 278 apartments (20 percent
affordable), a 14-screen cinema, 50,000 sf of retail, and a 143-units of
senior housing, along with a new daylit section of Thornton Creek. The block is roughly 600 feet square — about twice the length of typical Seattle block.
Ideally, it would have been better to break up the block with bisecting streets, though some folks
who object to the size of the project would seem to be under the
impression that everything you need to know about urban development can
be picked up from a few chapters of Jane Jacobs. Small-scale, incremental development is wonderful. But in some cases, big projects make sense, and Thornton Place is one of those cases.
Northgate has been targeted for growth by city planners for decades:
It is a designated Urban Center, a bus transit hub and future light
rail station area. But the existing car-oriented, single-use built
environment around the mall is a highly unappealing site for small-scale
mixed-used residential development — what developer would risk being
the lonely pioneer amidst a sea of big box and parking lots? In
contrast, a large project like Thornton Place creates a center of
gravity powerful enough both to keep itself alive, and to be a catalyst
for future adjacent development.
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| photo by Oran Viriyincy |
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