Shameless Props to My Wife

Mrs. F has a great job with the Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association (DNDA), which is a non-profit in our neighborhood (she's got a great commute) where she works as a project manager for construction projects. Recently, she's been finishing up with the construction of an affordable townhome project (which caused a bit of a ruckus with NIMBY neighbours--who even called her a "bamboozler" at one point--but which has become a gorgeous model for affordable--and green-oriented--housing can be) as well as helping to oversee the overhaul of a neighborhood elementary school that's been shut down since 1989. One of our local free weekly newspapers, the Seattle Weekly, has an article in the new issue about this project. Here are the highlights:

Delridge is a neighborhood in transition, caught in the increasingly familiar Seattle act of balancing a culturally diverse, low-income population with the influx of first-time homeowners. Parks, family service centers, and authentic ethnic restaurants coexist with the new coffee shops and Bed Bath & Beyond that have recently sprung up. While construction workers are busy revitalizing the stately 1917 Cooper School, it isn't just the building that Fischburg hopes to save through renewed attention. As executive director of the Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association, Fischburg is out to transform the neighborhood itself. With a performance by the Seattle Symphony set to bring up the curtain on the massive renovation at the end of January 2006, the new Historic Cooper Cultural Arts Center isn't the typical solution to the needs of its surrounding population. [...] Most of the old school's features—chalkboards, lockers, and the grand wooden staircases that still seem to hum with the buzz of past voices—will be retained, even after part of the gym is converted into a green room to accommodate the actors who'll eventually perform in the 150-seat theater that used to be the auditorium. The nearly $12 million Cooper project, just one segment of a three-pronged venture that includes a food bank/resource center and the construction of affordable town homes, began seven years ago with money from the Department of Neighborhoods and the dream to open up West Seattle—not just to itself, but to the rest of the city. There should be a lot for the city to utilize. In addition to the theater, the ground floor of the school will feature recording and dance studios, a media lab, classrooms, and administrative office space for several nonprofit arts partners (like the Pacific Northwest Ballet and Theatre Puget Sound). The second and third floors will be devoted to reasonable ($380–$650 per month) live/work spaces for artists.

You can learn more about this project, the Croft Place affordable townhome project, and the food bank project (which just began demotion of the yucky old terriaki restaurant on its grounds this week) at the Three Projects | One Community web site. You might even think about making a donation. Mrs. F and I recently did--enough to get our names on seats in the Cooper School theater.