Living Here in Allentown

I was listening to Weekday, one of the discussion shows on KUOW (our local newsy NPR station) on Friday, with host Steve Scher's weekly roundtable discussion with several Seattle journalists, and he jokingly asked if the Seahawks made it to the Super Bowl, did that make Seattle a "world class city?" All said no to one degree of jokiness or another.

Well, the Seahawks did the improbable tonight--they made it to the biggest stage in the world. And I certainly agree with the assessment that success in the sporting arena does not make a city world class. And Seahawk owner Paul Allen (who also owns the basketball Trail Blazers down in Portland and is a cofounder of Microsoft) would probably have some agreement with that sentiment. Which brings us to Allen's other projects at remaking Seattle into a shining city on the bay for the 21st century via this feature from the NYTimes on Saturday. Here are some highlights:

As an investor, Mr. Allen, who founded Microsoft with Bill Gates, has had a kind of reverse Midas touch, losing billions on ill-fated ventures. But it is a different story in Seattle, which some here are calling Allentown, a nickname that cuts two ways, inciting both hope and fear. Seattle's major institutions are being drawn to Mr. Allen's vision of a new-century city built around compact urban living and a biotech job engine that some officials suggest could one day rival that of the Boeing Company, which still builds planes here.

At a time when many cities are trying to find their footing in the global economy, Mr. Allen is redesigning whole parts of Seattle with the help of what could amount to almost a billion dollars in public investment. The city, known for airplanes, software and coffee, is moving swiftly into a role as a place whose monied elite promote philanthropy, global health and the life sciences - gambling on a new economy that some worry may never materialize.

[...]

His company, Vulcan, is trying to build a biotech hub and housing for 10,000 or more. Nearby, researchers in white lab coats study frozen 56-day-old mice as part of the $100 million Allen Brain Atlas, an effort to go where no neuro-cartographers have gone before.

And the $240 million museum he set up to honor the hometown hero Jimi Hendrix will take a step into the visual arts this spring, becoming - for a time - a showcase for rarely seen paintings by Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh and Picasso, among others.

[...]

In the South Lake Union area just off downtown, he plans to build 10 million square feet - the rough equivalent of a dozen 50-story towers - of condos, European-style alley-fronted homes, biotech and medical research facilities, hotels and retail space, with a trolley car connecting it all. The projects are ahead of schedule, with the cluster of condos built around a luxury hotel, Pan Pacific, and a Whole Foods store set to open later this year.

The words "Rethink Urban" and the eco-friendly phrases of "sustainability" and "authenticity" and "urban sanctuaries" are used in almost every presentation of what Mr. Allen is trying to do with the 60 acres he owns in South Lake Union.

The South Lake Union plan also includes a retirement home, moderate-income apartments, a big new park, and medical research facilities drawn to the magnet of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, a non-Vulcan property that moved to the area before Mr. Allen began to build.

Allen's interest in rebuilding the South Lake Union area of Seattle began with his support in purchasing properties for the failed Seattle Commons project that percolated in the mid 1990s, which would have replaced the existing light industry/small business neighborhood with a New York Central Park like green area surrounded by housing and retail that would have provided the major funding. It fell apart due to questionable financing schemes (much like those of the monorail panacea, which was also headed by the Commons main man, Joel Horn). But with Allen not beholden necessarily to voter approved financing (but still beholden to the free market, which will be the big test especially with his focus on biotech), his goal of creating an urban village may have a better chance at coming to fruition.