soon to be opened roosevelt station here in seattle, v. vienna's nearly completed sonnwendviertel.
where is the open space for roosevelt? where are the thousands of units of social housing? where are the kindergartens? the baugruppen?
soon to be opened northgate v. vienna's nordbahnhof district. all those buildings in nordbahnhof? 6-10 story bldgs, to the donau.
northgate drops to single family zoning in TWO blocks
which one has more open space? more affordable housing? is more walkable?
not seattle
$2B husky stadium light rail stn (no multifamily zoning within walking distance - but multimillion dollar single family houses) v. munich's domagkpark - 1,800 homes - half of them affordable. kindergartens. open space. work spaces...
could house a lot of people in montlake
future 130th st. light rail station - with virtually no land zoned for multifamily housing, situated between a golf course and a highway... v. utrecht's merwede - homes for 12,000. ample social housing. open space. parks. jobs. cafes.
just... WTF are we even doing.
148th st station in shoreline, v. freiburg's rieselfeld - a compact district w/ ample social housing, schools, kindergarten, library, open space...
which one is more walkable? which should we replicate?
rieselfeld isn't even on light rail - it's the end of a *tram* line
seattle suburb (mercer island) v. paris suburb (boulogne-billancourt)
y'all... they put the MF light rail station in middle of a very loud, inaccessible highway.
and then there's virtually no multifamily zoned land near the station.
this should be criminal
i mean... this is how *suburban* paris is being developed near TOD... we can't even do this in the *largest* city in the pacific northwest
it's sooooo awful. it's pathetic. it's unwalkable. it's not climate action - it's just a massive waste
we're gonna building light rail to ballard. instead of putting it where density is, shift it recently built *townhomes* - and we won't even see it open until 2035 🤣
here it is against incredible mehr als wohnen district in zuerich. a massive cooperative for 1200. open space!
we are blowing what may be largest light rail system under construction in the US - by locating stations in areas least amenable to legit car-light/free districts around them. we're getting very little social housing, no open space v. EU peer cities.
it's incredibly depressing
smith cove (future light rail station in brownfield - at present, will have zero housing) v. stockholm's hammarby sjostad (tram/bus/boat access): ~11,000 homes for 25k. work space for 10,000. blue-green infra. open space. shops...
le siiiigh
judkins park light rail station in seattle v. malmo's Bo01 (bike/bus!)
yet *another* ST station in the middle of a highway v. blue-green ecodistrict w/ 1,400 units, ample social housing, 50% open space, biodiversity, shops...
we apparently lack the ability to do this anywhere
lynnwood link extension (seattle suburb, 16 miles to downtown seattle. that's a lot of parking! 😱) v. heidelberg's passivhaus district, bahnstadt.
bahnstadt: family friendly. 3,700 homes planned/20% affordable. 6k jobs. open space. schools. direct access to nature (farmland) 😍
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30% of calc'd FAR of this back to back townhouse project is just... stairs
codes & regs & financing & poor construction quality make flats impossible at this scale
it's not insignificant. it's 1,300 s.f.
the opportunity cost of 4 separate townhomes over flats is basically an additional 3-BR unit.
imagine paying $850k for something like this - and knowing a third of your mortgage is just paying for stairs.
literally the dumbest sh*t i've seen in a minute.
this is exactly what harrell's comp plan is designed to induce.
it's not going to be affordable. it's not going to be accessible. it's going to continue to decimate biodiversity. it's going to reduce climate adaptation.