The Washington Trust for Historic Preservation has announced that the Seattle P-I Globe tops their 2009 list of endangered historic properties. The familiar, neon-lit globe was constructed by PACCAR and is a true landmark, currently sited above the waterfront offices of Seattlepi.com, the online daily that has replaced the newspaper which ceased its print edition earlier this year. There has been much discussion about the Globe's future, ranging from putting it in a museum (like the new Museum of History and Industry planned for South Lake Union) to returning it to its original site at the old P-I ...

During the Sound Transit DEIS process for East Link light rail, Sound Transit turned over comments from City of Bellevue residents to a consultant, regarding the Surrey Downs Mithun & Neslund Mid-Century Modern homes that the City of Bellevue previously identified as “historically and architecturally significant” properties.

This triggered  the Washington State Department of Archeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP) to conduct a study to determine whether the Surrey Downs homes would be “eligible” to be nominated to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).

DAHP determined that indeed, the Surrey Downs Mid-Century Modern homes are “eligible” to be nominated to the NRHP as a “historic neighborhood“.

That designation of eligibility puts 2 federal laws into play- 106 and 4(f), which essentially guide projects that utilize federal funds to “avoid” or heavily mitigate negative impacts on historic resources.

According to Joni Earl (at last week’s ST Board meeting), Sound Transit will be using $985 Million  in federal funds for ST2.

What this means with regard to the potential alignments being considered for the “B” and “C” sections of East Link has yet to be determined, but Sound Transit will have to comply with the federal laws to avoid negative impacts to both the Frederick Winter’s House on Bellevue Way, and now the Surrey Downs Mithun & Neslund homes, which according to federal policy, will be treated as if they are already on the NRHP list.

The laws specify that all possible alternatives must be studied to “avoid” historic resources when using federal funds.

Does this mean that the B7 alignment will have to be studied to the same percent of engineering that B3-Hybrid will be?  How would they know exactly what the cost, riderhsip, transit time, envitonmental considerations, etc, of  B7 would be if they don’t continue to study the B7 alignment to the same degree of engineering that they will be studying B3 Hybrid? How will they know which is better?

Otherwise, if they do not study B7 sufficiently, the ST Board will not be able to compare apples to apples…

The Seattle Transit Blog reports today that the Legislature has not funded a transportation project that, in STB’s opinion, would delay ST2 East Link Light Rail:

“March 25, 2009 at 1:30 pm

Legislature Blocks East Link

Today at 12:30, the state Senate Transportation Committee released their 2009-2011 budget proposed project list (see LEAP Transportation Document 2009-1, Highway Projects).

R8A, the I-90 HOV lane project that MUST be complete for East Link to be built, is completely missing. This blocks a $4.5 billion investment that we’ve already funded.

On the other hand, there’s plenty of money for I-405 widening, a project regional voters voted against in the 2007 Roads & Transit measure.

If no change is made here immediately, this decision will delay East Link, as well as up the price tag by hundreds of millions for every year of delay.”

Regardless, is there something we don’t know about the future viability of getting light rail across a floating bridge (never been done in the world)?

Is the Washington State budget so bad that delaying the project is necessary? STB doesn’t mention that because of the economy, Sound Transit’s tax projections are reported to be $2.1 Billion short. Click here

Are all of the East Link B segments so problematic (huge environmental concerns, condemnations, transportation & business impacts in Downtown Bellevue if B3 is utilized, historical impacts to numerous resources on the National Register of Historic Places & eligible properties, etc) that  none of them are affordable to mitigate?

Is it a glaring omission by legislators?

More to come…

A majority of the Bellevue City Council (Mayor Grant Degginger, Patsy Bonnicontri, Claudia Balducci, and John Chelminiak) have voted for utilizing an alignment (B3) for Sound Transit’s East Link light rail along Bellevue Way and 112th Avenue SE, that would require that the Winters House (see Eastside Heritage Center’s post #8, on map), a home on the National Register of Historic Places, be moved.

Moving the home would likely ruin its historical significance. It has yet to be determined if moving the home would be possible without destroying it. That could be a fatal flaw in the plan.

3 Council members- Dr. Don Davidson, Conrad Lee, and Phil Noble- voted to utilize the BNSF alignment (B7), which would not impact the Winters House.

Meanwhile, the Eastside Heritage Center (click here) has sent an email to Sound Transit during the DEIS comment period, asking for protection for the Historic home, as have numerous Bellevue residents and business owners.

Other sites recognized as architecturally and/or historically significant by the City of Bellevue that are potentially adversely impacted by the East Link project’s eventual preferred alignment are:

1. The Sacred Heart Church on Main Street (see Eastside Heritage Center’s post #5, with map), and

2. Numerous homes on the north end of the Surrey Downs neighborhood, which were designed by recognized architects Mithun and Neslund, and are quintessential examples of 1950′s Modernist architecture.

See the link to an organization that advocates for  Modernist architecture, docomomo-wewa here: http://www.docomomo-wewa.org/architects_detail.php?id=66

Also, here is the link to Historic Seattle‘s web page on advocacy: http://www.historicseattle.org/advocacy/default.aspx

The hybrid alignment the Council approved this week has not yet been adopted by the Sound Transit Board.