Friday, December 12, 2014

November in Seattle






These photos were taken in Sodo in November 2014.  Sodo stands for south of downtown & is also spelled SoDo & SODO.  It is the part of the Duwamish Industrial Area south from the Stadium District to Georgetown, between Beacon Hill & the Duwamish River.  It is a place filled with trucks, trains & old warehouses.  There are also stores, restaurants serving lunch to the people who work here & very few residences.

November 2014 in Seattle was slightly warmer & significantly drier than normal.  The mean temperature was 46.  The normal mean temperature is 45.4.  Total precipitation was 4.84 inches.  Normal precipitation is 6.57 inches.  The highest temperature was 62 on 11/6.  The lowest was 23 on 11/30.  There was 1 day with heavy rain, 5 days with rain, 15 days with light rain, 1 day with light snow, 16 days with fog (2 of them with visibility at less than 1/4 mile) 15 cloudy days,  7 partly cloudy days & 8 fair days.  November 2014 had an unusually high number of fair days.  There was a cold spell  of 7 days with lows between 28 & 32 from 11/12 to 11/18.  These days were 6 to 9 degrees below normal for each of those days.  Then 0.8 inches of snow fell on 11/29.

This is the last post on the weather in Seattle.  Future posts on various topics will be scheduled on the 1st Friday of every month.       


Friday, December 5, 2014

McGilvra Place

Bullitt Center in January 2014

 McGilvra Place in January 2014.  The trees are Platanus acerifolia (London Plane).

McGilvra Place in January 2014

Here you can see where they cut through the original retaining wall.

Here is a bioswale in front of the Bullitt Center where 15th Avenue used to exist.  All photos were taken in January 2014.

McGilvra Place is a small, tree-shaded triangle at the intersection of E Madison Street, E Pike Street & 15th Avenue.  McGilvra Place was created in 1901. The small triangle of land was named after John J McGilvra, whose home was on Lake Washington at the end of the road which became E Madison Street.  McGilvra Place was redeveloped in the spring of 2013.  The original park was lawn above a low concrete retaining wall, with 11 London Plane Trees (Platanus acerifolia) between the curbs & sidewalks.  The small stretch of 15th Avenue was closed to traffic & integrated into the existing park with paving & planting, partly as a bioswale.  Cuts were made in the retaining wall to allow stairs & a path through the center of the park.  Lawn was replaced with native plants.  Benches were set in place.

The Bullitt Center had been completed next to McGilvra Place in April 2012.  The Bullitt Center was designed to be the greenest commercial building in the world, energy & carbon neutral, with a water & sewage processing system that allowed the building to be independent of municipal water & sewage systems. Energy neutrality was achieved with a large solar panel array on the roof of the building, along with energy conservation measures that cut the building's energy consumption to approximately a third of a typical office building of similar size.
During the redevelopment of McGilvra Place, great care was taken to protect and celebrate eleven century-old London Plane trees on the site. Other improvements include transforming an adjacent street to a public plaza, replacing turf with native vegetation, installing park furniture made of reclaimed timber, and providing improved accessibility to the site. Construction began in February 2013 and was completed in April 2013. - See more at: http://www.bullittcenter.org/field/mcgilvra-place/#sthash.QF1I0Hh3.dpuf
During the redevelopment of McGilvra Place, great care was taken to protect and celebrate eleven century-old London Plane trees on the site. Other improvements include transforming an adjacent street to a public plaza, replacing turf with native vegetation, installing park furniture made of reclaimed timber, and providing improved accessibility to the site. Construction began in February 2013 and was completed in April 2013.
The project was undertaken through a public / private collaboration between Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation, Seattle Department of TransportationSeattle Parks Foundation and the Bullitt Foundation.
- See more at: http://www.bullittcenter.org/field/mcgilvra-place/#sthash.QF1I0Hh3.dpuf
 
During the redevelopment of McGilvra Place, great care was taken to protect and celebrate eleven century-old London Plane trees on the site. Other improvements include transforming an adjacent street to a public plaza, replacing turf with native vegetation, installing park furniture made of reclaimed timber, and providing improved accessibility to the site. Construction began in February 2013 and was completed in April 2013.
The project was undertaken through a public / private collaboration between Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation, Seattle Department of TransportationSeattle Parks Foundation and the Bullitt Foundation.
- See more at: http://www.bullittcenter.org/field/mcgilvra-place/#sthash.QF1I0Hh3.dpuf
During the redevelopment of McGilvra Place, great care was taken to protect and celebrate eleven century-old London Plane trees on the site. Other improvements include transforming an adjacent street to a public plaza, replacing turf with native vegetation, installing park furniture made of reclaimed timber, and providing improved accessibility to the site. Construction began in February 2013 and was completed in April 2013.
The project was undertaken through a public / private collaboration between Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation, Seattle Department of TransportationSeattle Parks Foundation and the Bullitt Foundation.
- See more at: http://www.bullittcenter.org/field/mcgilvra-place/#sthash.QF1I0Hh3.dpuf
During the redevelopment of McGilvra Place, great care was taken to protect and celebrate eleven century-old London Plane trees on the site. Other improvements include transforming an adjacent street to a public plaza, replacing turf with native vegetation, installing park furniture made of reclaimed timber, and providing improved accessibility to the site. Construction began in February 2013 and was completed in April 2013.
The project was undertaken through a public / private collaboration between Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation, Seattle Department of TransportationSeattle Parks Foundation and the Bullitt Foundation.
- See more at: http://www.bullittcenter.org/field/mcgilvra-place/#sthash.QF1I0Hh3.dpuf