(piano music)
I moved in for the architecture
because I thought it was the amazing place to live with lots of nice outdoor space.
What I didn't expect was the community.
It's so easy to just come out into the courtyard in the summer
and sit out here and have an impromptu barbecue to kind of share food.
You find details everywhere.
The the door handles, the crystal door handles,
the wood floors, the arches.
People would say this all the time.
It felt like a secret garden, like a total little oasis, in like vibrant Capitol Hill.
It's a challenging space too, right? Because,
it’s a challenge to have a front door that's entirely glass.
But then it also creates a little frame.
You see people coming and going.
You see the life being lived.
It's that kind of thing where the proof is in the pudding.
The building is designed to build community
and it just does that.
The La Quinta Apartments that was built in 1927
and it was built by a developer, Frederick Anhalt, who some may know.
He was very much known for his 1920s apartment buildings.
The La Quinta is more unique.
His style is what we call Spanish eclectic.
It started because we learned that the building was going up for sale
and because they owned the two houses next to this building,
we had nightmares of a giant apartment complex or something like that.
So none of us really knew how to do it.
So Samantha had started
on some links and connecting with people.
They put us in contact with Eugenia,
and so we could have a way to to know how to do this.
Once we saw the property and how special
it was, Historic Seattle decided that it was
something that was very much worth our efforts to help.
We were able to find the funding within our budget to have a nomination prepared.
It was kind of neat to see how people have come
out of the woodwork to to help save it.
I grew up on 17th and Denny,
my dad's building.
I learned to bike down this street here.
I remember crashing into a bush down down that way.
It was a very sort of integrated environment.
The fact that my dad owned it there was a couple, mixed couples.
It feels similar.
It still has like a Capitol Hill feel to it.
I mean, I think the gentrification has kicked in.
There definitely used to be, I think, more black folks around here.
Yeah.
So I grew up in nine and that was my bedroom.
I left this building.
You know, when I was seven, had no connection to it,
but just from living in Capitol Hill, making friends
and came to find people that have lived here again.
And I think it's that kind of place where people kind of knit together
pretty quickly. So
I just want to kind of go
over some of the process of the next steps and then what to expect.
So February 3rd is the hearing with the Seattle Landmarks Board.
Are you planning on
all doing verbal comments or somebody might do written or both or?
It's not always clear cut.
You know, so I'm, I'm a little nervous.
I would definitely work in,
what a benefit it is during
this pandemic too, right, to have this space.
- So much to say.
The residents were great because they, they were excited.
They wanted to participate and help somehow.
And so they all had different skill sets on their own.
One of the residents quickly created a really nice website,
which is awesome. Another resident is a graphic designer,
so she created a viva La Quinta logo and the poster and
and so it all kind of came together really well.
Several times we've talked about trying to make this happen
as a community, but not really knowing how to go about it.
So I think this time
it seems like with all of the support we're getting that it's possible.
As an architect, it's really nice to hear
when it feels like architecture actually has an effect on community.
And I think in this place
it obviously does with the community support.
-I move that the board approved the nomination.
- I second the motion.
- Approved. - Approved.
- I approve. - I approve.
- And I also approve.
We did it.
(joyful music)
Cheers, congratulations. Yay!
I've been here 17 years.
And it's not just
a certain group of people.
It's whoever lives here.
So that's pretty amazing that it keeps kind of fostering
the same sort of community and interaction.
The space creates community.
So, I mean, I don't know a single person in the city that has that in the way
that La Quinta has that.
- Moving here showed me how important architecture is.
Now I really appreciate how buildings actually
move people through
space, how they bring people together or keep people apart,
how negligent design can just for no fault of its own,
you know, squash community and something really intentionally designed
like this can build it.
(joyful music)
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