Updated to include comments from Mayor Mike McGinn and Council member Sally Bagshaw.
Today, at a press conference held at the Seattle Center, Mayor Mike McGinn announced his intention to move a controversial Chihuly glass museum and radio station KEXP studios to the Seattle Center campus, as well as launch a $10 million capital campaign to tear down the south bleachers of Memorial Stadium and open up 13 acres of green space to the public.
“It’s a big vision for what we sant to do with Seattle Center,” said McGinn. “We all know the financial reality we face in the city… [this project will be] big and expensive but that doesn’t mean we can’t take steps now. We want to make it more kid friendly, active vibrant, financially stable.”
The Seattle City Council must ultimately ratify the proposals, which seems likely. At the press conference, council member Sally Bagshaw, chair of the council’s parks and Seattle Center committee, vowed that the Chihuly museum would be in place in time for the Seattle Center’s 50th Anniversary celebration of the 1962 World’s Fair. “Chihuly will be ready to go,” she said. “We’re united in it, there are still some edges that have to be dealt with but by and large we’re ready to go and make this happen.” There have been public and city council reservations about the for-profit Chihuly museum because it has limited public benefit. That said, the new tenants stand to bring hundreds of thousands of dollars of annual revenue to the Seattle Center, a 74-acre site owned and partially operated by the city.
- Seattle Center
- Locations of Chihuly, KEXP, and new park space—click to enlarge
If approved by the council, it comes as no surprise that the Chihuly museum—backed by the Space Needle LLC and a truckload of wealth—will move into the controversial 1.3-acre south Fun Forest site in 2012. (The site sits adjacent to the Space Needle itself, making it a prime catering and event space for the Needle). But that victory didn’t happen without a few concessions—including a last-minute deal for the group to fund a 1,700 square foot Pacific Northwest artist retail gallery on the Seattle Center campus. And considering that the Seattle City Council must approve the center’s lease agreement before the Chihuly museum can break ground, City Hall sources say there may be more compromises to come.
The decision comes after ten months of debate, involving thousands of petitions, calls, and emails from the public to elected officials.
Read more about compromises, KEXP’s new digs, and the city’s plans for 13 acres of added green space—unless another local millionaire demands a museum of his own—after the jump.
Moving the Chihuly museum to the Seattle Center has been an exercise in compromise for the Space Needle—first came the million-dollar children’s park and free tickets for Seattle Public school children (more on that here). In addition to the Pacific Northwest artists’ gallery are the most recent changes to the museum’s proposal:
The city will receive eight percent of net sales of Chihuly art, starting in year six and running through the end of the lease.
The museum will landscape roughly 35,000 square feet of public space outside of its 55,000 square foot fenced site, adding 20-foot wide walkways to the north, south, and east of the site, as well as benches and at least two Chihuly sculptures for the public to enjoy (without having to pay for the privilege or peak through a fence).
The museum will also spearhead a watered down First Thursday event so-called Center Nights program, “a regular open house where all the organizations on campus are driving people to the center,” said Ron Sevart, CEO of the Space Needle. Through this program, the museum will distribute “10,000 to 15,000 free tickets a year” to people who can’t afford the estimated $12-$15 ticket price.
Now here’s what Chihuly museum backers haven’t yet committed to, but city council members are likely to press them on before approving a lease agreement, according to sources: showcasing artists other than Chihuly in the museum for at least two weeks out of the year—instead of simply shuffling them off into a PNW artists’ gallery—and honoring a free admission First Thursday night for the public as every other museum in Seattle does, including the Seattle Art Museum, the Seattle Asian Art Museum, the Experience Music Project, the Science Fiction Museum, the Henry Art Gallery, the Museum of Flight, the Museum of History and Industry, and the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture.
- KEXP
- The Northwest Rooms, reimagined by KEXP (facing 1st Ave N)
Meanwhile, KEXP would move into a concrete building on the Queen Anne edge of campus, next to the Key Arena and the Vera Project on Republican Street and First Avenue N. At nearly 28,000 square feet, the space eclipses KEXP’s current 6,000 square foot building on Dexter Avenue N, although Tom Mara, the station’s executive director, admits that the building needs work. “Right now they call that area the blockade, the Berlin Wall,” said Mara, “but we hope to replace the concrete walls with windows so people can walk by and see live performances, take tours, and really experience how we curate.” Mara added that in addition to an in-studio space that will accommodate “multitudes of dozens of visitors,” KEXP plans to build an adjacent outdoor stage to host a portion of their 400 live, local performances each year. “Our goal is to open up the space and become really great neighbors with the Queen Anne neighborhood, said Mara.
The extra space will also allow KEXP to reach listeners through a host of new avenues—from offering video and audio recordings of live performances to Seattle Public Library patrons, to broadcasting performances on the Seattle Channel, to collaborating with the Experience Music Project on future projects and exhibits. “Through this space and these partnerships, we can connect more people to good music,” said Mara. “Ultimately, that’s our mission.” The station is negotiating a 30-year lease agreement with the Seattle Center for an annual rent of $290,500 ($62,500 in cash; $228,00 provided through on-air spots for the center). The Seattle Center hopes to have a lease agreement to the Seattle City Council for approval by March of next year. Once approved, Mara said the station will start fundraising for the project (“No amount has been set,” he added, “We need to speak with our architects first.”). Seattle Center director Robert Nellams said the station would join the campus in 2013, at the earliest.
With the Chihuly museum and KEXP slated for the Seattle Center, what’s missing from the picture is the green space many individuals and organizations—including rivals for the Fun Forest site Open Platform and Friends of the Green—were calling for. Nellams said that, too, is in the works. The Space Needle LLC has already committed to funding a million-dollar playground on the campus, which is slated for Center Square, a three-acre asphalt site tucked between the EMP, Memorial Stadium, and the monorail platform (the same space that will temporarily host a big-ass Ferris wheel starting next April). “We’re putting together a Center Space task force to look at how we can take that million dollars and create an open, public sustainable space,” said Nellams. The task force will also examine how to best tear down the south stands of Memorial Stadium to open up nine additional acres—for a total of 12 acres of public green space. From there, the center would launch another bidding process to develop the land. “We had a lot of conversations with Open Platform about their concepts, many of which we want to see done,” said Nellams. “Open platform could absolutely bid.”
The center estimates such a project would cost $10 million to develop—five million for Center Square and another five million to tear down the stadium wall. Nellams said Jeffrey Wright, whose family owns the Space Needle, has committed to serving on the task force and spearheading fundraising efforts. “We anticipate having the task force formed in the first half of next year,” Nellams added, “with the hope of seeing movement [on this project] in October of 2012—after the 50th anniversary celebration of the World’s Fair.”
Pacific Northwest artist retail gallery? Jesus. They really have no clue, do they? They should just sell the whole thing and turn it into a mall.
Ah, I’m okay with the compromise. At least we get KEXP and additional green space.
Remember when people opposed the monorail because its proposed passage through Seattle Center would “destroy” the “sacred space” or some shit like that? I guess all this is okay though…
I’m very OK with how this turned out at the moment, compared to the abortion that was v1 of the plan before we all raised hell.
Wise king Solomon you are, Mr. Mayor.
So, when the city pays lip service to “helping Pioneer Square” (home of numerous privately-owned retail art galleries), but then turns around and builds a competing city-owned retail art gallery on the other side of town, how is that not a big “fuck you” to Pioneer Square?
OK, I recognize that the museum is controversial, but the site where it’s moving is not controversial, it’s just a site. There’s a lot of legitimate drama and discussion going on here that isn’t well served by you throwing around the word “controversial” every other sentence.
Harumph.
@6, it strikes me not as a “fuck you”, but as an actual fucking.
Manufactured outrage was manufactured.
I feel like they took the time to hear everyone’s concerns and are trying to give something to everyone. This seems like a solid compromise all around.
What about Will in Seattle’s Northwest Indian theme park idea, complete with the ‘Scalperama’ where tourists got to walk through a room of semi-conscious drunk natives with knifes asking for hand outs? Or did the denizens of Steinbrueck Park protest against the proposed competition?
is anybody really surprised about mayor McSchwinn’s choice here? i think not. kexp gets a bone, the pirate gets a bigger bone and we the people get a green space. thanks beardo…@6 fnarf nailed it – small businesses, just go away! retail art gallery my ass.
please tell me KEXP will limit the begging for money over and over. to hear john richards and staff talking that shit reminds me wfmu is thee station to listen to (and kbcs locally).
Knives!
The “1952” World’s Fair? Apparently, some journalists are so set on being snarky that they forget to check dates and facts.
Huh, little bit of everything. Count me in the “at least we aren’t just getting a stupid glass museum” crowd.
As much as I would personally like to see Chihuly’s bloated, pompous corpse swing from the nearest lamp post, I can live with this. Good job, Mayor.
@14, No one reads the Stranger for actual facts.
That’s for journalists, not activists.
Seattle’s Worlds Fair was in 1962.
I help put on a large event in the Northwest Rooms every year, it will be sad to lose that space. I also have to question the loss in revenue for the city. KEXP is only going to pay $65,000 a year to rent that space, it must take in $20,000 or more each week currently in rentals for events, not to mention a lot of taxes and event fees, that seems like a big loss of money for the city. We will probably be forced to take our event outside the city of Seattle, as will a bunch of other conventions and festivals that currently use the Northwest Rooms. I like KEXP and all, it just seems like in tough budget times, now is not a good time for taxpayers to be subsidizing a radio station with deeply discounted rent rates.
politicians trying to please everybody, what a surprise!
what you should be asking is who are the losers? e.g. who’s in the KEXP building right now that will be kicked out? and where will the money for tearing down Memorial Stadium bleachers or renovating the KEXP building is going to come from?
Chihuly is as kitsch as Thomas Kinkade. I want my crappy fun park back.
Instead of raising 10 million to tear up the southern memorial stadium bleachers, why not raise 20 million to bring the seattle center arena up to code for use as a music and sports facility which would be of much greater utility than a little more green space.
@21, is the Arena even open? I thought it was boarded up since the earthquake? It’s just going to sit there forever and rot into the ground, right?
@18, good point about the Northwest Rooms. Small-scale meeting space is kind of hard to find around here. And those rooms do get heavily used. Where’s the record meet going to go?
Tukwilla/Southcenter and Bellevue is where most of cons have moved, you can get cheaper spaces to rent and those cities charge a lot less in fees and taxes. Which I hope McGinn thought out, it’s not just rental losses, there’s a lot of city taxes and fees added to every ticket sale when you hold an event there. All the revenue stream is going to get lost by the city. And the surrounding parking lots, restaurants, etc. up in that corner of the Center are already hurting since the loss of the Sonics at Key Arena. I like KEXP and think it’s the best radio station in the city, but I also think having a big central space people can rent out for 10-15K for the weekend for a convention or festival is an asset to the city in hosting a variety of events and brings in more revenue.
@14,17, My finger slipped. It’s been fixed.
Cienna, what about this statement?
The station is negotiating a 30-year lease agreement with the Seattle Center for an annual rent of $290,500.
According to the Seattle Times, however:
KEXP would pay the city $62,500 a year in rent.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/lo…
You’ll forgive me if I extend the assholes at the Seattle Times more credibility, as yours on this topic is completely shot.
But out of curiosity, where did you get your figures for KEXP negotiating nearly for nearly $300K a year? Their proposal wasn’t for nearly that amount.
@6 and @8 are correct. I love it when you guys figure out what happened.
@23 part of the Northwest Rooms was sold to SIFF for their new space. The rest was originally planned to be removed for a Monorail station, but will now be repurposed for a Light Rail station.
@26, from KEXP. The cash rent is $62,500; in-kind rent is $228,000 (provided from on-air spots and tags), for a total of $290,500.
Any idea where Bumbershoot’s going to go during this rebuild?
That’s what I thought. They arrived at some value for the number of times they plan to say “Live from Seattle Center” on air and claim it as in-kind rent.
In truth, they are paying $62.5K a year in rent, for 28,000 sq. ft of space.
That’s more square footage than the Children’s Museum (which is 22,000 sq. ft). The Children’s Museum pays $16K a month, nearly $200K a year.
KEXP got quite a deal out of this.
Time to investigate KEXP’s sweet heart deal !
@18 – you should watch the press conference before commenting because this was addressed. There is space near Center Square that will be converted to rentable meeting rooms that should capture more of this income.
Also, there is work being done on expanding the Convention Center, so expect more conventions coming to Seattle via that.
Will @28, if I didn’t know better I’d read what you wrote there as saying “will now be repurposed as a Light Rail station.” In Seattle Center. Where the Northwest Rooms are. You couldn’t possibly have said that though; not even you is THAT confused. So what did you really mean? Or do you really believe that Link Light Rail is coming to Seattle Center?
Spectacular, just spectacular commenting there, Mr. Affleck-Asch.
KEXP got a great deal and an excellent location. In addition to neighboring SIFF and Vera, that corner of Seattle Center is a lot more accessible to Lower Queen Anne than the urban dead zone around the Space Needle.
Haha, wow, leave it to folks in the comments to take what the rest of the city is seeing as a positive and turning it into the WORST THING EVERRRRRR
@33 Believe me I know what I’m talking about, we’ve been talking to the Center directly since the announcement came out. Those other rental spaces won’t work for most of the larger festivals and conventions that currently use the Northwest Rooms. There are other spaces on the Center grounds that might be usable, but they will need modifications and they aren’t sure they want to spend the money on them. The Northwest Rooms have a great load in situation for big events, a loading area where large trucks can back in less than 50 feet from double doors. The Exhibition Hall would work for more events if it was modified to have street level load in. There’s other requirements for some of the other spaces including being forced to higher security to police the load in areas. I think this is a sweetheart deal for KEXP, and like I said I like the stations, even though I think radio is about dead. But I think there will be a big loss of revenue for the city on this at a time when taxpayers can ill afford it. I prioritize police, libraries, schools and hospitals over subsidizing a radio station.