A model by UW architecture student Michelle Kang shows her view of Union Street’s much larger, interconnected African American families being dispersed by smaller, isolated newcomer families.Image Courtesy Of Sharon Sutton

In my feature this week about a group of neighborhood activists who, in response to rapid gentrification in the Central District, are trying to buy a block at 23rd and Union, I interviewed UW architecture professor Sharon Sutton, whose students are helping their effort. What does architecture have to do with gentrification, exactly? According to Sutton, a lot.

"One of my dissatisfactions with what’s going on in Seattle in design right now is sites with many small properties are being massed into a single large building, which takes all the texture out of the city," said Sutton. "The reason why things come out looking so awful is because code has these maximum envelopes that are extruded forms on the site, and then the developers require architects to build almost to the maximum envelope, so there’s very little shaping of the building that’s allowed that anyone is willing to pay for."What's the reason? "Profit," said Sutton. "With the least amount of effort.".......Continue Reading

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