A West Seattle neighborhood is being transformed

On the west side of the long arterial were blocks of single-family homes. On the other was a sprawling, barrackslike low-income housing project known as High Point, run-down and crime-ridden.


		Paul Joseph Brown / P-I
	William McKnight walks to his apartment in High Point, a new development in West Seattle. McKnight moved into the once-shabby area in February.

But the old High Point exists no more. While the street remains, it is no longer a visible divide between haves and have-nots. Today, High Point blends into the surrounding communities and provides neighborly amenities such as open space, sidewalks, P-patches, parks, a pond and even platforms to enjoy striking views of downtown Seattle and Elliott Bay.

The first tenants of the redeveloping High Point, most of whom have incomes at 30 percent or below the region's median income, have been moving into landscaped blocks of differently hued, variously styled duplexes, apartments and townhouses with energy-efficient appliances, small back yards, sunlit porches and low, shared fences.

"It's very nice and quiet; I feel really safe here," said Anna Le, 28, who moved into a new High Point apartment two weeks ago with her 70-year-old mother. Le attends school and cares for her mother, who is physically disabled.

Le, a Vietnamese native who, like her mother, became a U.S. citizen years ago, looked out her window at one of many old trees saved by project planners and said, "Moving is hard; I want to stay. So far, everything here seems to be so good."

Their apartment is among the 600 rental units being built and operated by the Seattle Housing Authority, and funded with help from $37.5 million from the federal Hope VI housing initiative. About 384 units are designated for residents who earn 30 percent or less of the Seattle-Bellevue area's median income, or $23,350 for a family of four, while 252 units are deemed "work-force housing" for families earning 60 percent or less of the area median income, or $46,740 for a family of four.

With Phase 1 nearly complete and Phase 2 under way, the 120-acre site of former Army barracks dating from 1942 has been transformed into a colorful landscape of low-income rentals, market-rate rentals and homes for sale -- a mixed-income plan intended to blur the distinction between socioeconomic groups and counter the public housing strategies that in past decades produced generic-looking pockets of poverty.

By 2009, about 1,600 homes ranging in size from 700 to 2,700 square feet are to be completed, creating a neighborhood of about 4,000 people. Completed buildings include Elizabeth House, a home for seniors owned and operated by Sisters of Providence, and some of the 35 rental units designed for low-income tenants with asthma.

Habitat for Humanity plans to build eight housing units near a budding neighborhood center and park complex that will include a basketball court, a picnic shelter with a green roof and an artificial hill ("a high point within High Point") so folks can hike to see the Seattle skyline and Elliott Bay in the distance.

Half of all the housing in High Point will be market-rate homes -- mostly homes for sale -- that will range in price from about $200,000 to $500,000.

"We can't make community happen, but we can support it; High Point has been a great chance to figure out what community can be," said Brian Sullivan, lead architect for the High Point redevelopment project. A 30-year community planner and Boston native, Sullivan is a senior associate with Mithun, a Seattle architectural firm known for its environmentally friendly designs.

Sullivan met with High Point tenants willing to wait out the construction as well as other West Seattle neighbors to get their opinions. He said it was no small feat to design the community-desired farmhouse and "prairie-style" homes, provide the needed housing density and urban-village format, while building to Seattle city codes.

"They have spared tenants the homogeneity of older housing projects," said Virginia Felton, spokeswoman for the Seattle Housing Authority. "High Point doesn't feel like just every other neighborhood."

Streets in the development are slanted toward landscaped swales that capture, hold and clean water before it is channeled through landscaped terrain to a retaining pond. The elaborate system is designed to clean and control stormwater runoff to protect the salmon runs and water quality of nearby Longfellow Creek.

Some of the streets feature public art, such as swirled "raindrops" etched in the concrete.

"To make it all work was a challenge," Sullivan said. "It was one of the most intensive civil engineering projects, in terms of residential housing, that I've ever been involved with. ... But it was intentional on our part, to create a human scale and to be environmentally sensitive. At the end of the day, it will be a great neighborhood where people really want to live."

That is happening already.

Felton said demand is such that homes are being rented and sold as they are completed. Most High Point tenants displaced by construction have been living in the "barracks" now slated for Phase 2 demolition, she said.

April and Marvin Myres both spent their mutual Monday off standing on the porch of their new rental, watching their kids dash across the lawn wielding toy swords. Usually, they stagger their work hours to spare child care costs.

"It feels more family-oriented" here than their previous home in Delridge, said Marvin, a construction and warehouse worker and student hoping to earn his certified nursing assistant license.

"It's very serene here; there's no loud music, just kids running around," said April, who works at a bank and is attending school to become a nurse.

Their son, 10-year-old Andrew, dressed in a black cape, trained his sword on his brother Jordan, 6. He summed things up when asked what he liked best about his new home.

"Everything," he said.

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