First off, they took an exisitng building a renovated them. Points for no new construction to all you calling it ugly. If you live in a new building – even if it’s built green it’s less green than if you start with something already there and these have been around since 1960s. Second, no popcorn ceilings, laminate crap, fake counters or stuff generally guaranteed to need replacing in 2 years. 3rd, living in a house is VERY expensive. I would love to, but due to the expense of it, and some of us are trying to live within our means, we are moving into a condo. It is cost effective but not our dream, but that is what some people have to do. The rest of those cheap condos you see listed on the real estate sites right now are short sales. We know, we’ve had our agent check and we aren’t getting involved.

As for kicking people out of their low rent apartments, anyone on this site who lives in Seattle owns any property is guilty of that. If everyone wasn’t so eager to grab the over-inflated values of their homes in 2008 developers wouldn’t have been buying up all these places. But now it’s all so sad for the poor people who have been getting kicked out of their houses and apartments for the entire housing boom in Seattle. You know the term Skid Row was coined in Seattle, right? Your condo was most likely built on the site of a low-income apartment building that was torn down to make way for it, you just forgot…

If you don’t live in Seattle, yes it is true, $200,000 barely buys you a crappy 700sf condo in town. Or you can spend 2 hours in your car each way each day and pay $200,000k for a crappy 1500sf house. Your choice, but you will end up spending more money on gas anyway and you’ll never get the time back. I’ve been here 10 years and I still have a hard time with it.

Here’s what you don’t see when you pass by (and pass judgment on) the so-called “architectural abortion” that I live in: the developer is helping to get first-time buyers into Columbia City, where there are few other entrees at this price-point. Columbia City is a re-bounded neighborhood smack in the middle of the most diverse zip code in the country (according to the last U.S. Census). The people that live in my building want to live here and are committed to the ethic of building community. We are engaged with all of the people who live around and and want to further improve the neighborhood. The owners in this condo are a diverse lot that reflect the neighborhood; younger, older, gay, straight, and all races. The current building is a vast improvement over the grey-stuccoed POS that was its previous incarnation. The condos are beautifully finished on the inside. Have you seen what $200,000 gets you in Seattle? Comparatively speaking, at this price-point, these condos are among the best you can get, especially south of I-90.

In short, I would care more about your aesthetics if they were grounded in any kind of argument more substanital than “It’s not pretty to me.” Unless you can show me what you’re doing to remedy Seattle’s “architectural malaise” I’ll safely assume you’re just another shrill northside hipster with a stupid website to air your angst-ridden complaints to the world, backed with no action, and nothing more constructive to do than make fun of other people’s homes.

Grow up.

Re Pem: People make their homes inside a variety of building, some more horrendously designed than others. A lovely home can exist INSIDE just about any building. Commenting on architecture and the EXTERIOR everyone will have to look at for a long time might nudge the conversation towards improved (affordable) design.