What's a Woonerf?

I've been thinking South Lake Union has been missing something, but until now I couldn't quite point a finger to it. What's that you ask? Why, woonerven of course.

Blume Co. had a design review last night on its 780,000 sq. ft. biotech campus planned for Mercer & Yale. By far the most interesting part of the project is Blume and architect NBBJ's incorporation of a woonerf. What exactly is a woonerf? Here's the explanation from Blume's website:

The rough translation of woonerf is “street for living." Woonerven, the plural of woonerf, are more like piazzas than parkways. Children can play in the middle of a woonerf because they and other pedestrians have priority over automobiles. Cars are still allowed. But they must travel at walking speed as they navigate around trees, planters, bollards and other obstacles.

Woonerven not only are pleasant places to gather, they also encourage and reward sustainable commuting choices, such as bicycling and walking.

The woonerf would be Seattle's first. What strikes me from the renderings below is the similarity to Alley 24, also on Yale Ave (Alley 24 was also designed by NBBJ and serves as its headquarters).

Blume's woonerf might just be a continuation of what the REI parking garage bottleneck and Vivace foot-traffic have created out front of Alley 24. The one thing Alley 24 has going for it that Blume's campus will not, however, is the 172 apartment units on-site. The campus (map for Yale Campus South and Yale Campus North) is also much closer to the freeway by the Mercer on-ramp, which draws less pedestrian activity than the area surrounding Cascade Park.

In any case, it's great to see a developer integrate pedestrian-friendly ideas into their projects. If it's executed properly with good retail uses I'm sure the woonerf will be a hit.

Here's what Blume's Tara Raymond had to say about the project's status:

“We don’t have any signed leases and we are still in the planning stages,” says Blume’s Tara Raymond. “If we had a medical or biotech company come along that would be fine, or if one of Amazon’s partners came along, we would be thrilled.“ But will such a tenant be looking for spendy new digs in this mopey economy? “Actually, its interesting because the need [for office space] is there, unlike the residential decline,” says Raymond. “I actually think that things are getting better. Knock on wood, of course.”

Thanks SLOG.