Buildings of the UW's Seattle Campus, part IIA: North of West Campus

Dear Diary,

Two days ago, on November 1st, I went back to what turn out to be nineteen total buildings shown on the University of Washington's official map as between NE 41st and 47th Streets and 9th and 15th Avenues NE.  The southernmost four of these buildings are surrounded, on the map, by colouring that implies that they're considered part of West Campus; the rest aren't.  But all of these buildings have in common that they're north of places that are certainly parts of West Campus.

West Campus in general is the most urban part of the UW's Seattle campus.  It has, for example, more traffic lights than the other three parts put together.  This area, not belonging to West Campus proper (except those four buildings, or anyway two half-blocks), is the most urban part even of West Campus.  There are no roads here named by the university, all the streets have sidewalks, and drivers on those streets, assuming pedestrians will stay on those sidewalks, drive at normal speeds.  None of the areas I consider park-like, in the U-District, are here.  (To be fair, Christie Park, a genuine City of Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation park with a water fountain, is just the other side of 9th Ave.  And good news:  today I passed that park, and found its water fountain still running.)

Here's a map:

Conveniently, this initial map includes all five of the broad categories into which I'm putting the buildings:

1. Red is for buildings whose front doors I couldn't open during business hours (and also during their posted hours, if they have any).
2. Orange is for buildings whose front doors open, but which don't offer restrooms to the public, for whatever reason.
3. Yellow is for buildings whose front doors open, which do have restrooms available to the public, but whose hours are problematic, making people who enter unreasonably vulnerable to trespassing protocols.
4. Green is for buildings whose front doors open, which do have restrooms available to the public, whose hours are clear, but which have notices saying the public isn't welcome there, again making people who enter unreasonably vulnerable to trespassing protocols.
5. And blue is for buildings whose front doors open, which do have restrooms available to the public, whose hours are clear, and which don't have notices saying the public isn't welcome there.

Another way this area is unusual, by UW's Seattle campus standards, is that the UW doesn't own all these buildings.  More precisely, seven of them are subject to property tax (unlike most university buildings) according to the King County Parcel Viewer.  The map shows those buildings with a grey fill; I also identify them in the building by building treatment below.

Most of these buildings, indeed most of those on campus as well, have names; I also give their street addresses.

My specific purpose two days ago was to photograph all of the doors that have what I consider useful signage, for each building.  I'd been scattershot both in photography and in checking all doors to a building.  Part I of this page, the preface, includes a photo meant to demonstrate dueling hours signs; I was surprised that it also demonstrated a no-trespassing sign.  So I thought I had to up my game.  But I have no intention of wasting Blogspot's resources on all these photos, and have instead put them into a folder in my Google Drive account.

Red - Locked

CoMotion Innovation Center (A on map)

Address:  4545 Roosevelt Way NE

This is part of a building that occupies much of the block, and I'm guessing UW leases the space; at any rate, its owner pays property tax on it.  Hours of 8 A.M. to 5 P.M. weekdays are on the door, but it didn't open to me on any visit.  I don't know that this building actually has a name, let alone this name, but CoMotion, the university's technology transfer arm, calls its ground-floor space the name I used above.

Roosevelt Commons West (B on map)

Address:  4300 Roosevelt Way NE

According to the parcel viewer, this building, whose owner pays property tax on it, involves "Seattle Childrens & UW".  I've been going through UW's online office directory, so far only superficially and only through the letter E, and it's obvious already that UW occupies much of this building, mainly with back-office administrative stuff, although I wonder at the Disability Service Office being there.

I wonder because the building has a mostly locked door.  To be more exact, there's a security desk just past the door, and both times I've visited, the same guy has been at it.  The first time, I found it locked, but he came out, asked what I was doing there, and when I explained, told me this was private property that the university just rented space in.  The second time, two days ago, I found it open, but that was right after a couple of people had walked blithely through it; once he noticed me, the guard locked it from his desk.

So yeah, I find it strange for that office to be behind a barrier, even one as discerning as that guard seems to be.

University District Building (C on map)

Address:  1107 NE 45th St

This is definitely a privately owned building the university just rents space in.  Its uses, and those of others, for the building seem to be mostly medical.  Again, there's a security guard; I'm not sure I met the same guy both times, but the second time, at least, he was pretty friendly.

I'm not sure how much longer he'll be friendly, though, because on some schedule or other - the notices don't say - the building will apparently be torn down:

45th Street Plaza (D on map)

Address:  1100 NE 45th St

This building, according to the parcel viewer, is still owned by its developer, but pays no property tax, and UW is the main tenant.  It's used by a bunch of medical programs, including the recently famous Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, as well as at least one office dedicated to making grants to such programs.  Whatever door those folks use to come into the building, though, I didn't find; all I found was a door with a peculiar warning on it:

"DO NOT tug on handles!  Door will LOCK!"  Um, OK.  I'll try to remember just to wiggle my ears to make it open, then.

UW Tower, Building S (E on map)

Address:  4333 Brooklyn Ave NE

This is the new home of the University of Washington Alumni Association.  The four buildings of the UW Tower used to be Safeco Insurance's headquarters, if you remember them, dear Diary, from the private libraries?  I only found three entrances to those buildings.  Of those, this is the one that's locked, which makes the association's bragging about what's behind the door grate a little.

Maps say there's one more entrance, from the garages between the UW Tower complex and the University District Building.

Anyway, this is the first building in this part with a warning of a kind a whole lot of UW buildings carry:

In this case, it reads "Only UW students, staff, faculty, and other invited guests are authorized to enter."

Arcade Building (F on map)

Address:  4518 University Way NE

This privately owned, property tax paying site houses KUOW and the Organization of Student Social Workers.  Maybe more.

Alumni House (G on map)

Address:  1415 NE 45th St

This is the Alumni Association's old home.  I wonder whether it ever was actually open to alumni, who were encouraged to think of it as a sort of house away from home, or whether the building name was cynically given from the start.  Anyway, now it houses a human-computer interaction + design studio, whatever that means; a graduate program in Museology; and the U-District Partnership whose informational signage I mocked a few pages back.

Eagleson Hall (H on map)

Address:  1417 NE 42nd St

Named after:  James Mills Eagleson, known as Jimmy, 1894-1919.

This is the first of the four buildings in this part which the university maps as part of West Campus.  It's home to the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences.  Most of the signage is about what people looking for the Speech and Hearing Clinic should do, but there are also hours posted, 8 A.M. to 5 P.M. Monday through Friday.  That doesn't mean it's unlocked, though.

Cedar Apartments East (I on map)

Address:  1128 NE 41st St

I needn't, it turns out, have been as worried about being near the residential buildings as touring the "north campus" ones on a dry evening had made me.  During the day they aren't thronged, and it's easy to see that at least the west campus buildings all have locked doors.  (I didn't try each one, indeed I'm not sure I tried any.  Card readers blinking red next to each settled me in the certainty that they were, in fact, locked.)  This one, apparently technically part of West Campus but north of most other campus buildings, also has one version of the sign I wasn't sure all residential buildings have.  I've now seen a lot of this version:

"Only residents, staff, faculty and other invited guests are authorized to enter."

Cedar Apartments West (J on map)

Address:  1112 NE 41st St

Very similar signage.

I found a young man lying on the pavement just north of this building.  I couldn't tell from his clothes whether he was a student or not, but figured the odds of his being homeless weren't high.  On my first visit, I simply verified he was breathing and went on my way, but I came back when done with the day's work, about an hour later, near 6 P.M., tried to wake him, pointed out that the sun was setting and lying there as he was would become dangerous pretty soon, and left him mumbling sleepily and not stirring.  In this nine-month lease "apartment" building, most of the apartments apparently house four students in separate rooms.  The windows show a little bit of evidence that the staff try to gin up some building "spirit", but not much evidence, and the fact that this guy could lie neglected there for an hour suggests the residents aren't listening to such spirit talk all that carefully.

Jack Straw Cultural Center

Address:  909 NE 43rd St

Named after:  Jack Straw, who may have died in 1381.

I owe this private, property tax-paying, building something of an apology for how I discussed it in connection with the parks of this area.

My posture throughout this project has been that I'm too much of a moron to do anything, when presented with a door, other than try to open it.  That I'm too desperate to find a restroom to do anything like call a phone number.

Well, given that I've now made the decision to put more time into these buildings, I decided to try pushing the button they ask visitors to push.

I heard a dial tone and ringing, and figured the next step would be a conversation ending with "No public restrooms".  But actually, the next step was a buzz, and I had to fumble with picking up my stuff, putting my mask on, and holding the door open all at the same time.  Once I was inside, though, and more or less put together again, nobody paid me the least mind as I walked through, easily found an old-fashioned water fountain and two gendered restrooms, and walked out again.

As a UW building, it's still locked.  The upper-floor tenants, including the Innovative Programs Research Group of the UW's School of Social Work, use the back door, which has no buzzer.  And unlike the Foundation for International Understanding through Students, which has moved from its prominent location in the Husky Union Building to this backwater, and therefore has festooned its name and instructions for reaching it all over both doorways - well, the IPRG, whose main current gig is apparently helping keep teenagers away from marijuana, apparently prefers the peace and quiet of anonymity.

Jack Straw Cultural Center, however, as a private building, appears to be more or less really open.  I wavered over which buildings in this part would get the kinds of postcard shots I gave all the restroom buildings in a previous hike of North Seattle.  Because this one doesn't offer building hours either on its door or at its website, when posted building hours are one of the things I'm making a big deal about, I don't think I can show you my postcard shot of it, dear Diary, but here's its current show.  The show is by appointment, but it turns out that isn't just (if at all) to keep out the riffraff, but because the show is largely sonic (as is Jack Straw's work in general), and needs attention to make it work.

Orange - Unlocked, but No Public Restrooms

Maybe I should clarify, dear Diary.  I think "No public restrooms" is a meme that probably originated from genuine horror stories, but is now carried along not by additional horrors year by year, but by its own dominance.  But that doesn't change the fact that many people are devoted to this meme.  So I'm not distinguishing here between existence barriers (some buildings at the UW really don't have restrooms, but that's highly unlikely to be an issue in this bunch), physical barriers (as at UW Tower below) and social ones.  As long as a building is presented as offering no public restrooms, it belongs in this category.

Roosevelt Commons East (L on map)

Address:  4311 11th Ave NE

The ground-floor tenant of this building is the UW's Continuum College, which is apparently what the UW Extension, for which I came here, and from which I took courses in 2006 and 2008-2009, has morphed into.  When I entered, in some wonder at finding an unlocked door, it was a Continuum College staffer who informed me there are no public restrooms.

UW Tower, building T (M on map)

Address:  4333 Brooklyn Ave NE

The two doors I found in this block that were unlocked both lead to the same lobby, whose central feature is a bank of turnstiles run by card readers.  The northern entrance passes a security desk whose occupants, the first time I visited, paid me no mind, plus signage I read which clarifies that only a select few are allowed to be in the building at all.  The southern entrance is much more pleasant, passing some plants and art.  But anyway, there are no restrooms in that lobby, and I'm pretty sure those security guards would be all over any turnstile-jumper, if someone who needed a restroom that badly were physically up to jumping a turnstile anyway.

Forty-Five Forty-Five Building (N on map)

Address:  4545 15th Ave NE

Some people just have no imagination.  This building dominates my memories of the northwest corner of campus; I walked past it for years, and often set my satchels down for a rest in a little raised non-parking space in the garage attached to it on the north.  It deserves a better name.

The ground-floor tenant is UW's computing HQ, which turns out also to lack imagination, to be in fact an ardent meme-follower:

but for some reason chooses to hide its allegiance to that meme indoors, rather than proclaim it boldly outdoors, as most private buildings in the area (and public Alumni House across the street) do.

George F. Russell Jr. Hall (O on map)

Address:  1414 NE 42nd St

Named after:  George Ford Russell, Junior, who graduated from business school in 1958 and is apparently still living.

This privately owned building was initially intended for mostly UW occupancy, but then UW bought the Safeco property and pulled out.  Now, however, its ground floor tenants include outside student-oriented organisations - some military office, Wesleyan House - and up above is much of the administrative staff of the College of Arts and Sciences, plus the Center for Neurotechnology.

It has an open lobby, but that includes no restrooms.

University of Washington Medical Center Roosevelt I (P on map)

Address:  4225 Roosevelt Way NE

Indirectly named after:  Theodore Roosevelt, 1858-1919.

Another UW building that puts "No public restrooms" on its front door.

However...

Yellow - Unlocked, Public Restrooms, but Hours Problems

University of Washington Medical Center Roosevelt II (Q on map)

Address:  4245 Roosevelt Way NE (however, the address etched adjacent to its main entrance is 4225!)

Also indirectly named after:  George Washington, 1732 N.S.-1799.

When I walked into this one, which does not put "No Public Restrooms" on its front door, and asked, they said "Yes, we have public restrooms, right over there."

The reason I'm not showing you the postcard shot I took, though, is the same as Jack Straw's:  They don't have their hours in plain view.  This page gives the plausible hours 8 A.M. to 5 P.M. Mondays through Fridays, but is that true only of that particular clinic, or of the whole building?  I don't seriously expect the lack of an hours posting, in a medical building (i.e., full of professionally caring people aware of the importance of hygiene) far from central campus, to be a trap baited for homeless people (any more than I expect that of Jack Straw, actually), but I do think misleading or absent hours on central campus look very like a baited trap, and I think it's important that I be consistent with this, since I'm pretty emotional about it.  As, um, witness:

Green - All good except we aren't wanted

Social Work Building (R on map)

Address:  4101 15th Ave NE

Um, speaking of professionally caring people aware of the importance of hygiene...

Well, actually, I'm being a little unfair.  Social workers don't have anything to do with the locked doors of the northern half of this building, which is the Speech and Hearing Clinic already mentioned anent Eagleson Hall above.  (Also with hours posted of 8 A.M. to 5 P.M. Mondays through Fridays, but only until 4:30 P.M. in summer.  Like Eagleson, this building is coloured as part of West Campus on the official map; it's the last of the four, the others being the two Cedar Apartments buildings.)

Anyway, here's one of the big doorways to the southern half of the building:

Maybe some of the details are hard to see at that scale, though, dear Diary, so here are a couple of close-ups for you.

"... and make sure the most vulnerable among us have the support they need.  These include people without adequate access to health care ..."

Inspiring, right?  It's on basically all the doors of the southern half of the building.  So is another sign:

Which is real?  The Social Work Building's southern half's posted hours are 7:30 A.M. to 6 P.M., Mondays through Fridays.  Will I be arrested for having used its restrooms, during those hours, two days ago?  If not, would it have been the same result if I'd been as smelly and encumbered then as I usually was while homeless?  Even after all this work, I'm not sure whether the UW is really "becoming a locked campus", as one of the employees I spoke with along the way said.  But if there's a new shipment of card readers next budget year, will the Social Work Building take some, so as to avoid such difficult questions in future?

Back when "we're all in this together" was a popular meme, say late spring 2020, I already expected a backlash.  Examples of that backlash actually happening include the curfews and weekend closures the major private academic libraries in Seattle and Tacoma have instituted while re-opening and maintained since (with one limited exception); the ongoing closure of UW's law library to the public began earlier, though.  Anyway, I think another example is the card reader boom at the UW; I just don't know how much of that is decisions by individual staffers, how much university policy.  How strong will the School of Social Work, or at least its eloquent dean, be, on behalf of those they claim to speak for, if it's the latter?

Blue - Worry-free public restrooms

University Book Store (S on map)

And speaking of strong...

This store isn't back to its pre-pandemic hours yet.  It's now open 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. six days per week and noon to 4 P.M. Sundays.  It was open 9 A.M. to 7 P.M. five days per week, 10 to 6 Saturdays, and noon to 5 P.M. Sundays.

But it's still open to the public, and so are some of its restrooms.

Here's that postcard shot at last:

Ironically, it isn't actually a public building.  It's owned by a for-profit trust whose beneficiaries are UW's students.  It pays property taxes.  But somehow where all those public buildings I've already mentioned and many more besides can't afford enough toilet paper to open their doors to the public, this private one can.

Aren't you glad I organised this part this way, dear Diary?  I do so like a happy ending.  I've already finished hiking for the next part, which is West Campus proper between NE 41st St and the Burke-Gilman Trail, but may take a little while to get it written, and of course there are other pages I need to work on too.  Until we meet again, anyway, dear Diary, happy nights and happy days.