Site Report 1

          The block between 7^th Ave. NE and 8^th Ave. NE, and 40^th St. and NE Northlake Way features a vast array of beautiful views and unique landscape ranging from gravel parking lots to a trail used by thousands every day.  On the south side of the block there are two one story buildings used for office space and what it looks like might be construction management due to the Concrete Mixer in the gravel parking lot on the backside of one building.  These buildings overlook Portage Bay where many boats take anchor on.  Venturing further north you will find a massive warehouse which is owned by the University Of Washington and is called the Publications Services Building.  This building has three uses.  Creative Communications, F2 Lean, and UW Recycling.  Every day the working class is around this building making use of its various capabilities.  The building is in between two dead end streets 7^th and 8^th Ave. NE, giving a secluded feeling to the area.  At the ends of each of these dead end streets, the block features great elevation change venturing up towards the Burke-Gilman trail.  The Burke-Gilman trail is just south of 40^th St. where you will find constant bikers, skateboarders, and pedestrians maneuvering around each other, making quick access through North Seattle.  At the crossroads between the Burke-Gilman trail, NE 40^th St., and 7^th Ave. NE there is a unique billboard sign for the area’s proposed use of action.  This sign presented many questions to my mind like, how old is this sign?  It looked as if Seattle had taken a hold of it due to the graffiti over half of it.  While exploring my block other thoughts came to mind.  It seems as if Burke Gilman was a person.  Who was he?  What did he do to get the trail named after him?  Also, due to the near proximity of Portage Bay, was this piece of land once part of the bay?  I’ll need to research the history of the block to answer these questions.  As my block is far away from UW I did not expect to find any buildings owned by the university.  I speculated an urban landscape with buildings connected paralleling the sides of the roads or homes where people live.  I believe there were no homes built here due to the short distance from the bay.  Maybe the area was underwater in the past before the University of Washington obtained the land.  I’ll need to look into data regarding the landscape to find out.