Comments (0) Best New Townhouse Row (Yes, There Is Such a Thing) - 2008
Georgetown Lofts
You want industrial? We got industrial! And at sub-luxury prices, too. Townhouses at the Georgetown Lofts start at $365,000, and the Duwamish is only a hop, skip, and jump away! Just drag your kayak across Marginal Way—watch out for the semis!—and it's almost like living in a nature preserve, with all the convenience of Mexican food from Coliman next door. (Plus, the preserved, relocated Hat 'n' Boots are anchoring the new Oxbow Park just up the street.) To the north are the three Corson Lofts, designed by shop du jour Pb Elemental, which sold last year. The five units of Georgetown Lofts come from less-trendy TSA Architects, but they ape the same urbanist ideas: No parking bays or curb cuts interrupt the street (opposite a Seattle Central Community College industrial trade school), since the block has a neat sunken alley bisecting it. Or maybe you don't need a car at all, since buses roar up Marginal Way to downtown in only minutes. Georgetown is actually closer to Pioneer Square than Green Lake, where uglier townhouses cost much more. Single-family teardowns are always going to be controversial in Seattle, where everyone claims to hate gentrification but secretly lusts after nice real estate. Corson shows us that upzoning can be done with good taste, but it sure helps to have the alley in back.
—Brian Miller
