Balance sought in future growth

By RUTH SCHUBERT
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

As the District grows, community members envision adding a mix of condos, townhouses and duplexes that junior faculty and middle-class families can afford.

They'd also like to soften the edges between the UW campus and the neighborhood by enticing more faculty and staff to shops and restaurants on the Ave, and by luring more neighbors onto the campus.

The university's Burke Museum of Natural History, Henry Art Gallery and Meany Hall for the Performing Arts have the potential to draw more of the Seattle community to the campus.

And the university is moving beyond the campus boundaries in ways that could increase foot traffic on the Ave. The top two floors of the Wizards of the Coast Game Center house UW offices. And campus radio stations KUOW and KCMU plan to move into the building next door within a year.

This is a community looking for balance.

"We want to build a community, build a neighborhood," says Scholes, head of the University Heights Center. "We want to go beyond providing a place for people to gather to providing a reason for people to gather."

Continued:

• Young, vibrant, hard to pigeonhole
• Small city grew around a campus
• Around these parts, the family homeowner is in minority