Welcome,

This is the sixth in a series of periodical Desk Notes wherein I share project updates regarding Fifteen Twenty-One Second Avenue. Last time I noted we already had over 50% reservations for the 143 homes and the interest in these extraordinary homes has not let up. By popular demand, we decided to host another series of Design Preview Events in October similar to those we held in June. As a result of these events we’ve added over two dozen homebuyers for Fifteen Twenty-One Second Avenue and now have first position reservations on more than three quarters of the available homes and a host of second position reservations. This introductory program has been so exciting for me to see such strong validation of the project concepts.

Meanwhile we have been working on the interior design details for the homes, building lobby, and Porte Cochere under the leadership of our fabulous interior designer, Susan Marinello. We also have made design progress on our community terraces on the building rooftop. We would like to share the results of all this design work with those of you who have reserved a home by inviting small groups to meet with the design team at my home in the Seaboard building on 4th Avenue and Pike Street. My wife Sandy and I will be hosting a series of open houses for our homebuyers where one can see first hand some interior treatments that became the inspiration for the new homes Fifteen Twenty-One Second Avenue. Invitations will be sent out shortly in groups based on the homebuyers selected floor plan until we are able to meet with everyone. We will have several events in the first half of November and more in December and January. This weekend, November 5th and 6th, Sandy and I are making our annual pilgrimage to the Walla Walla Wine Tasting where we will pick up some great wine for these events in our home. In addition to meeting members of the design team and learning more about plans for this tower, these open houses will also be a chance to meet some of your future neighbors in a relaxed setting.

As we work on the interior design for the new homes, we are also building the Presentation Center or “Preview Home” as we named it. The Preview Home will showcase the "great room" with floor-to-ceiling glass and will include a complete kitchen and solarium. We will also have a complete spa bathroom built out. Other typical condominium towers on the West Coast often build out a complete model home but they are usually selling homes half the size of ours. With our homes averaging almost 2,000-sq. ft. there just isn't room to build an entire home. In those other projects this venue would be called a sales center, but it looks like our project will be largely reserved by the time we’re ready to showcase our homes. The Preview Home will be open by appointment this coming February.

As we are working with Susan Marinello on the design of the building lobby, we have attended gallery shows featuring local artists. We intend to commission some significant art for the lobby and its living room. Susan’s inspiring designs will help create an elegant venue for this featured artwork, which will combine to create a sense of sophisticated, international style.

In addition to previous ones, here are two more hints about Fifteen Twenty-One Second Avenue’s design features:

Hint 9. Considering our all glass tower, we have been doing field research on window shade systems and we really like what we see out there. In the Preview Home you will see the Draper Motorized Flex Shades, which we expect to be our building standard for all window walls throughout each home providing both solar protection and privacy for the residents.

Hint 10. It looks like we have worked out a great solution for removal of our recycling and trash from each residential floor. The recycling and trash room will be seamlessly integrated on each floor within the elevator bank. With the validation from the Design Preview Events for all larger homes, we were able to reduce the number of homes from 250 to 143. That gave us the opportunity to eliminate a fourth elevator and still provide excellent high-speed elevator service to the residents. The previous location of the fourth elevator which was in the southwest corner of the elevator bank, will now be the recycling/trash room. Now the freight/pet/barbecue elevator that I've talked about during our Design Preview Events will be the elevator in the Southeast corner of the elevator lobby on each floor. In addition to the freight elevator door opening into the elevator lobby, the elevator will also have a second door on the west side of elevator cab which will open directly into the recycling/trash room. What is so clever about this design is the building staff can remove trash and recycling from each floor using the freight elevator without entering the elevator lobby or hallways. I love it when great ideas come together for a terrific outcome.

We had a lot of fun in the Design Preview Events this month and Sandy and I really look forward to hosting some more intimate events in our home where we can share more specific design details with our homebuyers.

Fall is already here and a summer 2006 groundbreaking doesn't seem so far away.

Warm regards,

William Justen