A Little Space -- Marvin Gardens Inn Offers Downtown Living To The Not-So-Rich, But It's Not So Spacious

Marvin Gardens Inn - a debatable experiment in downtown living - opens April 1 at the corner of Third and Bell. The exact likes of it haven't been built from scratch in Seattle for maybe 50 years.

The Inn raises questions about what's livable, what's affordable and how much of either is possible together in a private development.

``It's been described variously as for the

working poor,'' says Tom Wells of Winslow & Wells, the California developers of the project.

``. . . basically entry level service workers. I guess everyone who is not a doctor, lawyer, merchant or chief.''

It's also been called ``kind of a mean building,'' by one of Seattle's leading architects, ``with no notion but a small series of cells linked by a corridor.''

Then again, the Denny Hill Association applauds Marvin Gardens' arrival in the Regrade housing market which has been ``languid for so long,'' says architect Steve Schlenker, the group's president.

Call it a 1990s version of the working man's SRO residential hotel: an architectural model that proliferated in major American cities in the early part of the century. The Inn's 175 single rooms are packed as tight as possible on a quarter block site and - as in the older buildings - arranged around an interior courtyard which provides light and air well.

The windows of the rooms facing the courtyard, which is 15 feet wide with a fountain in the middle, stare at each other back and forth, even though the architect attempted to offset them for more privacy.

Marvin Gardens is geared to the single person working downtown who relies on public transportation and who doesn't set up housekeeping with much baggage - which is good because there's just enough room to hang up a week's worth of clothes.

Some of the units are quite pleasant and amply spaced. But most feel small and, by middle-class American standards, severe. They range from 180 to just under 400 square feet. That includes the bathroom and a counter kitchenette along the entry wall.

Each unit is painted in pastels and efficiently furnished with a bed, chair, dresser, floor lamp, even a picture on the wall. The bed doubles as a sofa. The one closet has no doors. The complete bathroom is attached, not down the hall.

The kitchen has a refrigerator, garbage disposal and microwave oven. It was cheaper and required meeting fewer code requirements to install a microwave instead of a cooktop. Vending machines in the lobby hold microwavable foods. The microwave setup is criticized by some housing experts who contend that moderate-income people can't afford to buy microwavable foods.

``We're trying to solve a problem. . . a crucial problem,'' says Ken Winslow, referring to the crisis in affordable housing. ``So we give somebody a microwave instead of a cooktop. It's a long way from what other people are doing or what the alternatives are. . . ''

Management promises Marvin Gardens will be safe with a front-desk person on duty 24 hours a day and the front door locked after a certain time at night.

The city - with its mission of encouraging a mix of housing in the Regrade -

wanted this project built and tried to make it easy. The developers were allowed to construct smaller units than the code allows in exchange for usable common areas such as the rooftop garden and a nice lobby.

``We thought it was important to try to accommodate opportunities for housing that might be more effective for the consumer,'' says Margaret Fleek, director of the Permits and Plans Division in the Department of Construction and Land Use.

Since approving Marvin Gardens, the city has decided to draft more comprehensive standards for small living units downtown.

``If this is going to be a housing type that we're going to see more of, we decided it would be good to approve a code that lays out more clearly what we were looking for,'' says Fleek.

Fleek expects those new draft standards to be an issue of some public debate. Copies will be available after March 1 on the fourth floor of the Municipal Building or by calling 684-8880.

Marvin Gardens was designed by Driscoll Architects to serve a market similar to the Baltic Inn's in San Diego which Winslow helped develop about three years ago. The Baltic - controversial when it was proposed - is a true SRO hotel with smaller rooms and showers down the hall.

Since then, the Baltic has received kudos for humanely solving a critical housing problem and has become the prototype for more such units nationwide.

``We used to think this was the kind of building you should tear down, not build,'' says Judy Lenthall president of the Building Industries Association for Southern California Coalition for the Homeless.

``It was the model project that changed people's thinking that we were not building sleaze-bag hotels,'' says Lenthall. ``These were not sleaze-bag people. Small living spaces are not necessarily evil or wrong or substandard.''

Marvin Gardens is a step above the Baltic. But is it livable by Seattle standards?

In the downtown scenario, where moderate or affordable living options are becoming more limited, Schlenker believes the Gardens is a good alternative.

``Some people are saying, `how are these people going to live in this small space?' '' he comments. ``But they're negating they're living in an urban environment where there is a release outside. They can walk to a movie or to a cafe.

``Granted the light quality might not be that great. But it's a clean, livable space.''

Developer Wells likes to remind critics that many cities only a few decades ago actively demolished several hundred-thousand low-income units to make way for progress.

He accuses architects, developers, planners and social critics of cultural snobbery.

``These same professionals view downtown living units as incubators of social and biological diseases that threaten their cultural view of the ought-to-be family,'' he says with a reddening face.

Marvin Gardens units range from $295 a month for 180 square feet to $550 for about 400 square feet. The cheapest look out on a blank wall. The highest priced have a view over the rooftops to Elliott Bay. Most of its studios are under $400.

A few housing experts are aghast at these prices, saying they represent some of the most expensive per-square-foot space in the city. Others are not so surprised.

``The range of affordable housing for low to middle income is narrowing downtown,'' says Deborah Gooden, director of the Housing Division with the Department of Community Development.

There's no doubt affordability is an unresolved issue in downtown housing. The city has been unable to build any low-income or moderate housing without a subsidy of some sort.

Because Winslow and Wells received a tax credit for building low-income housing, 60 percent of their units must be rented to people who earn at or below $16,700 a year. The developers also must hang on to the property for 15 years.

Marvin Gardens does a creditable job given the intent and the money involved, says Gooden. Larger units probably would have meant higher rents and would not have served as many people.

The question becomes, then, does Seattle want to encourage this type of housing, she says.

And are there enough people who want what these developers have the courage to try?

Winslow and Wells believe so. They're already obtaining permits for another almost identical project in the Regrade at Fourth and Clay.

At breakfast one morning, the business partners shared a belly laugh over the skeptics. People aren't willing to invest their money in projects such as Marvin Gardens, says Winslow.

``But they'll put their two cents worth in. Then they'll stand back and after it's done, if it's a success, they'll take credit. . . ''

And if it fails, ``they'll say I told you so.''

Adds Wells: ``If the market doesn't share our vision of what they need, it's too bad for us. No one else.''