The proposed Lake Street Place development, the 5-story monolithic building in the heart of downtown Kirkland, hard against its neighbors to the north and east, will forever change the downtown’s open and refreshing character. And once erected, there is no going back.

Once built, the resulting dark 15-20 foot wide tunnels along the building’s north and east sides (which one of the DRB members termed “medieval”) will never receive the sun, and will repel, not invite Kirkland’s citizens. Tinkering with wall surface treatments does nothing to ameliorate this dreadful situation. Only by lowering the building’s height is there hope of retaining Kirkland’s human scale and inviting personality.

Ron and Barbara Hansen, Portsmith owners