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Posted in Op-Ed by Mathias Eichler on July 9, 2009

What’s Downtown’s Most Urban Intersection?

I walked Downtown this morning and have been thinking about this for a bit… not many intersections truly qualify for being an urban center of town.
Most have one of the following “disqualifiers” (completely subjective and made up by myself):

The dreaded surface parking lot
One-story buildings that don’t hug the street for pedestrians to feel comfortable
Bank buildings without welcoming facades
Shops that are open irregular hours

Of course, there are great places too… the most obvious corner would be 4th Ave and Washington Street, with Cafe Vita buzzling and two other coffee shops that attract traffic close by. The Security Building towers nicely over the intersection giving it a feel of history and presence. But even on this corner you have the US Bank that takes up a huge amount of space with their ridiculous drive-thru teller and parking lot.

So, Olympians, what do you think? What’s your favorite and most urban corner in Downtown Olympia?

  • Rob Richards
    I pick 4th and Washington also.

    Second would be 5th and Capital.

    Third, 5th and Washington.
  • Peter Stroble
    4th and Washington. architecture, offices, three coffee shops, a boutique, a theater and only one surface level parking lot! No housing, though. Surprise, surprise.
  • Yepp, that's the corner I picked too... if there wouldn't be that stupid drive-thru teller...
  • Capitol and 4th is my obvious choice, but I guess the expensive antique store would disqualify that corner because of the odd hours?

    Other choices are Washington and 5th (one story Tea Lady though) and Capitol and Legion.
  • Rob Richards
    Tea Lady is a.) two stories, not one, and b.) it hugs the street, so even if it were one story it would be OK.
  • Yeah, I'd say. In fact. You have a bank. An antique store and a huge ugly furniture store building on that corner #fail !
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