SOUTH LAKE UNION PODCAST

Josh Lackey, Vaun Raymond, Terry Short and Maury Webber

COM 597


Situation Analysis:

South Lake Union is a neighborhood of change. In the last five years, the neighborhood has undergone a dramatic makeover, resulting in thousands of new residents and employees from a diverse moving to the neighborhood. However, South Lake Union is still not established as its neighboring communities, Belltown, Capitol Hill and Queen Anne. The proximity to these neighborhoods and to the downtown core makes South Lake Union an ideal location to live, work and play, but how can this message best be communicated to the general public, prospective residents and business owners?


This one of the primary challenges for Vulcan Real Estate, which is redeveloping more than 60 acres in the South Lake Union neighborhood. To achieve the objective, we are proposing that Vulcan produce an ongoing series of walking tour podcasts. These would be updated approximately every six months to reflect the most current developments in the neighborhood.


Objective:

A South Lake Union Walking Tour Podcast is an excellent way to encourage people to come down to this new neighborhood and experience it first hand. Ideally, there would be a 30-minute interactive podcast/vodcast for each of the five districts (Lakefront, Cascade, Gateway, Westlake/Terry and 8th Avenue) in South Lake Union. Each podcast/vodcast would be a narrated tour for a specific district, and would feature interviews with residents and business owners in the neighborhood. The completed podcasts would be hosted on www.discoverslu.com and www.sluchamber.org, so users could download at their leisure and load to their personal MP3 players. They would also be hosted on Zune players at the South Lake Union Discovery Center so guests could go on a self-guided tour of the neighborhood.


Proposed Project:

The South Lake Union Podcast team will create a prototype segment of the walking tour for the Westlake/Terry District of South Lake Union. The chosen area is Terry Ave. N., between Thomas and Harrison St., a block that is currently undergoing significant transformation. The podcast will consist of a narrated guide and will call out three points of interest (POI) along this block that touch on various subjects relevant to the area.


The first POI is the Terry Ave. Building, which is currently being submitted to the Landmarks Preservation Board in order to obtain a historic building designation. The Terry Ave. Building is located on a parcel that will be developed into Amazon’s new headquarters. Vulcan Real Estate, the developer, plans on integrating the historic building into the new structure for Amazon. We will interview Susan Boyle with BOLA Architecture, who is working on the Landmarks Preservation Board nomination for the building and who is also a tenant in the building.


The second POI will be the new Portage Bay Café at the SW corner of Terry Ave. N. and Harrison St. This is Portage Bay’s second restaurant in Seattle. Their U-District location is a breakfast mainstay for Seattleites and is best known for its fresh fruit bar. We will interview owners John and Amy Fair Gunner about their decision to open a second location in the South Lake Union neighborhood.


The third POI is the Ping Pong Plaza, which is a public art piece by Buster Simpson at the base of the Rosetta Building. The plaza includes a bronze ping-pong table and is an example of public art that is utilized by employees in the neighborhood. We will work with Diane Gary, Director of Human Resources at Rosetta Inpharmatics, to identify an employee who utilizes the ping-pong table.


Production Plan:

We will begin production by writing a script outline and topics for three interviews. We will then conduct the interviews using a digital audio tape recorder. To maximize our editing options, we may record two versions of some interviews: a formal interview in a quiet office and a more casual conversation with the subject out on the street. After transcribing the interviews, we will create a script comprised of a narration, excerpts from the interviews and cues for sound effects and music. Finally, one of our team members will record a reading of the narration and we will assemble and edit the demo in GarageBand.


Project Summary:

Podcast Concept:

A series of walking tours highlighting the five districts that comprise the South Lake Union neighborhood.


Objective:

To position South Lake Union as dynamic, desirable location to live, work, shop, dine and play; a neighborhood that is “coming on” and which savvy Seattle urbanites and business owners should explore now and “get in on the ground floor.”


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Comments here:


Anonymous: your proposal is great, good work!