In the heart of our downtown, imagine a new neighborhood civic center. Within half a block of the new Seattle City Hall and the new Central Library, this building is located within the core of our government, cultural and business districts. People can walk to it easily if they work or live downtown. It's easy to get to by bus, car, rail or ferry.

With a grand sunlit auditorium seating 1000 people and a cluster of smaller meeting rooms this building would provide great flexibility for a vast array of uses: civic commemorations and ceremonies, debates and lectures, performances and presentations, city council meetings and hearings, readings and seminars, offices for non-profits and city services, transit services, a tourist bureau and more. We have the Wallingford Good Shepard Center as a local and successful example of converting a former religious building to a much loved civic hub.

Best of all Seattle citizens need not build a new building but can protect a 100 year-old beloved sanctuary in the heart of our downtown. The First United Methodist congregation will be moving to a new space but this crown-jewel in the heart of our downtown need not fall beneath the wrecking ball. We will support it’s rebirth as a vibrant downtown civic center because although we are a city that looks to the future, we refuse to destroy the best legacies of our past.