For my final AR project, I decided to focus on affordable housing in Seattle. I chose this Point of Interest because I think it’s important for people to know how public dollars like the Seattle Housing Levy go toward creating invaluable housing for people and communities who increasingly cannot afford to live in our city. Pride Place is located just a block away from Seattle Central, and it’s a really cool example of a collaboration between the city, a seasoned local affordable housing provider, and a nonprofit without prior experience administering housing but with deep knowledge of a specific community (in this case, LGBTQ+ elders) who are disproportionally affected by housing insecurity. I got to take a tour of Pride Place last year when it was still under construction, so I thought this would be a fun opportunity to share what I learned with my classmates.
I created the panels in Illustrator with a combination of my own photographs, images from the Pride Place website, and images from Capitol Hill Seattle Blog’s coverage of the opening (photos by Alex Garland). The project is 6 panels introducing the building, its apartments and amenities, and some “fun facts” about the development and why it’s important. I opted for extra panels instead of trying to include sound with this.
This was a fun project! The file size limit was definitely a challenge, but otherwise Eyejack was easy to use. The only other unexpected challenge I encountered was recording the experience. Pride Place is on Broadway, a busy pedestrian thoroughfare, and I was especially mindful of not wanting to make any residents who were coming or going uncomfortable. In the end I was able to get a relatively clean recording, but I would definitely think more carefully about my filming location if I were doing this again!
