The large concrete structure on the Market Street side of Swedish Ballard has been demolished.
A look at the “concrete monorail” from an upper floor in the new medical office building.
Today, Mortenson Construction began taking down the “concrete monorail” as Jennifer Graves, R.N., nurse executive calls it to make room for a new garden.
The new courtyard garden will feature “trees, shrubs, plants, benches and a commissioned sculpture that patients, family members and the public will enjoy as a restful place for years to come,” Ed Boyle with Swedish Medical Center tells us. The new courtyard is expected to open to the public around the same time the new medical office building/ER opens in November.
Does anyone know if they are planning on tearing down the old building?
I had no idea that was a monorail! I wonder what they'd intended with it. Were they thinking the monorail would come to Ballard from downtown?
Swedish rocks! HA! Take that Norway!
oh, man! So, THATS what that way… I always wondered.. a remnant from the old expand the monorail to Ballard days. Hmm… sad to see it go, I actually liked it a lot, but I like it even more now that I know what it was.. used to just think it was one of those random Ballard type of things, and not leftovers of a monorail expansion that never went through, which I suppose does make it random.
Um, I don't think it was an *actual* transit monorail track; it just looked like one to some folks.
The side of Swedish facing Market Street has always been pretty blah – these changes look like a major improvement. Go go hospital.
Had some good times skateboarding on that thing as a kid
So I'm still unclear as to the exact purpose of this “concrete monorail” structure. Does anyone know when it was constructed and why? It doesn't (didn't) look robust enough to be a working monorail – and I thought the original monorail project (The Green line I think it was called) was going to travel up 15th not down Market st. Was this an art sculpture or something?
Jeez, what is with you folks? It's just a colorful description. It had nothing to do with any monorail.
It was just a bit of architecture that happened to resemble a monorail track. It had nothing at all to do with an actual monorail.
It was originally intended to be a structure to support climbing plants — like wisteria. But, unfortunately, those climbers were never planted and the eyesore was left in its place.
Randy – put a sock in it!