Last year the Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI), the Office of Planning and Community Development (OPCD), and others collaborated with the Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS) on the creation of The CAP Report: 30 Ideas for the Creation, Activation, and Preservation of Cultural Space.

One of those “30 Ideas” was the creation of an Arts Permit Liaison at SDCI, a new role designed to help shepherd cultural space projects through the permitting process. Our own Jess McHegg has for the past two months been filling that role, working with artists exploring home studio options, theater companies hoping to mount shows in warehouses, and even a beloved neighborhood cinema hoping to launch a new screening room… on their roof.

If you have a cultural space project, no matter how well formed or how speculative, you should reach out to Jess. From identifying alternative paths to compliance for projects stuck at seemingly insurmountable code hurdles, to strategizing solutions to land use, building code, or other issues, Jess brings decades of experience, and the resources of both SDCI, ARTS, and OPCD, to bear on your project.

We look forward to building connections between the cultural community and the world of code compliance, and to demystifying the experience of working with SDCI as a non-building professional. A thriving arts and cultural scene in Seattle is part of what makes this one of the country’s most livable cities. We’d like to keep it that way.