At a meeting of the city council's public safety and arts committee this afternoon, officials from the state Department of Transportation (WSDOT) said they were seeking a "Plan C" to address concerns over the 619 Western artists' lofts building, which WSDOT had proposed demolishing as part of the deep-bore tunnel project. ("Plan A" was evicting the tenants while retrofitting the building; "Plan B" was demolishing the building entirely. Of 169 vulnerable buildings in Pioneer Square, only the 619 Western building was identified for demolition).

"Is there a 'Plan C?' is the question we're asking now: Is there a way to at least maintain this building while we build the project, so that in the future we could restore that structure?" said viaduct project manager Ron Paananen. "I don't know what that looks like … and what other parties would have to be involved in the long run to hopefully come to a successful outcome."

Committee member Nick Licata noted that the relocation of more than 100 artists from 619 Western was more complicated than typical tenant relocations---where tenants all go to different places---because many of the artists want to stay in the same community. Paananen responded that ordinarily, "we deal with people, with individual rights, when we do relocation … but we also recognize that there may be group in this community that may want to relocate together."

One possibility committee members raised was relocating some tenants to King Street Station at Fifth and Jackson, where the upper floors are vacant.