W E ' V E   M O V E D
nwasianweekly.com

Northwest Asian Weekly's
new office is spacious, inviting

The Northwest Asian Weekly's new office is 
triple the size of its former office.

By Staff
NW Asian Weekly

The Northwest Asian Weekly has been located in the same building in Chinatown/International District for the past 15 years. What does it have to show for it, besides hundreds of newspapers  about the Asian American community?

Junk. Literally, tons of junk.

"You have no idea how much garbage we had to throw out when we started moving," publisher Assunta Ng said.

Dusty shelves, rickety chairs, dried up pens, old computer equipment, photo archives, outdated reference materials and stacks upon stacks of paperwork had to be discarded earlier this month when the Asian Weekly and its sister paper, the Seattle Chinese Post, began moving to its new building.

Now located at 412 Maynard Ave. S. in Chinatown/I.D., the newspapers are enjoying an office space triple the size of their former location.

The central area of the office has been sectioned off into large cubicles. Most employees now have more than double the amount of workspace they had at the old building. Employees also have use of an impressive lobby, two conference areas, a large workroom, a kitchen, two bathrooms and a large storage area. Plans also call for a fountain to be installed in the lobby sometime in the next few months.

In addition, the newspapers have their own parking garage, located on the second floor. The garage entrance is located behind the building, in Maynard Alley.

Management and employees agree that the new building is a major step up. The old building had become too small for the 10 full-time staffers and several part-time employees. At the old building, for example, two long tables on the second floor served as a meeting space, production area, lunchroom and storage area. Sometimes, while a meeting was going on at one end of the table, there were people eating at the other end, with production going on in the middle!

The words "spacious," "tidy," "beautiful," "professional," "inviting," "modern," "clean," "bright" and "comfortable" have all been used by employees to describe their new work environment. Everyone is very pleased with it, although Rebecca Ip, editor of the Chinese Post, noted that this staff "has learned to adapt to any environment."

Carol Vu, editor of the Asian Weekly, did acknowledge one minor downside to being in a large office: "It's great to be working in a much bigger area, but now that we have so much space, it's drafty and cold!"

Most of the office walls remain unadorned. Over the next few months, however, decorations will be going up. Everyone had a chance to see the finished product March 22-23, 2002, when the newspapers held a community-wide open house.

The new office is located on the first floor of a new four-story building designed by Freiheit & Ho Architects and constructed by Gregory Construction. Upstairs - on the second, third and fourth floors - construction is still going on in the office spaces. The entire building will be completed sometime next year.

About 900 square feet of retail space on the first floor is available for lease, as is about 5,000 square feet of office space above.

A temporary occupancy permit allowed the Asian Weekly and Chinese Post to move into their new office, even though construction is still going on upstairs. Ng said that she is grateful to Mayor Paul Schell, the Seattle Fire Department and other City staff who helped her secure temporary occupancy.

She also appreciates Ed and Gladys Chin, landlords of the old building, for giving the newspapers plenty of time to move out. Even though business isn't being operated there, lots of office equipment remains there, waiting to be moved to the new office.

Employees did not stop their normal routine of putting out two newspapers every week. "It was a challenge to publish two newspapers while moving. I'm grateful to all my staff, who pulled together during this stressful time and got everything done," said Ng.

Letters are welcome
We encourage our readers to submit letters on any topic of concern to Asian Americans. Write: Editor, NW Asian Weekly, P.O. Box 3468, Seattle, WA 98114. Letters may also be faxed to (206) 223-0626 or e-mailed to info@nwasianweekly.com. Please include an address and daytime phone number for verification purposes. Letters may be edited for grammar, clarity and length.