Be wary of strangers bearing art

The moral of this story is: Seattle is a city of thankless rubes who wouldn't know good art if it fell from the sky. Or from St. Louis.

No, wait. Others see a different message: That Seattleites are too grounded to fall under the spell of wealth and vanity. Or maybe it's only this: Don't mess with Capitol Hill.

Everyone's got a theory about one of the speediest NIMBY showdowns ever and why it went the way it did.

Here's the story: A wealthy art collector, Barney Ebsworth, once of St. Louis and now of Hunts Point, proposed an architectural showpiece — an 11,000-square-foot chapel — on north Capitol Hill.

It was designed by one of the most sought-after architects in the world, Tadao Ando. It was going to cost $15 million.

It was to be, Ebsworth said through his spokesman, an "artistic and spiritual gift to his adopted city."

It was received more like the arrival of bird flu.

In 30 years of practicing land-use law, attorney Peter Buck says he's never seen a community mobilize so fast — and so ferociously — against a development project.

"There were a hundred smart, connected people up there ready for war," he says.

Neighbors had legitimate worries about traffic on narrow streets. But it's a 140-seat chapel. It's not like Ebsworth was building a NASCAR track.

Something like hubris and secrecy, neighbor Steve Tarnoff says. He tried to have an open mind about Ebsworth's generosity but came to feel as if "some distant feudal lord had gathered the serfs to announce he has granted us this gift, which by the way will have his name on it and which only he will control."

Ebsworth, 71, refused to meet with neighbors. His spokesman said he is shy.

This prompted folks to form an in-your-face strategy. If Ebsworth wouldn't meet with them, they'd go to him.

They planned to confront him at a panel this week where he spoke on artistic taste. They were going to drive a convoy of 75 cars to his Hunts Point home, to show what it might feel like to have a 75-stall garage in his neighborhood.

But on Monday, only a month after the chapel was announced, Ebsworth gave up.

"Mr. Ebsworth has decided that the spiritual life of this chapel should not begin in an atmosphere of anger and hostility such as what was encountered on North Capitol Hill," read a statement. It added he would look for another site.

Some say this is typical Seattle: provincial about art, insecure about the rich, NIMBY to its core. Here's a guy trying to give us world-class architecture and we hammer him for it.

"Perhaps we should rename our fair city 'Hooterville,' " e-mailed Tom Bailiff, who knows Ebsworth and insists his generosity is genuine.

But Ebsworth's chapel has now struck out in both Bellevue and Seattle. In both places it was he who chose to stay hidden behind a curtain.

Who is he? I have no idea. Neither does Capitol Hill.

So maybe the moral of this story is really the one our mothers told us about not taking gifts from strangers.

Danny Westneat's column appears Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.