Gelb Building
The current residency for /dev/hack.
4534-½ University Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105. See Directions.
Rent is $2200/month.
We get offices A,B,C,D & H, sharing & subleasing rooms E & G to SCN, have shared access to kitchen, bathroom, meeting room, and utility closet. Andrew the Therapist subleases office F (User:Maia, User:Eliri, and User:Ellie have his contact, in case we need to access his office for electrical work, etc.).
Each office is roughly 300sqft
https://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/pcarch/id/1117
https://web.seattle.gov/dpd/historicalsite/QueryResult.aspx?ID=9
Occupancy
The entire space has been able to support maybe 50-65 people total, although it gets really cramped at that point depending on how often folks are relocating around. The kitchen, being the largest room can support 30 people without major reorganizations of it and 45 when setup to *just* have chairs.
Entering and Exiting
Our full mailing address is:
/dev/hack 4534 1/2 University Way NE Seattle, WA 98105-4528
All ZIP+4™ codes that work(unconfirmed) for us are: 98105-
- 4528
- 4511
- 4518
However, mail delivery is unreliable and you should not address mail to the space that you care about:
- Letter mail gets delivered to the bottom of the stairwell, but only our regular postie has the code. A substitute carrier will often leave mail with the City of Seattle University Customer Service Center below.
- There is no slot on the front door to slip mail through.
- Amazon/FedEx/UPS/other private carriers will likely not be able to deliver to the inside of the building unless you make them a code with HomeAssistant.
On the other hand, specific things require publicly listing your address somewhere (for example, ham licenses). Feel free to use the space as your listed address, but make sure to keep in touch with us / give us a place to send you your mail when we get it.
There is a PO box to use for official space business. if needed, talk to User:Maia
Package Lockers
Amazon
There are two Amazon lockers available within a short walking distance of the space (~2 blocks)
- Amazon Locker - Rhett (7-Eleven, 1105 NE 47th St)
- Amazon Locker - Slagle (Prof. Copy n Print, 4200 University Way NE)
Internet (external)
On move in, we were directed to Atlas Networks for our internet usage needs, they already had equipment so setup was pretty smooth. started with a one year lease, we're now on a month-to-month at ~$80/month
We have not pursued alternative providers, although there is an ever persistent fiber project in the works.
Internet (internal)
Mostly documented at Network
We have nics wired throughout the space, both rj45 and rj11, although they have strange proprietary faceplate connectors that are in limited supply
Electricity
Billing
as of 2025-08-18 we are charged a flat base service charge of $40.96 ($0.64/day) + the "small energy general" rate of $0.1241/kWh.
This comes from https://www.seattle.gov/city-light/business-solutions/business-billing-and-account-information/business-rates
Electrical Meters
There is an electrical meter at the back of the hallway near the large city of seattle power shutoff switch. This meter combines both /dev/hack eletricity and city of seattle electricity.
every time that disc spins around once it’s 7.2Wh
1.1Wh per radian
the meter for solely the /dev/hack floor is inside the comms closet
Electrical Circuits
The electrical breaker panel at devhack is located on the wall of Office F (Andrew the Therapist room), next to the utility room.
Do not enter Andy's without giving him a heads up first. He sees patients and has to get the HIPAA stuff out of sight first.
The following table documents known panel mappings.
Two boxes with arrows pointed at each other indicates joined breakers.
| Breaker # | Description | Description | Breaker # |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ↓ROOF UNIT↓ | ↓ROOF UNIT↓ | 2 |
| 3 | ↑ROOF UNIT↑ | ↑ROOF UNIT↑ | 4 |
| 5 | South side rooms lighting, excluding utility room | 6 | |
| 7 | North side rooms lighting, hallway, bathrooms, utility room | 8 | |
| 9 | 10 | ||
| 11 | 12 | ||
| 13 | ↓"GROW ROOM"↓ | 14 | |
| 15 | ↑"GROW ROOM"↑ | 16 | |
| 17 | 18 | ||
| 19 | 20 | ||
| 21 | 22 | ||
| 23 | 24 | ||
| 25 | Kitchen Sink outlet | 26 | |
| 27 | Server Room Outlets | 28 | |
| 29 | 30 |
Of note is that "grow room" refers to a specific 220V circuit within Andrew the Therapist's office & connected to the comms closet.
HVAC
We have both central AC & heating. AC is handled via vents in the ceiling and a roof-mounted AC unit. Heating is handled via radiators and a boiler in the furnace.
Thermostats
There are three thermostats total
We think two of them (near staircase bathroom and kitchen) control the air conditioning and one (near office e/SCN's side) controls the boiler.
Important: we're currently in the process of replacing all 3 thermostats with smart ones that can be added into Home Assistant. This will be expanded once they're all working. For now, the old Honeywell thermostats are deprecated and are expanded further in Deprecated Honeywell Thermostats.
Central Heating / Radiators
The radiators can be adjusted individually with valves. Sometimes the valves get stuck, and can be forced with pliers. Sometimes the valve will crumble when forced.
Apparently the central boiler can be adjusted via an unknown thermostat (see Deprecated Honeywell Thermostats). It can also be manually turned off at request of the landlord but that's an entire process.
Note: we don't pay for gas/heating.
Central Cooling
The central AC can be adjusted via the thermostat on the west side of the hallway, near the staircase.
Central AC exists as one or two roof units. Labelled on the breaker as such? We're not sure if the roof unit breakers actually match.
They take a lot of power in the summer.
We have two completely separate AC systems. One for the front and one for the back. The intakes are actually in a very convenient spot on both of them (right in front of the server room and utility room respectively, which are our two biggest hot spot generators)
Important: the information above is not electrically confirmed.
Every? room has vents in the ceiling.
Roof Units Close-up
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If the cooler thermostat isn't working, chances are the fuse was broken. According to null@, this is a "5A bladed automotive fuse".
Portable Air Conditioners
There are also various amounts of portable ACs hooked up. as of the time of this writing there is the Lounge AC and the Foundry AC. There is also the Server Room AC.
The power usages of these portable ACs should all be visible on Home Assistant and Grafana. Existing and new portable ACs should very much have Zigbee power monitoring plugs with them.
There is an ongoing experiment to swap the Foundry AC with the Server Room AC. You may see a window unit in the Foundry room; this used to be in the Server Room.
Filtration
Ventilation
There are box fans around. Most of the windows in the space can open.
Plumbing
Our kitchen sink doesn't easily get hot but allegedly does after a long time
The walls / "home" improvement
I'm fairly certain from drilling into the wall (when planning the bike wall) that its plastered drywall. At least between the kitchen and the meeting room.
Some of it might have been replaced at some point. The walls in the lounge, hub and foundry are all most likely original and quite thick without much space behind the plaster.
the walls at devhack are lath and plaster
Pretty much anywhere is good, just make sure you avoid electrical and pipes. Stud finder should help with that
Just use anchors
Security
Our space does have an automated security system that we have hacked.
Omni Security
Our point-of-contact w/ space security stuff are either Allen or his boss Jared.
Jared set up the security of the space a long time ago
Both seem amenable to our Security Hacks that we've implemented, although Allen is a lot more excited about it / thinks it's cool than Jared.
Current point of contact for security system stuff is probably User:Maia or secondarily User:Ellie / User:Zack
Admin
Our current point-of-contact property manager is Mike, handled via User:Eliri
Our maintenance guy is Ramón, very cool & chill.
Roof
File:File:Photo 4965379491992022403 y.jpg
Let's Make the Gelb Building a Historic Building
This information was copied over and expanded from https://bugs.devhack.net/ticket/719
The Gelb building is listed in the Pacific Coast Architectural Database and was listed on the Department of Neighborhoods Historical Site Listing circa 2012-2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20120609231132/http://web1.seattle.gov/dpd/historicalsite/QueryResult.aspx?ID=9
(This link without looking at an old version through the IA redirects to the seattle.gov homepage and does not appear to be active, nor does the Gelb building appear on the current historical site map.)
Why
"ensures our longevity, low rent, and the aesthetic of our home."
How can we do this?
This fund exists for helping preserve buildings in the state of Washington for up to $3000. Available if we put together a plan for next year in order to retain or return the building to a historic state. This fund is closed for this year as of 05/16/2025.
https://preservewa.org/programs/grants/valerie-sivinski-fund/
This would require us to be a member of the Washington Fund at the ‘Non-Profit Organization’ level or above ($75). https://preservewa.app.neoncrm.com/forms/general-membership-form
Might go towards starting to fixing the roof and part of the celing where it was damages by water ingress and helping to start the process on getting asbestos removed as mentioned in https://bugs.devhack.net/ticket/26.
How can you help?
Look into grant funding, state and city asbestos abatement programs and the like.