By LEAH WEATHERSBY

While most of North Seattle appears to have gotten through the Feb. 28 earthquake relatively unscathed, there are a few public buildings that weren't quite so lucky.

The Small Craft Center Shellhouse at Green Lake was red-tagged immediately after the earthquake due to major damage to walls, support pilings, roof structure and doors. The floor shifted five inches towards the lake. The shellhouse provided storage for the shells, a launchhouse and public restrooms.

"It was probably the most used comfort station in the state of Washington," said Belinda Gigliotti, Northwest Sector manager for Parks and Recreation.

There were also cracks in the path by the Aqua Theater structure.

The Parks and Recreation department has hoping to get permits from the City's Department of Design, Construction and Land Use to temporarily replace the shellhouse with a "prefab" structure the same size as the existing building. The cost will be about $17,000.

According to Gigliotti, the field house also sustained cosmetic damage such as cracked tiles, walls and some dropped ceiling panels. However, Gioliotti said the building was "structurally fine" and would reopen on March 19.

Some other North Seattle buildings also sustained damage.

Ed Medeiros, executive director of the Phinney Neighborhood Association, said both the PNA's blue wooden building on N 65th Street and Phinney Avenue N. and the brick building behind it sustained cosmetic damage such as cracks in the plaster.

The most damage occurred in to the brick building's smoke stack. Medeiros said the crack will have to be addressed before the next earthquake.

Ironically, PNA's Roger Ferris was teaching an earthquake preparedness class during the quake. It was a good teaching aid.

Buildings in Ballard's historic district and along Market Street suffered some damage. Rob Mattson, coordinator of the Ballard Neighborhood Service Center said that he called around after the earthquake to assess the damage. He said masonry buildings were particularly hard hit such as the 1801 Medical Plaza building, the Sunset Hotel, and Annie's Affordable Art which lost some large windows. Most damaged buildings suffered from non-structural cracking and broken windows.

North Seattle schools held up relatively well during the earthquake.

Of the Seattle public schools north of the ship canal, only Green Lake Elementary had to be closed due to earthquake damage some ceiling tiles fell, according to Lynn Steinberg, a spokesperson for the school district. The school reopened on March 2.

Eckstein Middle School also sustained minor damage: windows were broken in the library.

"We were very lucky," said Steinberg. She then added "it wasn't just luck, it was preparation." (