By JACK HOPKINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Nothing -- not even a 150-ton granite boulder -- can stand in the way of progress at Totem Lake, a vibrant mixed-use community at the northern tip of Kirkland.

Construction workers at the Evergreen Hospital and Medical Center know that firsthand.

They were hard at work on construction of a 600-car garage at the sprawling medical complex a few weeks ago when they unearthed the gigantic boulder.

"It was smack-dab in the middle of the garage site," says Gail Neubert, medical center spokeswoman.

"They were excavating and they came upon the boulder. They tried digging around it, and then they realized it went on forever."

With the existing 800-car parking garage behind the hospital bursting at the seams and medical staff forced to park in three temporary lots around the campus, abandoning plans for the new parking facility was not an option.

So demolition experts were called in. They drilled 17 holes in the boulder, which dwarfed the workers, inserted explosives and blew it to smithereens.

But it was done quietly.

First it was covered with dirt and a blasting mat made out of old, shredded tires to control the explosion and cut down the noise. It is, after all, a hospital zone.

"Because of the precautions, barely a 'thud' was heard," Neubert says.

Some of the larger pieces that remained after the blast are to be used in landscaping around the 35-acre campus. The rest was hauled away.

Evergreen Hospital Medical Center is just a part of the Totem Lake community, which is probably better known to most Puget Sound-area residents for its commercial development.

But it is a very big part.

Evergreen, like Totem Lake, has grown by leaps and bounds since the "little hospital up on the hill" was founded by residents of Kirkland, Bothell, Redmond and Woodinville in 1968.

Today, the hospital is just one of many services provided by Evergreen Community Health Care. Others include Evergreen Medic One, Evergreen Community Hospice, a large home health program, a head injury rehabilitation center, nursing homes, a retirement center and much more.

How much has it grown?

In 1974, there were 11,693 emergency-room visits and 3,898 hospital admissions, and outpatient services were provided to 13,120 patients.

In 1997, there were 31,507 emergency-room visits and 9,709 hospital admissions, and outpatient services were provided to 155,534 patients.

As Kirkland's largest employer -- there are more than 2,000 employees -- Evergreen dominates much of life in Totem Lake. But there is a lot more to the community, including abundant commercial development and little-known wetlands.

How those various uses will blend together in the future remains undecided.

But the city recently appointed a 30-member task force to draft a plan for the neighborhood.

"I know the word 'vision' is overused," City Manager David Ramsey says. "But we would like to have some sort of vision or sense of identity for the area."

Task-force members will look at all aspects of the community -- the medical center, commercial development, housing, the traffic system and the like.

"One thing we lack here is real good information on the area. And that's part of the scope of the study," Ramsey says.

A key goal is to make the different segments of the community relate better to one another.

"The task force is about connecting the pieces and making the most of the assets we have," says Kirkland finance director Marilyn Beard. "We want to end up with a more cohesive neighborhood and a place where people will want to be."

Finding a unifying theme for the community's future is something they are determined to accomplish.

And, like the medical center, if they come across any 150-ton granite boulders during the course of their work, they won't let that stand in their way.