Seattle School District Warehouse

Name:
Seattle School District Warehouse (formally, Central Supply Center for the Seattle Public School District No. 1)
Year Built:
1955-56 1255 Harrison Street 684920-0005 Entire Block 15, Pontius 3rd Addition and vacated alley. (See attached for full description) Pontius 3rd Addition Block: 15 Lot: Entire block
Street and Number: Assessor's File No. Legal Description:
Plat Name:
Present Owner: Owner Address:
City Investors XXIV L.L.C. 505 Fifth Avenue S., Suite 900 Seattle, WA 98104
Present Use: Warehouse
Original Owner: Original Use: Architect: Builder:
Seattle School District School district warehouse John Maloney Howard S. Wright Construction
Seattle School District Warehouse

Seattle Landmark Nomination
November 13, 2013
This report was prepared by: Nicholson Kovalchick Architects 310 First Avenue S., Suite 4-S Seattle WA 98104 206-933-1150 www.nkarch.com
Seattle School District Warehouse Seattle Landmark Nomination
INDEX I. Introduction II. Building information III. Architectural description A. B. C. D. E. Current neighborhood context Site Exterior and structure Building interior Summary of primary alterations 8 3 4 5
IV. Historical context A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H. I. The development of the Cascade/South Lake Union neighborhood The development and use of the subject building The previous school district warehouse Mid-20th century Modern architecture in Seattle Thin-shell concrete structures Thin-shell concrete structures in Seattle John Maloney, architect Jack Christiansen, structural engineer Howard S. Wright, builder
V. Bibliography and sources VI. Preparer and Reviewer information VII. List of Figures Illustrations
24 26 27-28 29-63
Site Plan Appendix A List of works by architect John Maloney Appendix B List of works by structural engineer Jack Christiansen Selected Architectural Drawings
67 68-70 71-74 Following
NK Architects Seattle Landmark Nomination Seattle School District Warehouse November 13, 2013 2
I. INTRODUCTION This report was written at the request of City Investors XXIV L.L.C., the current owner of the property. This building was originally designed by the architect John Maloney in 1955 (with completion of construction in 1956), to serve as the Seattle School District warehouse, called the Central Supply Center. In later years, it functioned as a florist warehouse. On January 4, 2006, the subject building was presented as a nomination to the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board, with a report authored by BOLA Architecture + Planning dated November 2005. The owner at that time was PEMCO Insurance Company. At that meeting, the Board voted 7 to 1 against nomination. Per the Seattle Municipal Code 2.12.850A, In any case where a site, improvement or object is nominated for designation as a landmark site or landmark and thereafter the Board fails to approve such nominate or to adopt a report approving designation of such site, improvement or object, such proceeding shall terminate and no new proceeding under this ordinance may be commenced with respect to such site, improvement or object within five (5) years from the date of such termination without the written agreement of the owner." This five-year period having ceased in January 2011, the owner wishes to re-nominate the property to ascertain its historical significance. This report was written and researched by David Peterson of Nicholson Kovalchick Architects. Sources used in this report include: Architectural drawings of various building renovations, obtained from the Seattle School District Archives, including original drawings and historic photographs. Records of permits from the Seattle Department of Planning and Development microfilm library. Newspaper, book, city directories, and maps referencing the property (see bibliography). Author's on-site photographs and building inspection, or by other NK Architects staff. Historic photographs of the subject property to assess changes to the exterior to the building. King County current and historic tax records, the latter from the Puget Sound Regional Archives at Bellevue Community College. The 2005 landmark nomination report for the property by BOLA Architecture + Planning, which included a list of structural engineer Jack Christiansens thin-shell designs at that time.
Unless noted otherwise, all images are by NK Architects and date from August and September 2013.
II. BUILDING INFORMATION Name (historic): Year Built: Street & Number: Assessors File No.: Original Owner: Present Owner: Seattle School District Warehouse (formally, Central Supply Center for the Seattle Public School District No. 1) 1955-56 1255 Harrison Street 684920-0005 Seattle School District City Investors XXIV L.L.C. 505 Fifth Avenue S., Suite 900 Seattle, WA 98104 Contact: Brandon Morgan (BrandonMo@vulcan.com) Warehouse School district warehouse John Maloney, architect John Jack Christiansen, of Worthington Skilling Helle & Jackson, structural engineer Original Builder: Plat/Block/Lot: Legal Description: Howard S. Wright Construction Pontius 3rd Addition / Block: 15 / Lot: Entire Block Lots 1 through 12, Block 15, Pontius 3rd Addition, According to the Plat recorded in Volume 2 of Plats, Page 13, in King County, Washington; Together with that portion of a vacated alley adjoining or abutting thereon, which upon vacation by the City of Seattle Ordinance No. 90486, attached to said premises by operation of law.
Present Use: Original Use: Original Architect:
III. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION A. Current neighborhood context The subject building is located in the Cascade neighborhood of South Lake Union, occupying the entire block bounded by Harrison and Thomas Streets, and Pontius and Yale Avenues North. Interstate 5 is located one block to the east. In past decades, the surrounding blocks were a mixture of low-scale light industrial businesses, warehouses, surface parking lots, low- and mid-rise office buildings, and a very limited amount of retail/commercial space, interspersed between much older single family houses, apartment buildings, and churches, which reflect the depth of age and transitional nature of this neighborhood. However, in the past decade, the neighborhood has seen increasing residential development, with multistory apartments, condominiums, and mixed-use buildings constructed at a relatively rapid pace. [See Figs.1-5 for current and historic site maps and aerial photos] Designated Seattle historic landmarks which are immediately nearby include: St. Spiridon Russian Orthodox Cathedral, across the street at Harrison Street & Yale Avenue N. Immanuel Lutheran Church, across the street at Thomas Street & Pontius Avenue N. The Supply Laundry Building, a block away at Republican Street & Yale Avenue N. The New Richmond/Metropolitan Laundry Building, a block away on Pontius Avenue N. between John and Thomas Streets. A 1975 historic resources inventory of the Eastlake/Cascade neighborhood by Victor Steinbrueck and Folke Nyberg (part of their citywide inventory project) describes three categories of historic building significance: significant to the city, significant to the community, or of no significance. Their inventory called out the subject building as being significant to the community. St. Spiridon Cathedral and Immanuel Lutheran Church, both across the street from the subject site, were called out as significant to the city. 1 B. Site The parcel is 256 by 360 feet and occupies the entire city block. Although the surrounding blocks generally slope downward from east to westparticularly noticeable in the blocks east of the sitethe subject site in appearance is relatively flat, and slopes downward about 10 feet from south to north. The building occupies nearly the entire parcel, except for the southeast corner, which is occupied by an approximately 120 by 128 foot parking lot associated with the subject building. Historically, the subject site had been occupied by the Cascade School of the Seattle Public School system. That building, with various additions, occupied the site from 1894 until demolished in 1955. A small, onestory wood-frame School Custodial Building (on tax records called the In-service training building with a boiler training room), which was associated with the Cascade School, occupied the easternmost edge of the parking lot on the site at least until 1955, and is visible in some historic photos. It was demolished some time after 1988 and replaced with additional surface parking stalls. Across the street to the west, there is an open park space and community p-patch called the Cascade Playground, owned by the City of Seattle. The site had operated as a playground since the 1920s for the former Cascade School. The playground features a zigzag style brick Art Deco entrance gate and restrooms at the northeast corner, which was constructed in the 1930s through the depression-era Works Progress Administration (WPA) program.
1
Nyberg and Steinbrueck, 1975, unpaginated.

To the southeast, south, and southwest, are the Immanuel Lutheran Church (b.1912); the Alley 24 Apartments and mixed use building (b. 2006) which is incorporated into and around the former New Richmond/Metropolitan Laundry Building (b.1917); and the Recreational Equipment Incorporated (REI) retail store and headquarters (b. 1996). The REI building was constructed partly on the site formerly occupied by the St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, whose congregation moved to a new church complex in the Montlake neighborhood in 1962. To the east are a surface parking lot and a four-story concrete parking garage (b. 1981), both owned by the PEMCO Insurance Company. The companys headquarters are located on the eastern part of the same block, facing Eastlake Avenue. To the north is the former Supply Laundry building (b. 1906-21), which is currently being redeveloped into a full-block mixed-use residential complex, in and around the older building. To the northwest is a modest, two-story wood frame office building (b. 1954) owned by PEMCO. To the northeast of the subject site is the small but ornate St. Spiridon Russian Orthodox Cathedral (b. 1937). For City of Seattle planning purposes, the site is located in a SM-85 (Seattle Mixed with an 85 foot height limit) Zone, and falls within the boundaries of the South Lake Union urban center overlay. C. Building exterior and structure The subject building was begun in 1955 and completed in 1956, following the design by the Seattle architect John W. Maloney. It features an early application of a thin-shell concrete roof, in this case, in the form of multiple barrels or corrugations, designed by structural engineer Jack Christiansen. The building can be classified as a Modern style design, with strip windows and planar surfaces architecturally referencing the International Style, and with the undulating thin-shell concrete roof reflecting an emerging mid-century construction technology. [See Figs. 55-74 for images of the subject building] The building is one story and measures approximately 227 by 255 feet in plan, with a 132 by 127 foot wing at the southwest corner of the site. Although an early 1955 rendering by Maloney shows only the northernmost portion of the building with four bays as the original basic design, the drawing set included alternate bids for larger configurations (see Sheet A-1). This southwest wing was completed essentially the same time as the rest of the building, and so if phased, it was a phase that followed immediately after the original structure. On the interior, however, a concrete block wall separates this section from the rest of the building. In overall design, the majority of the building is composed of nine 33-foot-wide barrel-vaulted bays oriented east-west, with the northernmost 60 foot portion of the building roofed with flat concrete slabs. Of the flat-roofed portion, the central third is steel trussed but unroofed, and serves as a loading dock. Of the nine barrel-vaulted bays, the five central bays extend from eastern property line to western property line, but the four southernmost bays are half that length, extending from the western property line to midparcel. These four southernmost bays correspond to the southwest wing described above. Structure is entirely concrete, with reinforced tilt-up concrete walls between cast-in-place columns which are expressed on the exterior as narrow, projecting piers. The entire exterior is painted a uniform pale yellow. The cast-in-place thin-shell vaulted concrete roof is 3 inches thick, with 5 foot deep integral edge beams which are supported either by end wall piers or by a single row of midspan concrete columns in the five central bays; the maximum span is therefore approximately 127 feet. Each vault/edge beam was poured separately from the next as an independent structural unit; the width of each edge beam is 10 inches, but 20 inches when cast against its partner. The undulations of the thin-shell concrete are expressed on the
exterior of the building with a 25 inch overhang. The overhang is not featured at the east elevation of the southwest wing; rather, the roof is flush with the exterior wall. The building generally presents blank walls at street level, except for the three loading dock bays at the north elevation; windows are restricted to a thin strip above eye level. A narrow and nearly continuous band of opaque-glazed windows wraps the exterior of the building on all sides except the north elevation; this height corresponds to a line just beneath the level of the bottom of the roof vaults integral edge beams. At the flat-roofed north portion of the building, this window band is flush against the bottom of the roof slab on the east and west elevations. The horizontality of the window band is further emphasized by a continuous, projecting concrete sill. Windows are steel sash, with alternating fixed and operable awningtype lights. (At the inside exterior walls of the loading dock, there are larger rectangular steel sash windows with opaque glass, lighting the restrooms within). The exterior concrete walls above the window band are smooth concrete, while below the window band they are textured with a vertically-oriented broom finish. D. Building interior Beneath the vaults, the interior is large, open, clearspan warehouse space. Floors and interior walls are exposed concrete. Ceiling height is approximately 16 feet to the bottom of the barrel vault edge beam, 21 feet to the bottom of a barrel vault, and almost 27 feet to the top of the vault. Due to the grade, the floor at the southwest portion of the building is approximately 3 feet below grade, with steps leading up to an exterior door on the southernmost portion of the west elevation. Direct vehicle access into the building is possible at a garage door entry at the northwest re-entrant corner of the parking lot which occupies the southeast quadrant of the parcel. Beneath the flat-roofed north portion of the building, there are a series of original rooms, including the loading dock receiving office, restrooms, breakrooms, utility rooms, storage, and a corridor. E. Summary of primary alterations The building is largely intact. Very few alterations appear to have been made to the exterior over time. Interior alterations have been largely to accommodate tenant requirements; for example, a two-story wood-framed office suite was constructed in 1989 against the east wall of the southwest wing; this remains today. However, the overall space retains the open atmosphere of a warehouse. Known, permitted alterations to the building are as follows: 1956 1976 1983 1989 1991 1992 1993 Repair column at southeast corner of building Install sprinkler system Alter interior for School District No. 1 PEMCO regrade/restripe parking; interior alterations Repair to existing exterior wall Alter interior for PEMCO Insurance Sprinklers
IV. HISTORICAL CONTEXT A. The development of the Cascade / South Lake Union neighborhood The subject building is located in what was traditionally called the Cascade neighborhood, but in recent years is sometimes considered part of the South Lake Union neighborhood in city planning documents. The 2005 South Lake Union Historic Survey and Inventory for the Department of Neighborhoods considers the South Lake Union area to be generally blocks to the west of the subject sitean area bounded by Fairview Avenue to the east, Aurora Avenue to the west, Mercer Street to the north, and Denny Way to the south. The older Cascade neighborhood is considered to generally be the area east of Fairview Avenue, traditionally having a closer relationship with Capitol Hill until the construction of the Interstate 5 corridor in the 1950s and 1960s. The Department of Neighborhoods 2003/2004 Cascade Historic Survey defined the boundaries of Cascade as the blocks east of Fairview Avenue to Interstate 5, and from Roy Street to Denny Streetthis is the area which includes the subject site. Both areas share common and overlapping histories due to topography and land use patterns over the decades. 2 [See Figs. 6-13 for historic images of the Cascade/South Lake Union neighborhood] The South Lake Union and Cascade areas were originally part of the pioneer land claims of the David T. Denny and Pontius families. 3 Dennys property extended from the south end of Lake Union westward to Elliott Bay, from Mercer Street to Denny Way. In David Dennys time, his land was nestled in a valley between Denny Hill to the south and Queen Anne Hill to the north. Prior to the Denny settlement, the area was noted for a large meadow and several Duwamish encampments, particularly where a small stream (today the course of Westlake Avenue) met the shore of Lake Union. The Dennys modest home was located at 8th and Republican. 4 Denny Park was originally six acres donated by David Denny in 1864 for use as a city cemetery, but was rededicated as a public park in 1883, becoming Seattles oldest park. 5 In the 1860s, a north-south military road was cut through the area, following an Indian trail (today's Dexter Avenue). David Denny subdivided his land into 500 building lots in 1872, but the area was relatively slow to develop, compared to the Belltown area to the south. 6 Rezan and Margaret J. Pontius had moved to Seattle from Ohio in 1865 and were farmers and major early landowners in the area, including large tracts in the Cascade neighborhood and west slope of the Capitol Hill neighborhood. 7 Their farmhouse was located near the intersection of today's Pontius Street and Denny Way. Rezan left his family in the late 1880s. Left alone, Margaret in the late 1800s platted and sold off their extensive properties as building lots in the rapidly growing city. With the profits from these land sales, she had by 1889 amassed enough wealth to build one of the earliest fine homes in Seattle, a huge turreted Queen Anne style mansion by prominent local architect John Parkinson, on the site of the old farmhouse. After her death in 1902, her estate was rumored to be valued at $100,000, and her home was subsequently used as an orphanage until it was demolished in 1930. 8
2
This section is derived from Thomas Street History Services, Context Statement: 2003 Cascade Historic Survey Buildings, Objects, and Artifacts, (2003, revised January 12, 2004); and Context Statement: South Lake Union Historic Survey and Inventory (2005). Both were prepared for the Historic Preservation Program, Department of Neighborhoods, City of Seattle. 3 South of Denny Way was the pioneer claim of the William and Sarah Bell family, which extended from Elliott Bay westward towards todays Interstate 5, and included the Denny Hill and Belltown areas. 4 The house was demolished during a 1911 regrade of the area. 5 HistoryLink.org, Seattle establishes its first public park, Denny Park, on site of the citys first municipal cemetery on July 10, 1883, Essay #7287, by Walt Crowley, March 23, 2005. 6 Historylink.org, Seattle Neighborhoods: Queen Anne A Thumbnail History, Essay 3414, by David Wilma, 28 June 2001. 7 The spelling of Rezans name varies widely in the literature; and Rezan may not be correct. 8 HistoryLink.org, "Seattle Neighborhoods: Capitol HillThumbnail History," Essay 3188, by Paul Dorpat, May 7, 2001; and "Lake Union Walking Tour," p.8, Essay 8166 (PDF format), by Paula Becker, July 27, 2007.
The area owes most of its character to transportation systems that developed around Lake Union and early rail corridors. Coal from Issaquah and lumber extracted from the lands around Lake Washington and Lake Sammamish were transported to Lake Unionand then overland to Elliott Baythrough a combination of boats, portage, and later, rail. A large sawmill was established at the foot of Lake Union in 1882, which was purchased by Denny shortly thereafter. From the 1880s to 1900, several industries developed in the area, including additional mills, several brickyards, and a furniture company. Also in the 1880s, horse-drawn streetcars were established in the vicinity, to connect the area to downtown via Westlake Avenue. In 1883, the area had developed enough to be annexed by the City of Seattle. The area developed single family houses, churches, a few apartment buildings, and a school as the residential population grewmostly workers for the nearby industries, through the turn of the century. The school was the Cascade School, which occupied the subject site from 1894 until it was demolished in 1955. This large, impressive structure was constructed of brick and stone, with the original central portion designed by John Parkinson, who also designed B.F. Day School in Fremont and the Interurban Building at the southeast corner of Yesler Way and Occidental Avenue. Later additions to the building accommodated an increasing student body over the decades. The building would be used until the 1949 earthquake, which damaged the structure to the point that it was declared unsafe. An illustration of the traditionally blue-collar nature of the neighborhood can be found in the blocks immediately west of the subject site, from Fairview to Pontius Avenues, and from Mercer Street to Denny Way. This strip of land was platted in the 1880s as The Fairview Homestead Association for the Benefit of Mechanics and Laborers addition to the City of Seattle. According to historian Paul Dorpat, the pioneer developers who platted the blocks intended to help working families build or purchase affordable small homes on small lots, and offered innovative installment plans. The c.1900-10 densely packed single family homes visible on the 1917 and 1951 Sanborn maps at the northwest corner of Thomas and Pontius, across the street from the subject site, are now demolished but were examples of these small worker houses. 9 The Cascade neighborhood was particularly noted for a wide variety of immigrant working-class populations which settled there. As a reflection of these various ethnicities, the area was dotted with a number of small but architecturally varied churches serving Russian, Balkan, Swedish, Norwegian, and Greek communities, as well as others. 10 Directly to the southwest of the subject site is Immanuel Lutheran Church, originally the Norwegian Immanuel Lutheran Church; to the northeast is the St. Spiridon Russian Orthodox Cathedral (originally made up mainly of Greek and Russian immigrants, but largely the latter after Russian revolution in the early 20th century); and to the southeast of the subject site was once the site of St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, established in 1916. 11 Numerous similar small churches were located throughout the Cascade and South Lake Union area. The 1909 extension of a rail spur and associated freight depot at Terry and Thomas Streets, connecting south Lake Union businesses to the Northern Pacific Railway, facilitated the continuing growth of industries in the south Lake Union area. The 1917 opening of the Ballard Locks and the Lake Washington Ship Canal (connecting Puget Sound to Lake Washington via Lake Union) spurred further growth. Over time, maritime industries developed, such as ship-related building and repair, particularly in response to the U.S. entry into World War I and World War II. The large Naval Reserve Armory was established at the southwestern shore of the lake in the early 1940s.
Dorpat, Paul, Seattle Now & Then: A footprint of love, Seattle Now & Then, The Seattle Times, January 30, 2010. Seattle Neighborhoods: Cascade and South Lake Union, HistoryLink.org essay #3178, by Louis Fiset, April 9, 2001. 11 Parish History, St. Spiridon Orthodox Cathedral, www.saintspiridon.org/history.html; and Our History, St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, www.saintdemetrios.com/OurParish.
10
Transportation-related companies established in the area as well. From 1913 to 1932 the first Ford assembly plant west of the Mississippi River operated at the south shore of Lake Union, in what is todays Shurgard Storage headquarters at 700 Fairview Avenue. Kenworth Trucks, founded in 1923, was located first at 506 Mercer Street, then two blocks north of the subject site at 1263 Mercer Street until 1946, when it moved to a location south of downtown. 12 The increasingly commercial aspect of the neighborhood over the 20th century is clearly reflected in period maps. The 1905 and 1917 Sanborn fire insurance maps show the surrounding blocks around the subject site largely as wood-frame single-family homes, with a very few small-scale commercial structures visible. There was slightly more residential density one block east, along Eastlake Avenue, which had a streetcar line. The large exception to this was the Hemrich Brewery, two blocks directly north of the subject site, at the southwest corner of Mercer Street and Howard (later renamed Yale) Avenue. By midcentury, the neighborhood was less dominated by single-family residences, and had become substantially more commercialparticularly associated with shipworks, laundries, building materials suppliers, and automobile-related sales and service. Two large laundriesthe Supply Laundry (b. 1906-21) and the New Richmond/Metropolitan Laundry (b. 1917)are located across the street from the subject site, and a thirdthe Troy Laundry (b. 1927, 1944-46, 1965-66)is located three blocks to the west; all have been designated Seattle landmarks. Another long-time commercial establishment in the area is the Seattle Times company, which moved from downtown to their new office building in 1931 at Fairview Avenue and John Street, eventually occupying the entire block, and becoming a major landholder in the area over the years. On the 1951 Sanborn map, businesses in the blocks immediately surrounding the subject property included a large number of apartment buildings, boarding houses, and lodging houses; five contractors storage yards and/or lumber sheds; two large-scale laundries and dry cleaners; a laundry supply shop; a large bottling works; three auto body or service shops; three automobile garages; a veterinarian; an upholsterer; a parcel delivery company; a fishing tackle manufacturer; an electric supply warehouse, a sign painters shop; and the Fuller Brush Company office and warehouse. Three events significantly influenced the character of the Cascade and South Lake Union areas in the middle part of the 20th century. In the early 1930s, Highway 99/Aurora Avenue was constructed in a below-grade right of way at the western edge of the neighborhood, substantially cutting the South Lake Union area off from the Queen Anne neighborhood to the west. In 1957, the Cascade and South Lake Union areas were rezoned as manufacturing areas, and no new residential buildings were permitted to be constructed there. Finally, in the late 1950s and the early 1960s, the construction of the Interstate 5 highway dramatically altered the relationship of the Cascade neighborhood to the lower flank of Capitol Hill to the east, and the creation of the Mercer Street interstate highway on-ramp just south of Lake Union altered the relationship of the Cascade neighborhood to the southeast shore of Lake Union. Together, these three events isolated the South Lake Union area generally, keeping the character of the area low-rise, light industrial, and with very little new development. In response to the increasingly automobile-oriented culture of the period, some parcels in the area were cleared and developed in the 1960s through 1980s as surface parking lots. In the early 1990s, a proposal for a huge, Olmsted-like park called Seattle Commons was proposed for an area four blocks west of the siteapproximately from Ninth Avenue to Terry, and from Denny to Lake Union, connected to downtown via Westlake Avenue. The project would have involved demolition of multiple blocks and closure of rights of way. The idea, which captured the imagination of the public and elected officials alike, ultimately failed at the voting booth, but it directed attention to the then-seeminglyunderutilized South Lake Union area.
12
Historylink.org, Kenworth Motor Truck Corporation incorporates in Seattle in January 1923, Essay 3192, by David Wilma, 10 April 2001.
Since that time, increased development has occurred along the Westlake corridor, several blocks west of the subject site between Denny Way and Mercer Street, and at the foot of Lake Union. Westlake, Terry, and Boren Avenues have been the focus of carefully planned mixed-use residential and office development, attracting new technology-based industries and an increasingly dense population base. In 2006, officials broke ground for a new streetcar to connect South Lake Union to the downtown core, via Westlake Avenue. Beginning in 2008, the Seattle Department of Planning and Development instigated a series of public meetings and studies to consider rezoning portions of South Lake Union, in order to increase building height and density, in keeping with its designation as an Urban Center. 13 New mixed-use and residential development has also occurred along Denny Way. Additionally, in 2010 the new 12-acre South Lake Union Park opened at the foot of Lake Union, adjacent to the Center for Wooden Boats and the new Museum of History and Industry location in the refurbished Naval Reserve Armory. Finally, the Mercer Street interchange (aka the Mercer mess) at Interstate 5 is currently being reconfigured to improve both traffic flow and a more attractive pedestrian connection to the south end of Lake Union. At present, however, many of the blocks east of Fairview Avenue remain the same low-scale, light industrial or office buildings from earlier decades. Cascade Playground was renovated in recent years, and immediately north and south of the subject site, the historic former Supply and New Richmond laundry buildings are being renovated into mixed-use residential and retail complexes. Finally, two blocks south of the subject site, a former Greyhound bus maintenance facility occupying a full block on Denny Way is being replaced with the first major electrical substation in over thirty years by Seattle City Light, in order to provide increased capacity to the South Lake Union and parts of downtown. B. The development and use of the subject building The subject building was designed in 1955 by John Maloney with construction completed in 1956 for use as a warehouse by the Seattle School District. Structural engineers were technically H. L. Worthington and John B. Skilling, but the actual structural designer was Jack Christiansen. The site had previously been occupied by the three-story c.1894 masonry Cascade School, which had been damaged during the 1949 earthquake. A February 1956 newspaper article, when construction on the building was almost finished (including the southwestern four bays), describes in considerable detail the construction process and the planned use of the building: Architects and engineers in this area have watched with interest the construction of the Seattle School Districts new central warehouse...which is now nearing completion... The building, which is 375 feet long and 255 feet wide, is of solid concrete. The three-inch-thick concrete roof, constructed in 33foot-wide corrugations, is supported by concrete columns at the center of the span and at each end. Each corrugation spans 128 feet from sides to center column. Pioneering for the corrugated-concrete roof was carried out in the all-purpose building at the Kenmore School. Ralph Burkhard was the architect. However, in that job the span was shorter, the corrugations were smaller, and the roof was poured in one operation. The central warehouse roof was poured one corrugation at a time, at intervals of several weeks to allow the concrete to harden. A single form for the 12-inch-wide beam and the single corrugation was made and used again and again. So that the form would not have to be torn apart, it was lined for each operation with an insulating board called Rockwood, made at Issaquah. The board was made of
Holmes, Jim, Directors Report, Zoning Changes for the South Lake Union Urban Center, Department of Planning and Development South Lake Union Rezone DIR, September 5, 2012, Version #2.
13
wood shavings and cement and it adhered to the concrete, but the form dropped clear when timbers sustaining it were removed. Each new corrugation was integrated into the previous one. Then the entire roof was covered with one-inch insulating board. A built-up roof of tar and paper completed the job. The troughs in the corrugations provide efficient drainage. Drain pipes are installed near the ends of the troughs. A rise at the end of each trough prevents runoffs at the sides. The building has three separate entrances on the Harrison Street side which will accommodate six of the largest-type trucks at a time. Each entrance is equipped with steel, roll-type doors. The open space over the loading station inside is covered with wire. Offices are situated in the remainder of the front section which is finished with a flat roof. In the main warehouse, which has 74,000 square feet of floor space, is a fireproof room for paints, oils, and acids. Also provided are rooms for lunchroom equipment, storage of soaps and detergents, food storage, business machines and electronic equipment, and a special work area of 5,000 square feet for handling and storing books. One third of the remaining stockrooms space will be devoted to work space and will contain 15,000 square feet of shelving, and checking and wrapping tables. Modern freighthandling equipment for the warehouse was obtained from government surplus supplies. The building is expected to save the school district thousands of dollars through more economical buying policies. It is the first warehouse constructed for the district since the 810 Dexter Avenue Building was erected in 1922. Warehouse needs grow in proportion to school population, authorities point out. In 1922 the district had 25,000 pupils. Enrollment now is close to the 90,000 mark. 14 The article also noted that the construction cost was estimated to be $500,000, or that the building cost $6.19 a square foot to build. According to the structural engineer Jack Christiansen, the multiple barrel thin-shell concrete design was selected because it was the most economical solution for providing a large clearspan warehouse space. 15 The building has always been used as a warehouse. It was used as warehouse space for the School District until 1988. That year, the PEMCO Insurance Company, headquartered across the street, bought the property and used it for vehicle inspections and as leasable warehouse space. For many years it was occupied by florist wholesalers and used as a floral warehouse. In 2006, it was sold by PEMCO to the current owners, City Investors XXIV L.L.C. Today it is used by several tenants as warehouse space, including as an office and partial staging area for an adjacent construction project. C. The previous school district warehouse The subject building was preceded by an earlier warehouse, also located in the South Lake Union area. In 1919, the Seattle School Board ordered the construction of a warehouse and shop building at 810 (or 822) Dexter Avenue North for Seattle School District No. 1. The building occupies the block bounded by Eighth Avenue North, Dexter Avenue, and Aloha and Valley Streets, two blocks west of the south tip of Lake Union, not far from the subject site. The building was described as concrete, three stories, measured 250 by 250 feet in plan, had an estimated construction cost of $160,000, and was completed in 1921. [See Fig. 14 for images of the previous school district warehouse] Besides serving as a warehouse, the building housed cabinet, electric, machine and plumbing shops, a book bindery, and a garage. 16 A large parking or service lot occupied the eastern half of the parcel. Photographs of the building show riveted metal sash industrial windows, a series of six sawtooth skylights at the
14 15 16
New public-school warehouse nears completion, by Alice Staples, The Seattle Times, February 5, 1956, p. 30. Cited in BOLA Architecture + Planning, p. 13.
Plan school warehouse, The Seattle Times, November 13, 1919, p. 37.
northern half of the building, and direct grade access to at least two floors of the building due to the sloping grade across the site. Today, the building windows have been altered but retains the sawtooth skylights, and is occupied by an automotive broker warehouse and offices. The designer of the building was Floyd Naramore, who was the School District architect from 1919 until about 1950, and the builder was Puget Sound Bridge & Dredging Company. Naramore was later a founding member of the Seattle architecture firm of Naramore, Bain, Brady & Johansen (NBBJ), which was established in 1943. In 1934, the warehouse/shop building was remodeled to make room for the Seattle School District administrative offices, which were to move that year from their previous location in the Central Building, at Third and Marion downtown. The move was estimated to save the School District $6,000 in rent per year. Alterations were expected to cost $25,000-35,000 and was performed by labor supplied by the Civil Works Administration. 17 In 1946-48, a new School District Administration building designed by J. Lister Holmes in the Modern style was constructed exactly six blocks to the west, at Fourth Avenue North, between Aloha and Valley Streets. The School District administrative offices moved there, leaving the 810 Dexter building to serve only shop and warehouse functions, until it was sold in 1989. 18 In 1954, with the annexation of the Shoreline School District by Seattle, approximately 4,500 more students and eight additional schools were added to the district. At least at that time, the shops served, among other things, to manufacture and repair classroom furniture for the school district. By 1954 and 1955, increasing demand for additional warehouse space led to the construction of the subject building at 1255 Harrison. D. Mid-20th century Modern architecture in Seattle Modernism in architecture broadly refers to a design approach in the 20th century which rejected traditional historical references and forms in architecture, particularly following the historical eclecticism of the 19th century, and instead embraced optimistically the new technologies and materials that were developing through industrialization. Typically, Modernist designs of any sort pursue such themes as clear expression of structure, flexibility of interior space, movement and dynamism, transparency, and avoidance of applied detail. The movement had its roots in the early 20th century work of European architects and educators such as Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The International Style, as an early incarnation of the tenets of modernism, has a formal and often highly intellectualized quality, as though seeking to demonstrate permanence as an established design ethosfor this reason it is sometimes described as High Modernism. As one standard architectural history text describes it, Where Early Modernism experimented freely in its search for a viable new architectural style, High Modernism gave the firm impression of having found one. 19 Contributing influences include the machine-age ideas of the Bauhaus; the abstract, gridded, and planar compositional art of de Stijl, Mondrian, and cubism; and the 1920s manifestos of Le Corbusier. In the latter, Le Corbusier emphasized the following: That a building should be raised off the ground on posts or piloti; that a building should have a flat roof; that a building structure should be separated from exterior and interior walls, allowing a free composition of the exterior and a free arrangement of walls to separate interior spaces (since these walls were not supporting anything); and that a building should have ribbon or strip windows. Le Corbusiers Villa Savoie (1928-31), near Paris, is often shown as the classic example of the International Style. The name
Work on school offices begun, The Seattle Times, February 25, 1934, p. 12. Thompson and Marr, p. xiii. 19 Trachtenberg, p. 522. Early Modernism here refers to very early 20th century avant-garde movements such as European Expressionism, and Futurism in Italy.
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International Style was coined in 1932 by architect Philip Johnson and art historian Henry Russell Hitchcock, for a Museum of Modern Art exhibition on contemporary movements in architectural design. Generally, characteristics of the style include: expressed structural systems; flat, smooth, often white or unembellished exterior surfaces; continuous bands of glazing, also known as ribbon windows; crisp or sharp details and edges; and an emphasis on horizontal lines. Later, the term International Style would broaden to include the application of the basic Modernist ideals to a wider variety of materials (such as steel and glass), building forms (such as skyscrapers), and various architects artistic interpretation. In the postwar years through the 1960s, the steel, glass, and planar Miesian version of the International Style, by Mies van der Rohe, rapidly gained adherents. In fact, the International Style eventually became just one facet of several expressions of the ideas of Modernism. Other expressions of Modernism in the mid-20th century would develop, often using traditional materials in new ways, or innovative building systems, as a starting point for a Modernist design ethos including concrete, ferro-cement, curtain wall systems, and many others. In Seattle, Modernism had been growing in popularity among architects since the 1930s and 1940s, with designers and educators such as Paul Kirk, Paul Thiry, and Lionel Pries leading the way. Thirys 1935-36 house for himself was radical for its day and is credited as the first to introduce European-style Modernism to Seattle. J. Lister Holmes was not far behind, and was noted for his Arnold Dessau House (1937-39), the Seattle School Administration Building (1951), and the Catherine Blaine Junior High School (1952) were examples of the International Style. A 1953 national AIA convention held in Seattle helped to put a spotlight on a growing body of Modernist and contemporary architecture developing in the region, as well as the booming development of suburbs throughout the 1950s and 1960s. 20 Modern architecture proved to be popular for commercial architecture applications. After World War II, American architects were heavily influenced by the Modern movement, and as they entered the postwar urban building boom, the sheer number of buildings built in the 1950s and 1960s sometimes resulted in average designs driven by a "pragmatic utilitarianism" rather than the more nuanced designs of Mies or Corbusier. 21 In the Cascade and South Lake Union area around the subject building, and Seattle generally, these pragmatic structures were sometimes built to house offices and the light industrial uses that were growing rapidly in Seattle at that time. E. Thin-shell concrete structures A thin-shell concrete structure is a reinforced concrete structure whose geometry is optimized to develop membrane forces for the support of the structure against gravity. 22 For spanning large distances in concrete, concrete is particularly suitable to structural forms that work entirely in compressionsuch as arches, domes and vaults. Using thin-shell concrete techniques, designs can achieve eggshell-like relative thinness, thus spanning great distances with the least possible material used. [See Figs. 15-24 for images of thin-shell concrete structures] Concrete, which is a mixture of stone, pebble, or sand aggregates with cement or a cement-like binding agent, has been used as a building material for thousands of years. It was used by ancient Romans in the construction of large vaults and domes, but the technique was lost after the collapse of the Roman empire. Romans mined a naturally occurring cement-like material called pozzolanic ash, which could be used as a
20 21
Ochsner, Shaping Seattle Architecture, pp. xxxiii-xxxiv. Roth, A Concise History of American Architecture, pp. 274-277. 22 Boothby, Parfitt, and Roise, Case studies in diagnosis and repair of historic thin-shell concrete structures, p. 3.
satisfactory binding agent when mixed with water. In 1824, Englishman Joseph Aspdin invented and patented portland cement, a manufactured calcium silicate powder (derived from limestone, shells or chalk, and shale, clay, sand or iron ore) which hardens through a natural chemical process when mixed with water essentially the cement as we know it today. Portland cement helped reintroduce concrete as a popular building material during the Industrial Revolution. As a structural element, concrete is strong in compression, but weak in tension. Refinements by the 1880s introduced steel reinforcement bars or wire in concrete, which allowed much greater tensile strength; in turn, the concrete surrounding the reinforcement protects it from the danger of fire, which can cause failure in steel. Accordingly, reinforced concrete buildings are generally considered to be fireproof construction. Because the component elements of reinforced concrete buildings are readily available nearly all over the world, concrete became a widely used and relatively inexpensive building material. In 1889, the first reinforced concrete bridge in the United States was built in San Francisco; and in 1904, the first reinforced concrete skyscraper was builtthe fifteen-story Ingalls Building, in Cincinnati, Ohio, by architects Elzner & Anderson with engineer Henry Hooper. Reinforced concrete structural frames like those used in the Ingalls Building, or like those used in many reinforced concrete buildings today, are generally formed into straight (and often rectangular) columns and beams, with traditional orthogonal connections. Thin-shell concrete shell structures, however, are designed to take advantage of the more plastic nature of concrete in order to exploit the geometry of the shape itself to derive additional structural strength and stability. Appropriately designed geometries can allow extremely thin, often membrane-like structural concrete vaults and wallsas little as 3 inches thick, or just the amount of concrete necessary to fireproof the steel reinforcement. Accordingly, the technique was touted as being highly economicalthat is, for providing a maximum span for a minimum amount of material. Thin-shell concrete buildings were often promoted over conventional steel structures as the most economical way to span large unobstructed spaces, since they often eliminated the need for rafters, purlins, or heavy trusses, and were considered fireproof (unlike steel, which requires additional fireproofing, and requires a final cladding material). To use concrete, formwork must be designed and built in order to contain the semi-liquid concrete; formwork has traditionally been made of inexpensive lumber by workmen on site. Steel reinforcement is laid out by workers on the formwork in an appropriate configuration based on structural calculations, and then concrete is poured by workmen standing upon the formwork, and finally finished by hand. Once poured and cured, reinforced concrete essentially acts as a single, monolithic structural unit.23 Normally, formwork is built on-site for a specific project only, carefully removed once the concrete has cured, and then simply discarded after use. Thin-shell buildings are generally labor-intensive, due to the construction of sometimes complicated formwork and massive scaffolding to reach great heights, and sometimes required careful bucket-by-bucket hand-placement of wet concrete at steeply sloping curves of the roof. However, in the mid-20th century advances in construction systems sought to use formwork (often metal or plastic) multiple times in order to make construction more economical. For some thin-shell projects, large building components are cast repeatedly in place using custom-built forms, or sometimes cast on the ground in custom-built forms and then lifted into place by cranes. Early thin-shell designs focused on domes and barrel (or cylindrical) vaults. Because of their popularity and widespread use, barrel vaults were generally and somewhat arbitrarily categorized as long, short, and intermediate, describing an approximate ratio of span width to length. Later thin-shell concrete designs investigated the possibilities of expressive, futuristic, and mathematically precise curving shapes such as
23
As opposed to typical precast concrete buildings, which are more like a series of components connected together.
hyperbolic paraboloids, which are saddle-like surfaces warped in two directions. 24 Simpler, folded plate forms were also employed. While some designs resemble smooth, continuous membranes, others incorporate thickened stiffening ribs (visible or hidden) for torsional stability or to create a lighter appearance. 25 Mathematical refinements for calculating loads and stresses continued to be developed for these increasingly nontraditional building forms, which greatly simplified engineering techniquesat a time before computers or even calculators, when all calculations had to be done by hand. Experiments in thin-shell concrete designs developed in Europe in the 1930s, for such utilitarian structures as market halls and storage buildings. Visually striking works from this period include a series of airplane hangars in Italy (Pier Luigi Nervi, 1935, destroyed), the Zarzuela Hippodrome in Madrid (Eduardo Torroja, 1935).26 Nervis work generally investigated the possibilities of complex, beautiful rib frameworks which supported thin shell roofs, while Torrojas forms seem to effortlessly support themselves without stiffening ribs, like sheets of curved paper. The introduction and early promotion of concrete shell structures in the United States was primarily through the efforts of Anton Tedesko, an Austrian-born German engineer who moved to the United States in 1932. 27 Tedesko was an employee of an innovative German design-build firm which patented a process of formwork, reinforcement, and concrete application for simplifying the construction of thin-shell concrete domes (which had been developed in the design and construction of planetariums). 28 The first thin-shell concrete building in the U.S. was a dairy pavilion at the 1933 Chicago Worlds Fair, but it was demolished when the fair closed. In 1934, the dome of the Hayden Planetarium at the Museum of Natural History in New York City was constructed following Tedeskos design, and was the oldest thinshell concrete building in the United States until its demolition in 1997. Tedeskos 1936 barrel-vaulted Hershey Sports Arena, in Hershey, Pennsylvania, attracted attention for its dramatic 232 foot span and 100 foot height; its 2.5 inch thick concrete vaults had stiffening ribs every 39 feet, and was the largest concrete shell in the world at the time. That building remains in use today.29 However, the thinness of the roof structure is not particularly apparent or expressed on the outside or the inside of the building. During the 1940s, the technique was popular with branches of the U.S. military for structures such as hangars, warehouses, shops, garages, due to quick construction and because they used a minimum of scarce strategic materials. Technological advances helped spur the technique, as wellprestressed concrete had been invented in the late 1880s, but it was not until 1951 that the first prestressed concrete structure (a bridge in Philadelphia) was built in the United States. 30 Prestressed concrete uses integral reinforcing steel placed in tension to create stronger and lighter concrete.
An advantage of a hyperbolic paraboloid is that, although it appears complex, it is geometrically classified as a ruled surface, meaning that the curved forms can be entirely created by a series of straight lines. In thin-shell concrete design, this means that the curved formwork can be composed of easily obtainable and inexpensive straight lengths of lumber. Many geometric shapes chosen for thin-shell concrete forms are also ruled surfaces, so that the formwork can be relatively easily constructed. 25 Stiffeners were sometimes hidden above the roof, to create a smoother, more membrane-like underside visible from the interior. 26 Peerdeman, p. 12. 27 Anton Tedesko (1903-94) died in Seattle in 1994. He had moved to Seattle in his latter years to be nearer to his daughter, who had lived in Seattle for many years. (Weingardt, p. 71). 28 Weingardt, pp. 69-71. 29 Boothby and Roise, Soaring or crashing, p. 7; and Schrenk, p. 295-96. 30 Prestressed concrete, Portland Cement Associates, www.cement.org.
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In the 1950s and 1960s, thin-shell concrete increased in popularity for building types which required large unobstructed spaces and whose program allowed a variable expression, such as industrial and warehouse structures, aircraft hangars and airport terminals, convention centers, and indoor and outdoor sports arenas. The use of thin-shell designs were also common at Worlds Fairs, due to their non-traditional, futuristic appeal. Thin-shell concrete also meshed well with the ideals of the concurrent Modern movementunadorned and visible structure, dramatic clearspan spaces, and opportunities for dynamic and highly expressive forms. The popularity of thin-shell concrete would begin to decline by the 1970s, as maintenance and cost issues began to become apparent. Construction costs were sometimes not attractive, given the labor-intensive nature of the technique. During construction, the unusual curving forms often led to difficulties in correctly pouring and finishing the concrete due to high-slump (ie, thick and low workability) concrete mixes. The roof shapes also led to problems in selecting, designing, installing, and maintaining appropriate roofing systems. These construction and maintenance difficulties could lead to corrosion and water intrusion problems later. The large-span industrial and warehouse buildings for which thin-shell was popular in the 1950s and 1960s would begin to be replaced with precast and tilt-up concrete systems, which were modular and relatively easy to construct. Because thin-shell concrete can take many forms, each with its own design possibilities and limitations vaults, arches, domes, hyperbolic paraboloids, folded plates, and even T-sections 31comparisons can be difficult. For many, the apogee of thin-shell concrete lies either in daring and efficient engineering, such as spanning great distances with remarkably thin vaults relative to the span, or in the uniquely beautiful architectural expressions that can result from the requirements of thin-shell concrete geometries. For example, the high-profile architect Eero Saarinen designed the simple but elegant eggshell-like Kresge Auditorium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1953-55), but later elaborated on the thin-shell technique to design the iconic TransWorld Airline terminal in New York (1962), which features dramatic projecting vaults resembling birds wings (but somewhat at the expense of an expression of thinness). [Figs. 15-17] The work of Felix Candela, typified by the seashell-like Los Manantiales restaurant in Xochimilco, a suburb of Mexico City (1958), exploits the geometries of hyperbolic paraboloids to such effect that there are no visible stiffening ribs whatsoeverthe entire building is essentially a single piece of concrete in which the structural forces are distributed in-plane throughout the concrete, evoking the thin simplicity of a seashell or a curved piece of paper. Finally, the Kingdome in Seattle (NBBJ, 1976, demolished), for which Jack Christiansen was the structural designer, was remarkable in having the largest concrete dome in the world, with a 661 foot diameter of cast-in-place inverted vaults between a series of unavoidable stiffening ribs, and covering almost eight acresan astounding feat at the time. [Fig. 54] F. Thin-shell concrete structures in Seattle Like much of the rest of the country, thin-shell concrete achieved a certain popularity in Seattle, which experienced a building boom after World War II. In the late 1940s and 1950s, the area required new schools, offices, warehouses and factories, institutional buildings, housingand much of this was being constructed in the rapidly expanding Seattle suburbs, the Puget Sound region, and in Washington State cities such as Yakima, Ellensburg, and Spokane. [See Figs. 15-24 for images of thin-shell concrete structures] Thin-shell was attractive to local architects and structural designers who were interested in experimenting with new technologies and Modern design concepts. The 1962 Seattle Worlds Fair, with its futuristic, space-age theme, particularly featured unusual or experimental buildings or construction techniques
31 The Pacific Science Center in Seattle (Yamasaki & Associates, with NBBJ, 1962), a designated city landmark, is an example of thinshell precast T-sections in the construction of the roofs and walls, rather than a vaulting system.
including the Space Needle, the United States Science Pavilion (now the Pacific Science Center), and many others. An early thin-shell concrete design in the Seattle area was the Kenmore School, designed in 1954 by Ralph Burkhard, with structural engineering by Hostmark & Mayberg. It was apparently the first in the area using a corrugated thin-shell form. A March 1955 newspaper article showing the curving corrugated roof form then under construction described it as follows: A four-inch-thick, reinforced deformed concrete slab will span the 50 feet across the new 94-footlong gymnasium of the new Kenmore School. There will be no inside supports. The 231-ton roof will be suspended from six large concrete piers along each side and from concrete end walls. It is the first time such construction has been used in the Northwest. The entire roof was poured in one day last week. It is causing considerable interest among engineers, architects, and contractors." 32 Welton Becket, an architect who began his career in Seattle but is better known for his work in Los Angeles in the 1930s through 1960s, designed a thin-shell building in Burien for the Tradewell Market grocery chain, which was constructed in 1957. The building, which was a prototype for the chain and intended to be followed by thirty more stores, won a 1959 National AIA Award of Merit for its innovative design. The structural designer was Richard L. Bradshaw & Associates. 33 Seattle architects employing thin-shell designs during the 1950s and 1960s include Paul Kirk, Paul Thiry, Perry Johanson, Fred Bassetti, and Albert Bumgardner, and John Maloney. Notable local works utilizing thin-shell concrete designs from that period include: Chief Sealth High School, 2600 SW Thistle Street (NBBJ, 1956-57) 34 Asa Mercer Middle School, 1600 Columbian Way South (John Maloney, 1957) Multipurpose Building, Mercer Island High School (Bassetti & Morse, 1958, demolished) Pacific Builder and Engineer Company, 1945 Yale Place East (Bumgardner & Associates, 1959) Shannon and Wilson Building, 1105 N. 38th Street in Fremont (NBBJ, 1960) Fine Arts Pavilion, Seattle Center (Kirk Wallace McKinley, 1961, altered) St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, 2100 Boyer Avenue East (Paul Thiry, 1962)
G. John Maloney, architect Maloney was a significant architect in Seattle and Washington State, best known for his mid-20th-century churches and educational buildings at various universities. [See Figs. 25-36 for images of other work by John Maloney] John W. Maloney was born in 1896 in Sacramento, California, and his family moved to Washington in the early 1900s. He attended Auburn High School, then the University of Washington, and later Stanford University. He served in the army in World War I. 35
Gym will have unusual roof, The Seattle Times, March 13, 1955, p. 23 or 29. Welton D. Becket (1902-1969), Architect biographies, Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, www.dahp.wa.gov. See also Burien store is prototype for 30 more, The Seattle Times, May 24, 1959, p. 25. 34 Chief Sealth High School was reviewed for Seattle landmark status by the Landmarks Preservation Board on April 16, 2008, but failed a vote of nomination.
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In 1922, Maloney established an architectural practice in Yakima, then a city of about 19,000 people which had grown explosively over the previous two decades. His most notable work in Yakima is the Art Deco style 1931 Larson Building, the citys first skyscraper at eleven stories. In 1943, he opened an office in Seattle, but continued to do work all over the state in future years. Although he operated as a sole practitioner, his office had a staff of about fifty architects in the late 1940s, which were managed for a time by Edward K. Mahlum. 36 A list of known work by Maloney indicates that the bulk of his projects were in the two decades of the 1940s and 1950s, with a handful of large projects in the 1960s. 37 His work primarily included college and university buildings, office buildings and banks, hospital and health care projects, schools, and churches. Many of the educational, religious, and healthcare buildings were for the Catholic Archdiocese. In 1963, he partnered with other architects to form the firm Maloney, Herrington, Freesz & Lund, which later became Mills John & Rigdon. He retired in 1970, and passed away in 1978 in Seattle. In the 1940s and early 1950s, prior to the design of the subject building, typical examples of Maloneys work include the design of the entire Perry Technical Institute in Yakima (1940); Holland Library (1950) and the Compton Union Building (1951), both at Washington State University in Pullman; two dorms and the Student Union Building at Seattle University (1952-53); Mary Bridge Childrens Hospital in Tacoma (1954); and Bishop Blanchet High School in Seattle (1954). All of these large, institutional works can be described as International Style buildings. Typical characteristics of Maloneys buildings include an overall long, low, horizontal massing, particularly emphasized by bands of windows, horizontal window hoods, brick courses, and long bands of unembellished wall surface; flat roofs; and some expression of structure. Maloney clearly had a preference for blocky, simplified rectangular forms which give an indication of their function, but notably includes massive curving forms at the Perry Technical Institute (1940) and at Bishop Blanchet High School (1955). Following Modernist tenets, his works generally avoid exterior ornamentation, although an exception is the thirty-foot-tall wall sculpture called The Reader, by prominent Seattle artist Dudley Pratt, at WSUs Holland Library (1950). In 1955, the beginning year of the construction of the subject building, other projects underway were Modern, curtain wall additions to both the Yakima County Courthouse and the Kittitas County Courthouse, as well as a mausoleum at Holyrood Catholic Cemetery in Shoreline. Maloneys firm designed other Seattle School District buildings for several years after the construction of the subject building, including Meany Middle School (1955), Asa Mercer Junior High School (1957, now Asa Mercer Middle School), an addition to Grover Cleveland High School (1958), and Rainier Beach JuniorSenior High School (1960). Like the subject building of this report, Maloneys design for the Asa Mercer Junior High School also incorporated thin-shell concrete roof elements, although on a broader scale than the subject buildng of this report. The range of building types, sizes, and uses on the Asa Mercer campus allowed Maloney to utilize thin-shell concrete roofs in a variety of architectural expressions, particularly in combination with
John W. Maloney, obituary, The Seattle Times, January 26, 1978. See also John W. Maloney, architect biographies, Washington State Department of Archaeology & Historic Preservation (DAHP) website, www.dahp.wa.gov/learn-and-research. 36 Edward K. Mahlum, architect biographies, Washington State Department of Archaeology & Historic Preservation (DAHP) website, www.dahp.wa.gov/learn-and-research. 37 John W. Maloney, architect biographies, Washington State Department of Archaeology & Historic Preservation (DAHP) website, www.dahp.wa.gov/learn-and-research. The DAHP website includes a list of Maloneys works, compiled by state architectural historian Michael Houser in 2009 and updated in March 2013.
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fenestration, covered walkways, and other architectural features (as well as over-all massing, open space, and landscaping). Besides projects for the Seattle School District, examples of Maloneys other work from the late 1950s through the 1960s include St. Thomas Catholic Seminary (1958, today Bastyr University), the chapel of which is known for its superb acoustics; St. Edwards Church in Seattle (1958), which features one of the longest-span long-barrel-vault thin-shell roof designed by Jack Christiansen; Blue Cross Hospital Insurance Company in Seattle (1959), a curtain-wall building; St. Annes Catholic Church and rectory on Queen Anne Hill (1960), which incorporates an undulating thin-shell roof; and the Lemieux Library at Seattle University (1966, altered). A list of known works by Maloney, compiled by Washington state architectural historian Michael Houser, is included as an appendix to this report. H. Jack Christiansen, structural engineer The structural engineering firm for the subject building was Worthington, Skilling, Helle & Jackson, with John Skillings stamp on the drawings as the principal, and Jack Christiansen as the structural engineer/structural designer. [See Figs. 37-54 for images of other work by Jack Christiansen] John Jack Christiansen was born in 1927 in Chicago, and grew up in the suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, a city known even then for a large number of buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. 38 Both parents attended University of Illinois in the early 1920s, his father studying dairy technology, and his mother mathematics. After high school in Oak Park, Christiansen had intended to serve in the Navy during World War II, but the war ended, and instead attended the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. There he received a Bachelors degree in Architectural Engineering in 1949, under a program of study which included both engineering and architectural history coursesincluding the history of modern architecture. There, Christiansen was exposed to, and inspired by, the revolutionary concrete bridges and thin-shell concrete structures of European engineers Robert Maillart, Eduardo Torroja, Pier Luigi Nervi, and others. Also at the University of Illinois, one of Christiansens primary professors was Newlin D. Morgan, who, with Yale professor Hardy Cross, developed a pioneering and now-standard method for analyzing statically indeterminate continuous frames. This technique, also known as the Moment Distribution or Hardy Cross method, dramatically simplified the number of equations that had to be solved in order to design complex rigid concrete forms. Christiansens growing interest in the design of concrete shell structures led Morgan to recommend that he pursue postgraduate studies under a concrete shell specialist at Northwestern Universitywhich he did, receiving a Master of Science in Civil Engineering a year later, in 1950. After Northwestern, Christiansen worked in Chicago for Perkins & Will Architects, and for Shaw Metz & Dolio. In 1952, Christiansen and his wife (who he had married during graduate school) were interested in moving their young family out West, so they drove to Washington State, where they had a family relative. Shortly thereafter, Christiansen joined the engineering firm previously known as W.H. Witt, which had formed in Seattle in 1923. Christiansen remained at the firm until 1983, eventually rising to become a senior
38 Christiansen biographical information derived from Modern Talk: NW Mid-Century Modern Architects, DocomomoWeWa Oral History Project, Jack Christiansen interview 6/15/2009 with interviewer Susan Boyle, unpublished manuscript kindly provided by Susan Boyle, BOLA Architecture and Planning. Additional information from John Christiansen, docomomo-wewa architects & designers biographies, www.docomomo-wewa.org; and
partner and president. During his time there, the firm as a whole assisted in the design many notable structures around the Pacific Northwest and beyond. During the postwar economic expansion of the 1940s and 1950s, the firm grew rapidly to take advantage of increased work. In 1955, the firm was known as Worthington & Skilling, and from 1959 to 1967 the firm was known as Worthington Skilling Helle & Jackson, and then as Skilling Helle Christiansen Robertson. In the 1970s, the firm expanded to open offices in New York and Anchorage. Later incarnations of the firm included Skilling Ward Rogers Barkshire, then Skilling Ward Magnusson Barkshire in the late 1980s, and finally Magnusson Klemencic Associates or MKA in the early 2000s, which they remain today. In 2013, the award-winning firm has a staff of 167, with offices in Seattle, Chicago, Riyadh, and Shanghai, and projects in 47 states and 51 countries. Projects for which the firm was recognized during Christiansens time there include the Pacific Science Center (1961) and Rainier Bank Tower (1977), both in Seattle; Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs at Princeton (1965); and the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis (1973). The firms most notable structural design work however may be the World Trade Center in New York City (1973). All of these projects are striking designs with complex structural solutions. Other Seattle-area projects include Seattle First National Bank Building (1969), the Nalley Valley Viaduct (1969), Safeco Office Tower (1975), the King County Jail (1971), the Museum of Flight (1975-87), and the Washington State Convention and Trade Center (1985-88), Christiansen himself is best known for his work on thin-shell concrete designs, and introduced the idea of using thin shell concrete into his firm shortly after his arrival in the 1950s. To a certain extent, his exploration into the field of thin-shell concrete design was self-taught, as there were not many resources to draw upon at the time. He also often included formwork designs and details, to assist builders who may not have been familiar with the emerging technique. His first thin-shell design was a low dome for part of a high school building in Anchorage, Alaska, in 1952. Many of his other early projects, during the 1950s, were located in eastern Washington cities such as Yakima or Ellensburg. According to a chronological list of Christiansens works, the thin-shell projects (by various architects, and noted below where known) located in and around the city of Seattle during the 1950s are: Evans Pool at Green Lake Park (1954) School District Warehouse (John Maloney, 1954), the subject of this report Nile Temple (Samuel G. Morrison & Associates, 1956 and 1957), now part of the Childrens Theater at Seattle Center Chief Sealth High School (NBBJ, 1957) Forest Ridge High School gym (1957), now the Seattle Hebrew Academy Highland Junior High (now Middle) School, Bellevue (1957) St. Edwards Church (John Maloney, 1958) Ingraham High School Gymnasium (1959)
Among his early projects, from the 1950s, are the Evans Pool at Green Lake in Seattle (1954), which was the largest intermediate thin-shell cylindrical barrel in the world at the time of construction; the Yakima Valley Jr. High School Gymnasium (1956), which had the first thin-shell pre-stressed edge beams in the United States; and St. Edwards Church in Seattle (1958; by architect John Maloney), which is one of the longest-span long thin-shell concrete barrel roofs in the United States. The Ingraham High School Gymnasium project (1959) included the first known use of prestressed shell, edge beams, and tied stiffener
incorporated into a cylindrical multiple-barrel thin-shell design, allowing a light and elegant appearance. [See Appendix B for additional Christiansen project descriptions] In the 1950s, Christiansen also helped develop a company, Shell Forms Inc., which specialized in standardized, portable, and reusable formwork for primarily inverted umbrella types of thin shell concrete structures, which allowed high levels of economic efficiency. Using welded wire fabric as a reinforcing material, the company was able to achieve concrete roof structures only 1.5 inches thick. Projects by Christiansen from the 1960s through the 1990s include Paul Kirk-designed buildings at Seattle Worlds Fair, including the Playhouse, Opera House, Exhibition Hall (1962); the King County Airport Hangar at Boeing Field (1962, pending demolition); the award-winning Rivergate Exhibit Facility in New Orleans (1968, demolished), which at 253 feet was the largest span long barrel vault in the world; the Federal Building for Expo 74 in Spokane; the SunDome Arena in Yakima (1988); and Bainbridge Island High School Grandstand (1990). Christiansens most famous thin-shell concrete structural design was for the Kingdome (1976, demolished), which was the largest clear span concrete dome in the world, at 661 feet. The design used a rotating formwork to cast each portion of the dome. In no small part because of this design, he is today credited with being one of the top six thin-shell concrete designers in the world. From 1984 to 1987, Christiansen taught at the University of Washington as an affiliate professor. From 1988 to 2002, he worked as a consultant and the principal of his own firm located on Bainbridge Island, where he currently resides. Christiansen was elected to the National Academy of Engineers and is a Fellow in the American Concrete Institute and American Society of Civil Engineers. 39 I. Howard S. Wright, builder The subject building was constructed by the Howard S. Wright Company, a long-time and important construction company in the Pacific Northwest. The firm was founded in 1885 in Port Townsend, Washington, by Howard S. Wright, a cabinetmaker and entrepreneur. In 1893, the company moved to Everett, and in 1929, to Seattle. The elder Wrights son, Howard S. Wright Jr., and his son-in-law, George Schuchart, took over the firm in the late 1930s. In the 1940s, the firm expanded into real estate ventures as well as construction. In 1986, the firm was purchased by Fletcher Challenge of New Zealand, and operated under the name Fletcher Wright Construction beginning in 1993. In 1996, the company was purchased back from Fletcher Challenge by a small group of Seattle employees, and returned to operations under the name Howard S. Wright Company. In 2011, the company was purchased by Balfour Beatty Construction of Dallas, Texas, one of the largest contractors in the U.S. at that time, and a subsidiary of London-based Balfour Beatty. Today, the Howard S. Wright Company is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, and has offices in Emeryville, California; Scottsdale, Arizona; as well as in Seattle. 40 Over its history, the company built many significant structures, including eastern Washingtons Grand Coulee Damone of the largest concrete structures in the worldbetween 1933 and 1942. In the Seattle area, the firm was the primary builder for the 1962 Worlds Fair, including the Space Needle (which was developed as a separate, privately owned venture by a group of local businessmen including Howard Wright, Bagley Wright, and John Graham). In the 1970s and 1980s, the firm worked primarily on high-rise, office complex, hospitality, and industrial construction, including Seattles tallest skyscraper, the Columbia Center, the first three buildings of the Microsoft campus in Redmond, and the Washington Mutual Tower
"John 'Jake' Christiansen, Architect biographies, www.docomomowewa.org, This section derived from History, Howard S. Wright corporate website, www.howardswright.com/about/history; and Space Needle builder Howard S. Wright sold to UK giant, The Seattle Times, July 1, 2011.
40 39
in Seattleall during the mid-to-late 1980s. In recent decades, the firm has done additional work on the expanding Microsoft corporate campus, the Pearl District in Portland, and the Fisher Pavilion at Seattle Center, as well as numerous other projects.
V. BIBLIOGRAPHY American Concrete Institute. Concrete Construction for the Century 21 Exposition. Papers presented for the 15th Fall Meeting, September 27-29, 1962, in Seattle Washington. BOLA Architecture + Planning. Landmark Nomination Report, Seattle School District Warehouse, November 2005. Boothby, Thomas E., and Charlene K. Roise. Soaring or Crashing? The challenges of preserving thin-shell concrete structures, in Preserving the Recent Past II, Deborah Slaton and William G. Foulks, eds. Washington D.C: Historic Preservation Education Foundation, National Park Service, 2000. Boothby, Thomas E., M. Kevin Parfitt, and Charlene K. Roise. Case studies in diagnosis and repair of historic thin-shell concrete structures, APT Bulletin, Vol. 36, No. 2/3 (2005), pp. 3-11. Boothby, Thomas E., M. Kevin Parfitt, and Mark Ketchum. Milo S. Ketchum and thin-shell concrete structures in Colorado, APT Bulletin, Vol. 43, No. 1 (2012), pp. 39-46. City of Seattle: Department of Neighborhoods, Historic Resources Survey database, www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/preservation/historicresources Department of Planning and Development, Microfilm Library, permit records and drawings. Department Of Planning and Development Parcel Data, 2010. www.seattle.gov. D.A. Sanborn. Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps. Seattle, Washington (various dates) maps accessed from Seattle Public Libraries, online. www.spl.org. DocomomoWeWa. Modern Talk: NW Mid-Century Modern Architects, DocomomoWeWa Oral History Project, Jack Christiansen interview 6/15/2009 with interviewer Susan Boyle, unpublished manuscript provided by Susan Boyle, BOLA Architecture and Planning. ESA Adolfson, Chief Sealth High School building historic value report, Seattle historic landmark nomination, September 2007. HistoryLink, the Online Encyclopedia to Washington State History. www.historylink.org. King County Assessors Records, at Puget Sound Regional Archives, at Bellevue Community College, Bellevue, WA. King County Parcel Viewer website. www.metrokc.gov/gis/mapportal/PViewer_main. Kroll Map Company Inc., "Kroll Map of Seattle," various dates. Link, Karen, Thomas Street History Services. 2003 Cascade Historic Survey Buildings, Objects & Artifacts, prepared for The Historic Preservation Program, Department of Neighborhoods, City of Seattle, 2003; revised January 12, 2004. ---------. Context Statement: Denny Triangle Historic Survey and Inventory, prepared for The Historic Preservation Program, Department of Neighborhoods, City of Seattle, June 2006. ---------. Context Statement: South Lake Union Historic Survey and Inventory, prepared for The Historic Preservation Program, Department of Neighborhoods, City of Seattle, August 2005.
Metzger, Rainer. Jack Christiansen Thin shell concrete in the Pacific Northwest, Column 5: University of Washington journal of architecture. Seattle, WA: Published by students in the Dept. of Architecture, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Washington, 1987. Nyberg, Folke, and Victor Steinbrueck, for the Historic Seattle Preservation and Development Authority. Eastlake/Cascade: An Inventory of Buildings and Urban Design Resources. Seattle: Historic Seattle, 1975. Ochsner, Jeffrey Karl, ed. Shaping Seattle Architecture: A Historical Guide to the Architects. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994. Pacific architect and builder. 1902. Seattle, Wash: Pacific Builder & Engineer. Peerdeman, Bart. Analysis of thin concrete shells revisited: Opportunities due to innovations in materials and analysis methods, dissertation, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands, June 2008. R.L. Polk and Company. Polks Directory to the City of Seattle. Seattle: various dates. Robinson, William Gregory. A History of Public School Architecture in Seattle, Master of Architecture thesis, University of Washington, 1989. Schrenk, Lisa D. Concrete-shell structure, in Sennott, R. Stephen, ed., Encyclopedia of 20th Century Architecture. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2004. The Seattle Times newspaper. Seattle, Washington. Includes previous incarnations as The Seattle Press Times, The Seattle Daily Times, and The Seattle Sunday Times. Segal, Edward. The thin concrete shells of Jack Christiansen, paper presented at the Proceedings of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures (IASS) Symposium 2009, Valencia, Spain, 28 September-2 October 2009. Shell Forms, Inc. Shell Forms: Safe...functional...beautiful: All-concrete Commercial and Industrial Buildings, pamphlet. Undated. Shell Forms Inc., Box F., Kirkland WA 98033. Thompson, Nile and Carolyn Marr. Building for Learning: Seattle Public School Histories, 1862-2000. Seattle: School Histories Committee, Seattle School District, 2002. Washington State Division of Archives and Record Management. Historic Photo and Assessor Documentation. Weingardt, Richard G., P.E., Anton Tedesko: Father of thin-shell concrete construction in America, Structure magazine, April 2007, pp. 69-71. Woodbridge, Sally, and Roger Montgomery. A Guide to Architecture in Washington State. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1980. Interviews: Christiansen, Jack, structural engineer of the subject building, email correspondence by David Peterson, August 2013. Houser, Michael, Washington State Architectural Historian, Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, email correspondence by David Peterson, August 2013.
VI. PREPARER AND REVIEWER INFORMATION Submitted & Prepared by: Nicholson Kovalchick Architects 310 First Avenue S., Suite 4-S Seattle WA 98104 Phone: Contact: Email: Direct: 206-933-1150 David Peterson david@nkarch.com 206-494-9791
Date:
November 8, 2013
Reviewed by:
Date:
VII. LIST OF FIGURES Current and historic site maps and aerial photos
Fig. 1 Aerial photograph of the neighborhood in 2013. Fig. 2 Map of neighborhood in 2013. Fig. 3 Zoning and parcel maps of site in 2013. Fig. 4 1912 Baist map. Fig. 5 1951 Sanborn fire insurance map. Fig. 6 View of Lake Union and the neighborhood in the 1880s. Fig. 7 South Lake Union in the 1890s. Fig. 8 Cascade School, undated but possibly c.1950. Fig. 9 Supply Laundry in 1917, one block north of the subject site. Fig. 10 St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in 1921, once across the street from the subject site. Fig. 11 Typical Cascade worker cottages in 1937. Fig. 12 St. Spiridon Russian Orthodox Cathedral, in 1953. Fig. 13 Aerial view in 1962, showing the largely light industrial character of the neighborhood.
29 29 30 30 31 32 32 32 33 33 33 34 34 35 36 36 36 37 37 38 39 39 39
Historic images of the Cascade/South Lake Union neighborhood
The previous school district warehouse Thin-shell concrete structures
Fig. 14 This page: The Seattle School District Warehouse and Shop Building (Floyd Naramore, 1921). Fig. 15 Early thin-shell concrete structures. Fig. 16 Mid-century thin-shell concrete structures. Fig. 17 Mid-century thin-shell concrete structures. Fig. 18 Upper two images: Chief Sealth High School (NBBJ, 1956-57). Fig. 19 Chief Sealth High School, aerial view (NBBJ, 1956-57). Fig. 20 Tradewell Market prototype building, Burien, Washington (Weldon Becket & Assoc., 1957). Fig. 21 Pacific Builder and Engineer Company, 1945 Yale Place East (Bumgardner & Associates, 1959). Fig. 22 Ingraham High School Multipurpose Building (NBBJ, 1959). Fig. 23 St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, 2100 Boyer Avenue East (Paul Thiry, 1962).
Fig. 24 Larson Building, Yakima (Maloney, 1931). Fig. 25 Perry Technical Institute, Yakima (Maloney, 1940). Fig. 26 Holland Library under construction, Washington State University, Pullman (Maloney, 1950). Fig. 27 Compton Student Union, Washington State University, Pullman (Maloney, 1951). Fig. 28 Bishop Blanchet High School, Seattle (Maloney, 1955). Fig. 29 Mary Bridge Childrens Hospital, Tacoma (Maloney, 1955). Fig. 30 Asa Mercer Junior High School, Seattle (Maloney, 1957). (SPSA) Fig. 31 Aerial view of Asa Mercer Junior High School, Seattle (Maloney, 1957). Fig. 32 Two images above: St. Benedicts Catholic Church, Wallingford (Maloney, 1958) Fig. 33 Blue Cross Building, Seattle (Maloney, 1958) Fig. 34 Rainier Beach School, Seattle (Maloney, 1959) Fig. 35 Three images above: St. Annes Church, Queen Anne Hill, Seattle (Maloney, 1960) Fig. 36 Seattle University's Lemieux Library, Seattle (Maloney, Herrington, Freesz & Lund, 1966). Fig. 37 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Anchorage High School dome (1952). Fig. 38 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Evans Pool at Seattles Green Lake, exterior (1954). Fig. 39 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Evans Pool at Seattles Green Lake, interior (1954). Fig. 40 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Seattle School District Warehouse (1955-56). Fig. 41 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: West Valley High School gym, Yakima (1956, altered). Fig. 42 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Shriners Nile Temple (Samuel G. Morrison & Assoc., 1956).
Other work by architect John Maloney
40 40 41 41 42 42 43 43 44 44 44 45 45 46 46 47 47 47 48
Other work by structural engineer Jack Christiansen
Fig. 43 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Shriners Nile Temple (Samuel G. Morrison & Assoc., 1956). Fig. 44 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Forest Ridge School Gym, Seattle (1957). Fig. 45 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: B-52 hangar, Larsen AFB, Moses Lake, Washington (1956). Fig. 46 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: St. Edwards Church, Seattle (John Maloney, 1958) Fig. 47 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Shell Forms, Incorporated. Fig. 48 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Ingraham High School Gym, exterior (1959) Fig. 49 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Ingraham High School Gym, interior (1959) Fig. 50 This page: Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Mercer Island High School Multipurpose Building. Fig. 51 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Boeing Field maintenance hangar, Seattle Fig. 52 Five images above: Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: International Mall, Seattle Worlds Fair Fig. 53 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Rivergate Exhibit Facility, New Orleans (1968, demolished). Fig. 54 Three images: Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Kingdome, Seattle (NBBJ, 1976, demolished). Fig. 55 Rendering by John Maloney, 1955, showing the initially proposed Basic bid building. Fig. 56 Detail of suggested formwork by Jack Christiansen (Original drawing set, sheet S-3, 1955) Fig. 57 Northeast corner, 1956. Fig. 58 Northwest corner, 1956. Fig. 59 School Custodial Building in 1956, and partial view of south elevation. Fig. 60 West facade, 1960. (SPSA 601-19) Fig. 61 Aerial view, 1960. (SPSA 601-18) Fig. 62 Simplified building plan, 1957, showing building as completed (compare to photo above). Fig. 63 North elevation, 1960. (SPSA 601-20) Fig. 64 West elevation and roof, looking southwest, 2013. Fig. 65 West elevation and roof, looking northwest, 2013. Fig. 66 North and west elevations, 2013. Fig. 67 West elevation and south elevations, 2013. Fig. 68 East elevation of southwest wing, showing parking lot, 2013. Fig. 68 Re-entrant southeast corner of building facing parking lot, 2013 Fig. 69 North elevation, 2013. Fig. 70 Detail of exterior wall, window, roof overhang, 2013. Fig. 71 Loading dock at north end of building, 2013. Fig. 72 Loading dock at north end of building, 2013. Fig. 73 Interior of main portion of building looking east, 2013. Fig. 75 Interior of main portion of building looking north, 2013. Fig. 76 Interior of main portion of building looking east from upper platform, 2013. Fig. 77 Detail, interior column, 2013. Fig. 78 Detail, interior column engaged at exterior wall, 2013. Fig. 79 Interior of southwest wing looking south, 2013. Fig. 80 Interior of southwest wing looking west to southwest corner of building, 2013.
48 48 49 49 49 50 50 51 52 52 53 53 54 54 55 55 56 56 57 57 58 58 59 59 60 60 61 61 62 62 63 63 64 64 65 65 66 66
Historic images of the subject building
Current images of the subject building
Note The abbreviations below are used in source citations for the following figures and images: SMA MOHAI UWSC SPSA Seattle Municipal Archives Museum of History and Industry University of Washington Special Collections Seattle Public Schools Archives
Fig. 1 Aerial photograph of the neighborhood in 2013. North is up. Subject site indicated by red box. (Google maps, www.google.com)
Fig. 2 Map of neighborhood in 2013. North is up. Subject site indicated by red box. (Google maps, www.google.com)
Fig. 3 Zoning and parcel maps of site in 2013. North is up. Subject site indicated by yellow shading and red dotted box. The I-5 right of way is at far right. (Seattle Department of Planning and Development zoning and GIS maps)
Fig. 4 1912 Baist map. Cascade School at lower center, in red; later the location of the subject building.
Fig. 5 1951 Sanborn fire insurance map. Cascade School at lower center; later the location of the subject building, indicated by red dotted box.
Fig. 6 View of Lake Union and the neighborhood in the 1880s. From about Fairview Avenue & Thomas Street, two blocks west of the subject site. (www.pauldorpat.com)
Fig. 7 South Lake Union in the 1890s. (www.pauldorpat.com)
Fig. 8 Cascade School, undated but possibly c.1950. This building occupied the subject site from 1894 to 1955. (www.pauldorpat.com)
Fig. 9 Supply Laundry in 1917, one block north of the subject site. Located at the southwest corner of Yale & Republican. (MOHAI Webster & Stevens Collection 2010-52-2)
Fig. 10 St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in 1921, once across the street from the subject site. Now occupied by the REI building, at the corner of Yale Avenue & Thomas Street. (www.pauldorpat.com)
Fig. 11 Typical Cascade worker cottages in 1937. Located at northeast corner of Minor Avenue and Thomas Street; these were part of the Fairview Homestead Association for the Benefit of Mechanics and Laborers Addition to the City of Seattle. The Cascade School visible in the distance. (Tax assessor photo, via www.pauldorpat.com)
Fig. 12 St. Spiridon Russian Orthodox Cathedral, in 1953. Located across from the subject site, at the northeast corner of Yale & Harrison. (SMA 44776)
Fig. 13 Aerial view in 1962, showing the largely light industrial character of the neighborhood. North is left. Interstate 5 is under construction at the top of the photo. Other cross-neighborhood arterials show the impact of the automobile on the area. Subject building at red arrow. (SMA 73481)
Fig. 14 This page: The Seattle School District Warehouse and Shop Building (Floyd Naramore, 1921). Located at 810 Dexter Avenue, the building also served as School District headquarters from 1934 to 1948. (Top row: SPSA, from scrapbook; Middle row: SPSA #601-5 and 601-21; Bottom row: Seattle Times, August 28, 1954, p.18, and tax assessor photo)
Fig. 15 Early thin-shell concrete structures. (Left) Zarzuela Hippodrome in Madrid (Eduardo Torroja, 1935); (Right) Airplane hangar, Italy (Pier Luigi Nervi, 1935, destroyed). (Both images, source unknown)
Fig. 16 Mid-century thin-shell concrete structures. (Left) Kresge Auditorium, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Eero Saarinen, 1953-55) (MIT DOME #116239_cp); (Right) Los Manantiales restaurant, Xochimilco, Mexico City (Felix Candela, 1958).
Fig. 17 Mid-century thin-shell concrete structures. (Left and right) TransWorld Airlines terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport, exterior and interior, New York City (Eero Saarinen, 1962).
Fig. 18 Upper two images: Chief Sealth High School (NBBJ, 1956-57). (Photos courtesy of Bassetti Architects)
Fig. 19 Chief Sealth High School, aerial view (NBBJ, 1956-57). (SPSA image #018-1)
Fig. 20 Tradewell Market prototype building, Burien, Washington (Weldon Becket & Assoc., 1957). An example of the popularity of thin-shell concrete. Winner of the 1959 National AIA Award of Merit. (Image courtesy of Michael Houser, Washington State DAHP)
Fig. 21 Pacific Builder and Engineer Company, 1945 Yale Place East (Bumgardner & Associates, 1959).
Fig. 22 Ingraham High School Multipurpose Building (NBBJ, 1959).
Fig. 23 St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, 2100 Boyer Avenue East (Paul Thiry, 1962). (Photos by Joe Mabel)
Fig. 24 Larson Building, Yakima (Maloney, 1931). (www.yakimawa.gov)
Fig. 25 Perry Technical Institute, Yakima (Maloney, 1940). (www.perrytech.edu/alumni/history)

Fig. 26 Holland Library under construction, Washington State University, Pullman (Maloney, 1950). (WSU Libraries Digital Collection neg. #78-460)
Fig. 27 Compton Student Union, Washington State University, Pullman (Maloney, 1951). (Image source unknown)
Fig. 28 Bishop Blanchet High School, Seattle (Maloney, 1955). (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, November 6, 1955, from www.seattlearchdiocese.org/Archives/history)
Fig. 29 Mary Bridge Childrens Hospital, Tacoma (Maloney, 1955). (Tacoma Public Library #A108753-1-CLD-16).
Fig. 30 Asa Mercer Junior High School, Seattle (Maloney, 1957). (SPSA)
Fig. 31 Aerial view of Asa Mercer Junior High School, Seattle (Maloney, 1957). (SPSA #110-3)
Fig. 32 Two images above: St. Benedicts Catholic Church, Wallingford (Maloney, 1958) (Left: Google Streetview; Right: www.stbens.net)
Fig. 33 Blue Cross Building, Seattle (Maloney, 1958) (DAHP and www.docomomo-wewa.org).
Fig. 34 Rainier Beach School, Seattle (Maloney, 1959) (SPSA, photo by Mary Randlett, 2000)
Fig. 35 Three images above: St. Annes Church, Queen Anne Hill, Seattle (Maloney, 1960)
Fig. 36 Seattle University's Lemieux Library, Seattle (Maloney, Herrington, Freesz & Lund, 1966). (Image source unknown)
Fig. 37 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Anchorage High School dome (1952). With a 60 foot diameter, this was Christiansens first thin-shell design. (Anchorage Museum of History)
Fig. 38 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Evans Pool at Seattles Green Lake, exterior (1954). At 60 x 110 feet, the largest intermediate thin-shell barrel vault in the world at that time, and Christiansens second thin-shell work.
Fig. 39 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Evans Pool at Seattles Green Lake, interior (1954).
Fig. 40 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Seattle School District Warehouse (John Maloney,1955-56).
Fig. 41 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: West Valley High School gym, Yakima (1956, altered). Cylindrical multiple short barrels, with 19 x 175 span. Note stiffening ribs. (West Valley School District, www2.wvsd208.org)
Fig. 42 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Shriners Nile Temple (Samuel G. Morrison & Assoc., 1956). Now part of the Seattle Childrens Theater at Seattle Center. Christiansens third thin-shell project in Seattle, this structure features cylindrical, multiple barrels with 16 x 58 foot spans. (Image from Seattle Times, November 13, 1955).
Fig. 43 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Shriners Nile Temple (Samuel G. Morrison & Assoc., 1956).
Fig. 44 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Forest Ridge School Gym, Seattle (1957). Now Seattle Hebrew Academy. Another example of early multiple barrels, with a 15 x 80 foot span. (tax assessor photos)
Fig. 45 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: B-52 hangar, Larsen AFB, Moses Lake, Washington (1956). Cylindrical, intermediate multiple barrels with arch stiffeners, each bay has a 220 foot clear span. At overall dimensions of 376 x 1,068 feet, the largest shell concrete hangar in the world. (Image from Metzger, p. 11)
Fig. 46 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: St. Edwards Church, Seattle (John Maloney, 1958) At 43 x 153 feet, one of the longest-span, long barrel thin-shell vaults in the U.S.
Fig. 47 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Shell Forms, Incorporated. Showing inverted umbrella thin-shell concrete transportable formwork, and resulting structures. (Images from Jack Christiansen, in Segal, pp. 1624-1625).
. Fig. 48 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Ingraham High School Gym, exterior (1959) 32 x 115 feet span, multiple barrels with pre-stressed shell, edge beam, and tied stiffenerthe first such known use in the U.S. Pre-stressing allowed a lighter overall structure and appearance.
Fig. 49 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Ingraham High School Gym, interior (1959)
Fig. 50 This page: Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Mercer Island High School Multipurpose Building. (Bassetti & Morse,1958, demolished 2010). Showing cast-in-place construction formwork and finished interior. (Upper two images from MOHAI, Art Hupy collection, MPH210 and 209; Lower two images from Pacific Architect and Builder magazine, December 1959, pp. 27 and 29.)
Fig. 51 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Boeing Field maintenance hangar, Seattle (1962, pending demolition). Multiple hyperbolic paraboloid barrel vaults, with abutments; 25 x 240 foot span. Also known as the Quad 7 Hangar. (Image from Washington Trust for Historic Preservation)
Fig. 52 Five images above: Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: International Mall, Seattle Worlds Fair (Walker & McGough, 1962, demolished). Lower row of images shows use of portable, reusable formwork for thin-shell hyperbolic paraboloid forms used in the on-site cast-in-place process. (Upper image: MOHAI 1965-3598-27-8-11; Lower four images from M. Proctor, Movable forms for six-sided hyperbolic shells, American Concrete Institute, Concrete Construction for the Century 21 Exposition, p.4 )
. Fig. 53 Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Rivergate Exhibit Facility, New Orleans (1968, demolished). (Tulane University School of Architecture digital collection, 95-39244)
Fig. 54 Three images: Structural engineer Jack Christiansen: Kingdome, Seattle (NBBJ, 1976, demolished). (Top row, both images: SMA; Bottom image: Seattle Times, from Pennsylvania State University Department of Architectural Engineering, www.engr.psu.edu)
Fig. 55 Rendering by John Maloney, 1955, showing the initially proposed Basic bid building. The drawing set supported alternate bids for a larger configurations (see the plot plan in drawing set Sheet A-1). As finally completed, the structure included one more full-length bay than shown above, plus four half-length bays. (SPSA)
Fig. 56 Detail of suggested formwork by Jack Christiansen (Original drawing set, sheet S-3, 1955)
Fig. 57 Northeast corner, 1956. (Tax assessor photo)
Fig. 58 Northwest corner, 1956. (Tax assessor photo)
Fig. 59 School Custodial Building in 1956, and partial view of south elevation. The custodial building predated the warehouse and was demolished some time after 1988. (Tax assessor photo)
Fig. 60 West facade, 1960. (SPSA 601-19)
Fig. 61 Aerial view, 1960. (SPSA 601-18)
Fig. 62 Simplified building plan, 1957, showing building as completed (compare to photo above). North is left. Note the School Custodial Building shown at upper right, which was constructed as an auxiliary structure to the Cascade School, predating the subject building. (SPSA
Fig. 63 North elevation, 1960. (SPSA 601-20)
Fig. 64 West elevation and roof, looking southwest, 2013.
Fig. 65 West elevation and roof, looking northwest, 2013.
Fig. 66 North and west elevations, 2013.

Fig. 67 West elevation and south elevations, 2013.
Fig. 68 East elevation of southwest wing, showing parking lot, 2013.

Fig. 69 Re-entrant southeast corner of building facing parking lot, 2013
Fig. 70 North elevation, 2013.

Fig. 71 Detail of exterior wall, window, roof overhang, 2013.
Fig. 72 Loading dock at north end of building, 2013.

Fig. 73 Loading dock at north end of building, 2013.
Fig. 74 Interior of main portion of building looking east, 2013.

Fig. 75 Interior of main portion of building looking north, 2013.
Fig. 76 Interior of main portion of building looking east from upper platform, 2013.
Fig. 77 Detail, interior column, 2013.
Fig. 78 Detail, interior column engaged at exterior wall, 2013.

Fig. 79 Interior of southwest wing looking south, 2013. Visible at left is a two-story tenant office build-out constructed in 1989.
Fig. 80 Interior of southwest wing looking west to southwest corner of building, 2013.
SITE PLAN Information derived from ALTA/ACSM land title survey dated November 16, 2005, by Kevin Vanderzanden, CORE Design Engineering, Bellevue, Washington. Parcel indicated by heavy dotted line; building indicated by yellow shading. Parcel dimensions in feet called out at midpoint of parcel sides (parcel is approximately 258 feet by 360 feet).
APPENDIX A List of known works by architect John W. Maloney This list was compiled by Michael Houser, Washington State Architectural Historian, Department of Archaeology & Historic Preservation, in February 2009 and updated March 2013. Accessed at www.dahp.wa.gov/learn-and-research/architect-biographies/john-w-maloney-0, and reformatted to list in chronological order in each category.
COLLEGE & UNIVERSITY PROJECTS Smyser Hall CWU McConnell Auditorium - CWU Perry Technical Institute Liberal Arts Building Seattle College Lind Hall CWU Johnson Tower WSU Wilmer-Davis Hall - WSU Holland Library WSU Samuelson Union Building - CWU Compton Union Building WSU Student Union Building Seattle University Todd Hall WSU Mens Dormitory Seattle University Mens Dorm Seattle University Marycrest Hall (womens dorm) Seattle University Bing Crosby Library Gonzaga U Welch Hall Gonzaga U Mens Dormitory Seattle University Lemieux Library Seattle University Mt. St. Vincents & St. Joseph Resident Hall Seattle University ? Archbishop Connell Center Gonzaga U Smith Gym WSU St. Marys Womens College - Convent GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS Yakima Indian Agency* Yakima County Courthouse Kittitas County Courthouse OFFICE BUILDINGS, INDUSTRIAL SERVICES & BANKS A.E. Larson Building * Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Building YWCA* Northwestern Insurance Company Seattle First National Bank 6th & Denny Branch Seattle First National Bank Yakima Branch Eastern Bank & Office Building Northwestern Life Insurance Office Building Boeing Co Office Building Josephinum renovations Seattle School District Warehouse YMCA Date 1925 1935 1940 1941 1947 1949 1950 1950 c.1950 1951 1952 1952 1953 1953 1956 1957 1957 1964 1966 Location Ellensburg Ellensburg Yakima 10th & Madison, Seattle Ellensburg Pullman Pullman Pullman Ellensburg Pullman 11th & Madison, Seattle Pullman Cherry St & Summit, Seattle Cherry St & Minor, Seattle Seattle Spokane Spokane 901 12th Avenue, Seattle 901 12th Avenue, Seattle Seattle Spokane Pullman Notre Dame, Indiana 1922 1955 1955 1 South Elm, Toppenish Yakima 205 W 5th Street, Ellensburg
1931 c. 1931 1935 1947 1950 1950 1952 1952 c. 1952 1954 1955 c. 1959
6 S. 2nd St., Yakima 208 W, Yakima Ave., Yakima 15 Naches Avenue, Yakima NW corner of Brooklyn Ave & E 43rd St, Seattle 6th & Denny Way, Seattle N. Second & E A Street, Yakima Spokane 120 Sixth Ave N., Seattle Seattle Seattle Seattle Naches Ave & A St., Yakima
Office Building Seattle First National Bank Madison-Pike Branch Seattle First National Bank Computer Center Prudential Mutual Savings Bank Main Office Liberty Office Building Republic Publishing Office Building HOSPITALS/HEALTH CARE PROJECTS St. Josephs Hospital Addition Tuberculosis Hospital St. Johns Hospital St. Johns Hospital St. Joseph's Hospital Multiple Sclerosis Clinic Ballard General Hospital Mary Bridge Childrens Hospital Mary Bridge Children's Hospital Rogue Valley Manor retirement home Holy Cross Hospital Community Hospital Blue Cross Hospital Insurance Co. Building/ Swedish Health Service Annex Providence Heights Hospital Eastern WA State Penitentiary Hospital Sacred Heart Medical Center St. Marys Hospital SCHOOLS Benjamin Franklin Jr. High School Thorp Elementary School Grandview High School* Catholic School Athletic Field Bleachers St. Michael Catholic School & Convent St. Francis of Assisi Parish School Bishop Blanchet High School Belfair Elementary School Addition Meany Middle School Moran Jr. High School Addition Jesuit High School Asa Mercer Jr. High School Grover Cleveland HS Addition Lakota Junior High School Rainer Beach Jr. High School Thomas Jefferson High School CHURCHES St. Pauls Cathedral and School St. James Cathedral renovation St. Augustine Catholic Church Carmelite Monastery St. Josephs Catholic Church St. Anthony Church St. Benedicts Catholic Church Holy Family Church
1960 1963
1101 (1820) Eastlake Avenue E., Seattle 13th & Madison, Seattle 2nd & Cherry?, Seattle 1100 3rd Ave.?, Seattle Yakima Yakima Bellingham Selah Santa Monica California Longview 1801 SO. J St., Tacoma Seattle Tacoma 311 SO. L St, Tacoma Medford, OR Salt Lake City, Utah Aberdeen Seattle Seattle Walla Walla, WA Spokane Long Beach, California 410 S. 19th Ave., Yakima 10831 N. Thorp HWY, Thorp 913 W. 2nd Street, Grandview 14th Ave & E. Cherry, Seattle 1021 Boundary St SE, Olympia Seahurst, Seattle 8200 Wallingford Ave. N., Seattle Belfair, north Mason Co. 301 21st Avenue, Seattle Ellensburg 9000 SW Beaverton Hillsdale Highway 5511 15th Ave. S., Seattle 1415 SW 13th Street, Federal Way 8815 Seward Park Avenue S., Seattle 4248 s. 288th, Auburn 15 S. 12th Street, Yakima Seattle 428 W. 19th Ave., Spokane ? Salt Lake City Chemeketa St. Salem, OR Renton 1700 N. 49th, Seattle 9622 20th Ave SW, Seattle
1949 1950 1952 1952 1952 1953 1954 1954 c. 1956 1958-59 1958-59 1959, 1967 1961
1928 1935-36 1937 1949-50 1950 1953 1954 1954 c. 1955 1955 1956, 61 1957 1958 1959 1959-60 1967 1927 1950 1950 c. 1952 1953 1953 1955 c. 1956
Sacred Heart Church St. Edwards Church* St. Thomas Catholic Seminary/ Bastyr University St. Annes Catholic Church & Rectory St. Thomas More Catholic Church FUNERARY BUILDINGS Holyrood Mausoleum Manning & Sons Mortuary Chapel PENAL INSTITUTIONS WA State Minimum Security Building MASTER PLANNING Seattle University Master Plan MILITARY Boeing B-52 Flight Test Center and Engineering Bldg * This building added to list by NK Architects, October 2013.
c. 1956 1957-58 1958 1960 1963 1955 1957 1957
205 2nd Ave. N, Seattle 4212 S. Mead Street, Seattle 14500 Juanita Drive NE, Kenmore 1411 1st Avenue W., Seattle 6511 176th Street SW, Lynnwood 205 NE 205th St., Shoreline 1634 11th Ave, Seattle Walla Walla Client Seattle University
1954
Client Boeing Field, Seattle
APPENDIX B List of known thin-shell concrete works by structural engineer Jack Christiansen The inventory below was compiled by BOLA Architecture + Planning in May 2005, from a list provided by Jack Christiansen, as part of their 2005 landmark nomination report for the Seattle School District Warehouse. Architects for the various projects are not included. The list does not distinguish between extant, altered, and demolished structures.

Seattle School District Warehouse

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Seattle School District Warehouse

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Name:

Street and Number: Assessor's File No. Legal Description:

Present Owner: Owner Address:

Present Use: Warehouse

Original Owner: Original Use: Architect: Builder:

Seattle School District Warehouse

November 13, 2013

Seattle School District Warehouse Seattle Landmark Nomination

67 68-70 71-74 Following

Present Use: Original Use: Original Architect:

Nyberg and Steinbrueck, 1975, unpaginated.

Historic images of the Cascade/South Lake Union neighborhood

The previous school district warehouse Thin-shell concrete structures

Other work by architect John Maloney

Other work by structural engineer Jack Christiansen

Historic images of the subject building

Current images of the subject building

Fig. 7 South Lake Union in the 1890s. (www.pauldorpat.com)

Fig. 22 Ingraham High School Multipurpose Building (NBBJ, 1959).

Fig. 24 Larson Building, Yakima (Maloney, 1931). (www.yakimawa.gov)

Fig. 25 Perry Technical Institute, Yakima (Maloney, 1940). (www.perrytech.edu/alumni/history)

Fig. 57 Northeast corner, 1956. (Tax assessor photo)

Fig. 58 Northwest corner, 1956. (Tax assessor photo)

Fig. 60 West facade, 1960. (SPSA 601-19)

Fig. 61 Aerial view, 1960. (SPSA 601-18)

Fig. 63 North elevation, 1960. (SPSA 601-20)

Fig. 64 West elevation and roof, looking southwest, 2013.

Fig. 65 West elevation and roof, looking northwest, 2013.

Fig. 66 North and west elevations, 2013.

Fig. 67 West elevation and south elevations, 2013.

Fig. 68 East elevation of southwest wing, showing parking lot, 2013.

Fig. 69 Re-entrant southeast corner of building facing parking lot, 2013

Fig. 70 North elevation, 2013.

Fig. 71 Detail of exterior wall, window, roof overhang, 2013.

Fig. 72 Loading dock at north end of building, 2013.

Fig. 73 Loading dock at north end of building, 2013.

Fig. 74 Interior of main portion of building looking east, 2013.

Fig. 75 Interior of main portion of building looking north, 2013.

Fig. 77 Detail, interior column, 2013.

Fig. 78 Detail, interior column engaged at exterior wall, 2013.

c. 1956 1957-58 1958 1960 1963 1955 1957 1957

Client Boeing Field, Seattle

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