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Seattle Moves To Preserve Historic Downtown Structures

Posted by: Christian Peralta Madera

14 July 2007 - 9:00am

With a wave of new development underway downtown, the City of Seattle has nominated 37 structures as historic landmarks, and has plans for even more preservation efforts.

"Some are funky, others are elegant. They are art deco, Mediterranean, and Beaux Arts. They all evoke memories of a Seattle now long-gone.

In an effort to save 37 of Seattle's most significant old buildings threatened by pressures of a taller, denser downtown, the city plans to nominate them for historic landmark designation.

An additional 56 structures downtown could be nominated in the next year or two."

"The nominations are the biggest landmark preservation effort since the movement to save Pike Place Market from demolition more than 30 years ago, and the historic district designation of Pioneer Square in the early 1970s, Seattle City Councilman Peter Steinbrueck, chairman of the council's Urban Planning and Development Committee, said Wednesday.

"The rapid rise of new high-rises in downtown Seattle should not mean the destruction of our older historic buildings," he said. "As downtown Seattle grows, we cannot erase our past." "

Full Story: 37 downtown buildings eyed for historic status
Source: Seattle Post Intelligencer, July 13, 2007
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The areas where we have severe blight and indications of more blight to come are basically the same as they ever were. How in the world are we ever going to move our community development selves into an alternative future that thinks differently about the challenges we face in our cities and low-income suburban and rural communities?
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