Crosscut’s Knute Berger wrote an interesting column today about the animosity between historic preservationists and green building proponents.

Too often, he says, green building techniques and density goals are used as justification for tearing down Seattle’s usable buildings and squandering their embodied energy and inherent greenness.

Meanwhile, historic preservationists get sidetracked by the historic and architectural significance of the buildings they are trying to protect. They don’t put that same effort into making a sustainability case for keeping those buildings.

Adaptive reuse in Portland's Pearl District

If Seattle really wants to be sustainable, Berger says, the two groups need to form an alliance. Both need to embrace the environmental value of the existing building and build from there.

I think things get complicated when density concerns are added into the mix.

But some cities, like Portland, have done a great job of encouraging adaptive reuse of historic building stock. These aren’t the landmarked buildings that allow only minimal changes, but the buildings that serve as mainstay to new floors of condos or offices above or around.

The federal government even offers a 10 percent tax credit for adaptive reuse of certain historic buildings. There are a few caveats, like making sure the addition can be removed and the historic building is left largely intact.

It could be painful for preservation purists to see some buildings getting such a drastic face-lift. It will likely be even harder for those greenies who like to start from scratch and leave their fingerprints.

No, this has nothing to do with that boarded up building with the unique swooping roofline that you won’t see much longer at the corner of 15th Avenue Northwest and Northwest Market Street.

Landmarking a living thing?

Exactly how to preserve a landmark comprised mainly of living plants could get complicated.

Landmark board members said the garden is an obvious landmark candidate because of its historical, cultural and architectural significance.

But they were concerned that the designation be worded in a way that means arboretum staff won’t need their approval every time a rotting tree is removed or new bulbs are planted. Landmark staff said they will work to come up with something.

The 3.5 acre garden is mainly the work of Juki Iida, a Japanese landscape architect who came over and worked with Seattle’s William Yorozu, a Japanese-American general contractor.

It was the first large-scale post WW-II Japanese Garden completed in the U.S.

On the garden’s opening day in 1959, everyone who wore a kimono got in free.

Key Seattle landmark staff are advising the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board against preserving the former Denny’s on the corner of 15th Avenue Northwest and Northwest Market Street.

The recently boarded-up landmark

The board voted in February that the building’s prominence for the Ballard neighborhood makes it a historic landmark worth protecting. But what that actually means for the building and plans to build a multi-use development on the site has been up in the air.

Over the past several weeks, board staff and site owner the Benaroya Co. have been negotiating over controls and incentives for the building. That will establish what the owners and developers can and can’t do with the site.

The board meets at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Seattle Municipal Tower in Room 4060 at 700 Fifth Ave. to go public with their decision.

As first reported on Crosscut, Historic Preservation Officer Karen Gordon and Landmarks Coordinator Beth Chave say in the memo that they can envision no scenario that preserves the building’s “character defining features” while allowing the developer “to realize a reasonable return on their investment.”

The Seattle Monorail Project bought the one-acre site for $7.5 million in 2005, before voters rejected the monorail plan. Benaroya paid $12.5 million for the site in 2006 and said the price reflects the high-density development planned there.

Just six months ago, Denny’s was still operating in the building. But Benaroya said in February that the building is not up to code and Denny’s does not pay enough rent to justify using the space as a restaurant. Denny’s paid $5,295 a month for rent in 2007 and covered the site’s $26,485 property tax bill.

The building was designed by San Francisco Architect Clarence Mayhew in 1964 for the Manning brothers in the flamboyant roadside “googie” style. The original oversized sign and glazing are gone. Denny’s remodeled the interior to add modern mechanical equipment when it took up the lease in 1984.

Board members said in February that the building still conveys its architectural significance through its unique roofline, and is a visual marker for Ballard.

Grace Architects' vision for adaptive reuse of the building

Some still argue the building can be kept without depriving the developer.

Above is a rendering Grace Architects submitted to the landmarks board that envisions denser development while keeping the 1964 building on the site.

“The only way that a reasonable financial return can be realized at this site is by embracing a creative
approach to the site, allowing additional density on the remaining site area to compensate for the
lower retained height at the landmarked structure,” writes Ralph Allen of Grace Architects in a May 19 letter to the board.

Donovan Rypkema, the historic preservation and economic development expert, was here this week from Washington, D.C. for a lecture sponsored by Historic Seattle.

I went to his lecture Thursday and spoke to him Friday morning. He had been out with his camera, wandering First Hill and downtown and snapping photos of older blocks and newer developments. He said Seattle has really changed in the 20 years he’s been watching it.

“I’ve loved (Seattle) because of its grittiness and that’s rapidly disappearing,” he said.

He said he was also surprised we don’t have more historic districts in our great, historic town. Rypkema believes historic preservation is key to economic development but has a special affinity for historic districts. Unlike one historic building, where preservation can be seen as an economic burden on a building owner, he said, a district sees all its values rise.

He said rehabbing a historic building is the greenest construction there is and said there is no function in today’s world that couldn’t happily be housed in yesterday’s building. He said churches, universities and hospitals are the worst at claiming they need to raze historic buildings to suit their modern needs.

“Developers are often painted as the villains in neighborhoods but the biggest villains in neighborhoods are churches hospitals and universities,” he said Friday. “They screw up more neighborhoods than anyone else in the country.”

At the Thursday lecture at Wallingford’s lovely Good Shepherd Center, Rypkema said historic districts also: have stabler prices and are better equipped to ride out economic downturns, and draw better tourists and do a better job overall at supporting the local economy than new construction (because more money goes to workers than materials, and then the workers spend that cash locally).

Seattle has seven historic districts: Ballard Avenue, Columbia City, Fort Lawton, Harvard-Belmont, the International District, Pike Place Market and Pioneer Square. For comparison, Portland has 13 historic districts and seven conservation districts.

Read the entire text of Rypkema’s lecture for yourself, and read his own blog about his recent trips to Seattle and Portland.

The Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation just announced 10 winners of this year’s Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Historic Preservation.

Daniels

The awards, given by State Historic Preservation Officer Allyson Brooks, recognize people, organizations and projects of distinct

ion in Washington historic preservation.

Former City Council member and architect Peter Steinbrueck won a career achievement award, along with National Park Service Arc

heologist

Bob Mierendorf of Marblemount. Crosscut contributor and Mossback columnist Knute Berger won a media award for his coverage of historic preservation issues in Seattle.

Developer Kevin Daniels and King County Councilman Dow Constantine won a special achievement award for their work on preserving the First United Methodist Church alongside a planned highrise on the site.

The modernist architecture non-profit Docomomo WEWA (whose name is a shortening of its mission: Documentation and Conservation of the Modern Movement in Western Washington) won an education award for “raising awareness about the historical and design impacts of mid-twentieth century architecture in Washington.”

Learn more about award winners here. All will be honored at a ceremony May 13 at the Legislative building in Olympia.

Renovation of the historic Arctic Building is nearing completion.

The Artic's signature Walruses

(Quick, before you click the link above, name the architect. Hint: He also designed the old King County Courthouse.)

The Arctic Club Hotel will celebrate its grand opening in May, according to the Web site for Summit Hotels & Resorts. Summit bought the walrus-adorned historic building from the city in 2005 for $5.1 million. Check out a slide show of rooms and more here.

The city purchased the Arctic and the Alaska Building in 1988 for more than twice their 2005 selling price.

Summit has been busy converting the 1916 social club turned office building into an upscale hotel. The landmark building at Third and Cherry needed a full seismic upgrade in addition to repairs and refurbishments.

It’s been fun to see the building getting spruced up for its new purpose. Check out the room design here, and get a glimpse on the left of the refurbished ceiling and chandelier.

The building is no longer limited to those who made it big in the Alaskan Gold Rush, but rooms start at about $250 a night.

(Fun fact, from Jeffrey Ochsner‘s “Shaping Seattle Architecture:” The Arctic Building’s Architect, Augustus Warren Gould, had no academic training and transferred from the contracting business to architecture in the late 1890s.)

National preservation expert Donovan Rypkema is coming to Seattle on May 8.

Donavan Rypkema

Historic Seattle is hosting the lecture as part of its celebration of National Historic Preservation Month in May. Rypkema is recognized as the leader in the economics of preserving historic structures. The lecture will be from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, May 8 at the Chapel of the Good Shepherd Center at 4649 Sunnyside Avenue N.

The event is co-sponsored by Daniels Development. Tickets cost $15 for Historic Seattle members, $10 for students and $20 for eveybody else.

Rypkema is a principal of PlaceEconomics, a Washington, D.C.-based real estate and economic development-consulting firm that specializes in downtown and neighborhood commercial district revitalization and reuse of historic structures.

Here is an excerpt from a speech Rypkema gave two years ago in Portland, at the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s annual conference:

“Razing historic buildings results in a triple hit on scarce resources.

First, we are throwing away thousands of dollars of embodied energy. Second, we are replacing it with materials vastly more consumptive of energy. What are most historic houses built from? Brick, plaster, concrete and timber — among the least energy consumptive of materials. What are major components of new buildings? Plastic, steel, vinyl and aluminum – among the most energy consumptive of materials.

Third, recurring embodied energy savings increase dramatically as a building life stretches over fifty years.

You’re a fool or a fraud if you claim to be an environmentalist and yet you throw away historic buildings and their components.”

There’s a yellowed and fading cardboard hand at King Street Station that instructs vistitors to look up at a tiny exposed patch of original ceiling and imagine the restoration that will “soon” be underway there. Well, that wizened little hand might finally be right.

The city of Seattle bought the historic landmark from BNSF Railway last month for $10 (You’re reading that right- originally they agreed on $1 but neither the city nor the railroad could process so small a check) and is now looking for a project manager to lead a $30.5 million design and renovation of the 102-year-old building.

First up: replacing the leaky glazed tile roof. Work will also include seismic reinforcement, clock face repairs, and restoration of the exterior and the waiting area.

Statements of Qualifications for project managers are due by 4 p.m. April 11. That’s next Friday.

The project manager is expected to earn between $400,000 and $550,000 with the project running until December 2011.

Click here to get the RFQ packet, or call 800-833-6388. Questions? Call SDOT project manager Trevina Wang at (206) 684-3072 or e-mail her. The notice ran in the DJC on March 26 and 28.

I’m sure I’m not the only one here who remembers pushing past other kids to make it to the top of the tugboat at Bellevue Square. While I’m not proud of all the things I did when confronted with that tugboat teeming with other determined kids, it was a memorable part of growing up in the Northwest.

The Square is renovating the tug’s old home on the first floor and the tug has been removed, but according to the Square’s Web site, the tugboat will be getting a new play area on the third floor this fall.

The new play area will have a seating area, and the tugboat and smaller ferry boat will both be moved there. The Square’s site says the new play area will also have “added structures and nautical-themed elements for playing and climbing.” And room for a little pushing, I expect.