February 24, 2017

Architect says city can keep old buildings even as construction booms

Seattle architect Matt Aalfs has opened a new firm here called BuildingWork after spending most of his career at Weinstein A+U.

He was with the Seattle-based architecture practice for 16 years, the last five as managing principal. There, he did historic renovations, adaptive reuse and civic projects.

“It's an amazing firm and I had tremendous opportunities there,” Aalfs said.

Aalfs

BuildingWork's office is at 3131 Western Ave. The firm focuses on civic, community, workplace, adaptive re-use, historic renovation and private development projects. Services include programming, feasibility studies, site planning, architectural design, interior design and historic preservation.

It has four design staff members, including Aalfs, the owner/principal, and Kate Weiland, an associate and senior project manager.

Aalfs started the firm last May, and it is designing a new library in La Conner; renovations for Bainbridge Public Library and Shoreline Library; and renovations and additions for Southcenter Library in Tukwila and Boulevard Park Library in Burien.

Aalfs said his firm enjoys working on libraries because they have such a big impact on people, providing free access to information and education, and a haven for children after school.

Aalfs and Wieland worked on the Bainbridge and Southcenter projects at Weinstein A+U, and those clients came with them. BuildingWork got other jobs through an RFP and by putting its name out there.

Aalfs said public work should provide his firm ballast when the private market slows, but there's competition for those jobs.

The firm is also designing projects in Pioneer Square, turning the J&M Hotel Building (built in 1889) and the Metropole Building (built in 1890) into boutique hotels.

Aalfs was design principal and project manager at Weinstein A+U for redeveloping the 1909 Union Stables in Belltown. The onetime horse stable now is headquarters for Lease Crutcher Lewis, and has restaurant/retail space. The project was named the 2015 Renovation or Redevelopment of the Year by the Washington NAIOP chapter.

Aalfs said it was a challenge to get approval for Federal Historic Tax Credits for that building from the fed's architectural reviewer. The holdup was the top floor addition. “He didn't like it. The clients needed it,” he said. So Aalfs said he went to Washington, D.C. to meet the reviewer in person and got the OK.

Union Stables will benefit when the Alaskan Way Viaduct comes down in 2019, and so will the owners of other historic buildings near the elevated highway, Aalfs said. Some of those owners may propose additions.

When the viaduct is gone, Aalfs said, property owners will also gain by opening up their buildings to connect to the waterfront, which the city is redeveloping. “I think there are a number of buildings adjacent to the viaduct that are going to have a new life,” he said.

If an older building is deemed a city landmark, there are benefits and consequences. A landmark cannot be significantly altered without a permit from the landmark board. It may be demolished only if the owner can demonstrate there is no reasonable economic use.

Aalfs said people who plan to buy, renovate or redevelop older buildings, should hire an architect or historic consultant to do an evaluation.

Local landmarks boards want additions to be compatible with, but not mimic, older buildings, he said. Also, owners should not presume they can build to the zoned height because landmark status overrides zoning.

Seattle's landmarks board has recently voted to designate a number of landmarks, including the Mama's Mexican Kitchen building and Franklin Apartments in Belltown and the Maritime Building in Pioneer Square. Mama's was built in 1924, the Franklin in 1918 and the Maritime in 1910. Developers have plans for all those sites.

Some local landmarked buildings have undergone what is sometimes referred to as “facadectomies,” where the old facade becomes part of a new construction.

Aalfs said he thinks there's a backlash locally against what some see as the inauthentic “Disneyland approach” to historic preservation.

“It's not really preservation ... and it's not a good new building,” he said. “As an architect I'd rather take down the old building and make the best new building I can, or (renovate) the old building.”

He said the landmarks boards can work against facadectomies by placing certain structural elements of a building under their purview, so the interior can't just be gutted while the exterior is preserved.

“I think preservation is a good thing (even if) it means some projects can't move forward the way they were conceived,” he said.

Cities need new construction, the architect said, but they are more interesting if they have buildings from different time periods. “I think Seattle has those layers of time and it would be a shame to lose them,” he said. And, besides, preservation is sustainable.

Seattle has more than 1,150 unreinforced masonry buildings, which are especially vulnerable to earthquakes. The city requires them to be seismically retrofitted if they are substantially altered or the use changes. But it does not otherwise mandate what can be costly retrofits for URM structures, nor does the state. Aalfs said they have lagged behind other jurisdictions, such as California, in addressing retrofitting for earthquakes.

Seattle has been mulling a URM policy for years. Now a citizens committee is crafting recommendations to guide the city on new rules that would require owners to seismically retrofit unreinforced buildings.

City staff will take the recommendations and craft the actual policy, which would go to the mayor's office and City Council. New rules are unlikely to be passed before the end of the year, and owners are expected to have years to comply.

Passing rules about retrofits is expected to keep contractors and engineers busy.

Aalfs said he thinks it will also mean more jobs for architects because the structural elements have to be integrated into buildings, and that is an architectural task.

If buildings are landmarked, he said, architects also will be needed to secure approvals.