March 13, 2023

Campaign to restore ‘Boys in the Boat' shell house reaches funding milestone

Photo from University of Washington [enlarge]

The shell house was built in 1918 and is in need of significant structural and seismic work.

ASUW announced it has reached 75% of its funding goal to restore a historic shell house on the shore of the Montlake Cut at the southeast corner of the University of Washington's Seattle campus. The landmarked shell house is a storied piece of UW Rowing history and is the spot where the gold-medal-winning ‘Boys in the Boat' 1936 US Olympic team trained.

Famed shell builder George Pocock also built the Husky Clipper that carried them to gold at the facility.

ASUW is aiming to raise a total of $18.5 million for the project. This money will be used to restore and elevate the 12,000-square-foot structure, which is currently mainly used for storage, into a learning and gathering space for students and the local community. Programming would include interactive exhibits relating to the history of the building and UW Rowing, with an emphasis on the story of the 1936 Olympic team, an expanded waterfront event space, and a re-activated Pocock boatbuilding workshop.

The fundraising campaign kicked off last spring. The project was buoyed early on by a $5 million donation from Brad Smith and Kathy Surace-Smith and a $2 million donation from Microsoft. To date over 650 individuals and/or entities have donated to the campaign. This includes $750,000 from King County, $1 million from Challenge Seattle, and $500,000 from the National Parks Service.

Photo from University of Washington Libraries Special Collections [enlarge]

The UW rowing team is pictured outside the shell house in 1937.

In a statement announcing the funding milestone ASUW also shared that secured funds are being used to refine future visions for the space “so that it is truly tied to all the layers of history on this site” and the surrounding community. Those visions include supporting the creation of a UW student-led canoe family and to potentially display memorabilia from national rowing groups.

A representative for the project previously told the DJC that UW Facilities will post an RFQ for a design build team once the fundraising goal has been met (optimistically this year). Once the design team is chosen permitting and final design is expected to take two years owing to the shell house's shoreline location, archaeological site designation, National Register status, and Seattle Landmark designation. Construction is estimated to take around a year which would put an opening date in 2026. ASUW contracted with SHKS Architects on a feasibility study for the project.

The story of the 1936 Olympic crew was immortalized in the 2013 novel “The Boys in the Boat” by Daniel James Brown. A major motion picture based on that book, produced and directed by George Clooney, is set to be released this fall.