The Seattle Times Building is the former headquarters of The Seattle Times , located in Seattle, Washington, USA. The three-story building was occupied by newspapers from 1931 to 2011, replacing the Times Square Building. Originally built in 1931 and later expanded to accommodate more office space and greater emphasis.
The exterior and roof of the Seattle Times Building was designated a city landmark in 1996. Designed by Robert C. Reamer with elements of Art Deco and Moderne style, reinforced concrete buildings represent early 20th century architecture in Seattle.
The newspaper moved out of the building in 2011 and sold it in 2013 to Onni Group, a Canadian real estate developer, who plans to build four skyscrapers at nearby locations and parking lots in the south. Onni plans to preserve the building facade and integrate it into a 240 foot (73 m) building podium, turning it into a roof balcony. Demolition of the building began in October 2016, after an incident involving squatters on the property.
Video Seattle Times Building
Architecture and design
The Seattle Times Building is located in a full city block bordered to the south by John Street, west by Boren Avenue North, north by Thomas Street, and east by Fairview Avenue North; the complex is located in the neighborhood of South Lake Union north of Denny Way. The complex consists of six buildings, including the original office building and printing factory built in 1931 and some additions. Most buildings are made of reinforced concrete, with some of the Indiana limestone used on the facades of the oldest buildings.
The original building, 135 feet (41 m) in length, 68 feet (21 m) wide and 24 feet (7.3 m) tall, was designed in 1930 by Robert C. Reamer, noted for his work in Metropolitan Metropolitan Seattle and the Park National Yellowstone. The building is described as an Art Deco section featuring elements that will later be used in Moderne architecture. The symmetrical and massive columns are derived from Beaux Arts classicism, with minimalist elements; Reamer was also influenced by Paul Philippe Cret's call for "starvation classicism".
The front entrance of the 1931 office building, on the southeast corner of the block, faces south on John Street to Downtown Seattle and has the name of a newspaper engraved on stone above the main entrance; the sign was added for decades by an ornate gold mark with newspaper letterhead mounted over the main entrance. The exterior of the office building has fine detail, including scratched columns and aluminum grille on the windows, forgoing ornaments for simpler designs that emphasize their mass. The main entrance is behind an elaborate aluminum gate, adorned with octagons, spirals, and floral patterns. At the entrance of the entrance there are limestone panels with flower patterns carved with relief.
Inside the public lobby of the building there are walls and floors made of light brown Botticino marble, the latter in terrazzo pattern. The rest of the building uses rubber tiles for the floor, green and brown. The printing factory attached to the office building, as well as the additions, has a simpler design made entirely of reinforced concrete.
Maps Seattle Times Building
History
From 1916 onwards, the Blethen Building near modern McGraw Field was the headquarters and printing plant for The Seattle Times , one of two daily newspapers of Seattle. The newspaper was founded in 1896 and moved from two previous offices and printing, each time relocating further and further north of the city's historic business district. By 1930, newspaper circulation averaged more than 100,000 copies per day and the growing tensions had caused the location to run out of office space and present logistical problems with printing and distribution, especially as Stewart Street, used by delivery trucks and dubbed the "Times". Alley ", has grown into a major highway for car traffic.
In the summer of 1929, The Seattle Times Company launched a plan to build a new complex of buildings along Fairview Avenue in the Cascade neighborhood for their new office and printing plant, to become a modern 120,000 square foot (11,000m 2 ) from the floor space. The old building was built to be ready to be converted into a traditional office building; Previous plans have asked the building to be raised to nine floors to accommodate newspaper growth. The first stone-laying ceremony was held by newspaper staff and the Metropolitan Building Company on September 26, 1929, both expecting the project to be completed the following year. The foundation of the building is designed and built to support skyscrapers 20 to 30 floors above a three-story office. The $ 1.25 million project (equivalent to $ 20.11 million in 2017) is partially funded through $ 600,000 in bonds advertised at Times . Construction on site began on 9 June 1930, with large excavations by general contractor Teufel & amp; Carlson.
To prepare for the printing press, Times began publishing shorter versions of its daily in December 1930. The newspaper began publishing in a new building on March 2, 1931, using a press capable of printing 40,000 copies per hour. The new facility was heralded as "the best factory built for American newspapers" by the newspaper publisher, C.B. Blethen; other newspapers from across Washington state congratulate the Times on their move and praised the building and instilled in their modernity and functionality. The location of the building on Fairview Avenue gave rise to a nickname, "Fairview Fanny," created by Teamster columnist Ed Donohoe for the reputation of the paper as slow and fluid papers.
Additions and renovations
The first major addition to the building, a three-storey office building with 7,500 square feet (700 m 2 ) of floor space primarily for classified advertising departments, completed westward in 1947. $ 125,000 project was postponed during World War II due to material shortages, resulting in narrow conditions such as circulation, during 16 years of building history, doubling to over 175,000 daily and 225,000 on Sundays. The golden sign, illuminated with the Times logo in 6-foot-tall (1.8 m) is also placed above the entrance of the building on John Street. In 1950, the building was expanded to the north with 150,000 square feet (14,000 m 2 ) to accommodate the larger mailing space, as well as newsroom and new offices for the Associated Press and Sunday departments.. The clock and temperature sign on the southeast corner of the building were installed in December 1959, with a text that read "Today's News Today"; it triggers a comparison to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer 's globe installed in 1948, used as a symbol of the philosophy of each paper. The clock is then changed to read "Since 1896" and the digital temperature display is added below; it stops permanently at 2:40 when the building is emptied.
Postwar growth in newspaper readers prompted a larger expansion of $ 3.5 million in 1964 to adjust eight new printing press units and press room three blocks west of the printing plant. Four years later, an additional worth of more than $ 6 million will use the last parking lot on the building block, build a two-story newsroom using reinforced concrete instead of the limestone used in the 1931 building; the skybridge is built across the alley to connect to the older office building. In 1979, the newsroom was newly renovated and modernized and a nearby alley was filled and closed.
On May 23, 1983, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer began a joint operating agreement with the Times, which led to the two newspapers printing their daily and incorporating the Sunday edition at the Seattle Times Building. ; the joint operation will stop in 2009 after P-I stop publishing and move to online-only format. The move encourages Times to purchase additional land for future expansion, including the North Laundry Troy Building in the north, for a total of 14 acres (5.7 ha) in the neighborhood of South Lake Union. Printing the two documents will be supplemented with a $ 150 million satellite plant in Bothell that opened in 1992, with options to build another plant in Renton and downtown Seattle is reportedly being considered.
Sustainable rebuilding
On March 11, 1996, the Seattle City Council established the 1931 exterior and rooftop of the original building as a Seattle city landmark, after approving the recommendation of the Land Preservation Council. The move was fueled by a long-term proposal from The Seattle Times Company to redevelop their land in South Lake Union, costing $ 150 million while preserving the historic character of the two buildings. The plan includes two 10-storey office buildings, larger printing plants, and multi-storey parking garages.
The Seattle Times Company began selling its land parcel on South Lake Union to real estate developers in 2004 to avoid layoffs and pay legal fees during court battles against the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. In January 2011, The Times Company announced their plans to move from the Seattle Times Building and to the 1000 Denny Building one block, with the former building set up for redevelopment. The following year, the company began marketing the remaining two blocks they owned, including the Times House and parking lot in the south, asking for a total of $ 80 million. Rezone South Lake Union is approved by the city council in May 2013, allowing for buildings as high as 240 feet (73 m) on the property.
On July 31, 2013, The Times Company announced that two blocks will be sold to Vancouver-based Onni developer for $ 62.5 million, with $ 29 million paid for the Times Building in November. In November, the group launched their proposal to build four high-rise residential towers in two blocks, including two 240-foot (73 m) tall towers above the Seattle Times Building. The building's planned facade building is planned to be conserved and restored, and used as a retail podium with a roof plaza. In 2018, the company submitted a new plan for the block that will include two 16 office towers and 17 stories.
Squatting incident
Since the site was sold to Onni in 2013, a series of incidents with squatters and vandals has drawn attention to security concerns in an empty building. In October 2014, the city of Seattle began exploring legal action over Onni's failure to secure the site; KIRO-TV reported that at least 10 squatters occupied the building, whose first floor had been raised.
As of Sept. 30, 2015, the Seattle Police Department cleared the squatting building, estimated at 50 to 200 people, following an unsuccessful attempt by Onni to secure the property. Prior to the operation, the city had received several complaints and medical calls to the building in response to a drug overdose.
A series of fires in November 2015, December 2015, and July 2016 caused a proposal by the city to speed up the process of demolition permissions for the site. Seattle Fire Department battalion battalion Bryan Hatings called the building a "death trap" after the July 2016 fire, and reported at least 10 to 12 squatters had lived there.
Demolition
The demolition of the north and west sides of the building began in October 2016. The western side's addition was completely destroyed in March 2017, and other parts of the compound were destroyed in September 2017. Two facades were preserved and planned to be integrated into the new building.
References
External links
- Media related to the Seattle Times Building on Wikimedia Commons
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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