(Image: Viva La Quinta/Jesse L. Young)
Hoping to head off yet another story of a lovely, old building being torn down to make way for a new brick of ceramic and fiberboard, residents of the La Quinta apartments have started a drive to have their building recognized as a landmark.
The building at 1710 E Denny Way was built by prolific Seattle developer Frederick Anhalt in 1927. The U-shaped building with a clay tile roof holds a dozen two-story apartments and has a large central Mediterranean Revival courtyard. A thirteenth apartment is perched over the building’s garage.
It changed hands a few times until it was purchased by Ken Van Dyke in 1982. Van Dyke died earlier this year, leaving residents worried that the new owners might want to redevelop the property.
Chelsea Bolan, who has lived in the building since 2003, said they don’t know for certain that redevelopment was planned in the immediate future, but they started hearing rumors from people in contact with the new owners.
“He suggested, if we wanted to do a landmark, do it now,” Bolan said.
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The building residents tend to be tight-knit, Bolan said, noting that many people stay for a long time.
“You do talk to your neighbors and we share spaces,” she said. “I forget that other places aren’t like this.”
That connection, she said, made it easier for them to come together to help preserve the building.
Bolan acknowledges that there is a housing supply problem in Seattle generally, and that a new building could potentially allow for more units. But she also said that must be balanced, and some of the city’s stock of historic buildings should be preserved.
“I think it’s a really unique space – a really unique building,” Bolan said.
She noted that each of the units has its own distinctive features and finishes, instead of a single, cookie-cutter layout.
“Care was taken in the place to make it a home,” she said.
The residents were able to connect with others in nearby buildings which are also designated as landmarks to get some advice in working through the system.
One of the groups they reached out to was Historic Seattle, a nonprofit dedicated to preservation and with extensive experience in the landmarks process.
Supporting the project was an easy choice for Historic Seattle, said Eugenia Woo, director of preservation services. Woo noted that there seemed to be community support, not just in the building, but also in the neighborhood, which is something Historic Seattle looks for. Beyond that, it’s a valuable property.
“It is a historic property. It seems to be significant,” Woo said.
(Image: Viva La Quinta/Jesse L. Young)
This nomination is unusual since it’s happening without a pending development. More commonly, historic nominations are reactive. An owner proposes redeveloping a property, and residents or neighbors or both band together in an effort to protect it.
Other times, property owners will go through the process prior to beginning a redevelopment project so they aren’t surprised by a last minute nomination undercutting months or years of work. But this one, happening without the threat of development, made things a bit easier.
“There was time to strategize and prepare a nomination application. And the La Quinta residents had an open communication channel with ownership, so they were aware of the nomination efforts,” Woo said. “We aren’t addressing this in the 11th hour.”
One facet likely to help the nomination is Anhalt’s involvement in the project. He was responsible for developing dozens of buildings in the late 1920’s are scattered across Seattle, many of them architectural gems. The depression took the wind out of construction for a while, but he was back at it for a couple years in the mid-30’s before getting out of real estate.
There are numerous Anhalt properties around Seattle already recognized as historic, but they are largely in the Tudor style, while this is one of the few built in the style known as “Spanish Eclectic.” The relative rarity of this style is one of the elements that makes it attractive for preservation, Woo noted. The building retains many of its original interior and exterior features, including some original landscaping.
In preparing the report detailing why the building should be preserved, there was an added hiccup caused by COVID-19. Many of the old city documents which might have been used to support the designation are only available on microfiche. But the offices which house the collection are not open to the public at this time.
Woo said she thinks the landmark board will understand that they were unable to complete all of the typical research that goes into a nomination. And even without that information, the report still runs well more than 100 pages.
“It is still a very substantive, meaty report,” Woo said.
They also got help from the residents, Woo noted. The group had different skill sets, such as a photographer and graphic designer to help put the report together. They were even able to build a website detailing the preservation effort.
The nomination process is currently well underway. The nomination has been through its initial review by city staff, Woo said. They are now trying to set up a date for a hearing with the landmarks board, likely early next year.
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