The Queen Anne Historical Society has unanimously called for preserving the Park View apartment building on West Highland Drive, according to a Feb. 21 letter the organization sent to the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board.
Property developer Lorig & Associates wants to demolish the 80-year-old building across from Kerry Park and replace it with a high-end condominium, Bruce Lorig has said. But - because it is a multi-family building - part of that process includes the company submitting a nomination to the Preservation Board for landmark status of the building.
That nomination report has been submitted, and it includes a reference to the Queen Anne Historical Society, which helped to write a 1993 history book titled "Queen Anne: Community on the Hill."
The nomination notes the book does not include the Park View in a list of multi-family buildings in Queen Anne, and that reference in the nomination has the Queen Anne Historical Society crying foul. "The implication being that the (Historical) Society did not consider the building significant due to it not appearing on the list," according to the letter.
However, the book section wasn't meant to be a comprehensive list of historically significant buildings in the neighborhood, said Holly Smith, secretary of the society.
"It was just meant to be: 'Here are some of the styles on the hill,'" she explained. There are 45 buildings on the list, and one of them is a condo on Dexter Avenue North that was built in 1993, Smith added.
"It is the Board's opinion that, in fact, the Park View Apartments do hold both architectural and community significance," the letter continues.
Lorig has said it would cost a huge amount of money to bring the building up to code if it were to be preserved. He also said work would involve adding seemingly impossible handicapped access to the Park View, which has no elevators.
Smith doesn't buy the argument, charging that maintenance problems at the Park View can be traced to a sense of "benign neglect." People can do what they want with their property, she conceded. "But I don't see why you have to throw away something that can be saved."
- By Russ Zabel
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