| Historic Name: |
Store Building for the Puget Sound Notion Company |
Common Name: |
Alpha Cine |
| Style: |
Art Deco |
Neighborhood: |
Denny Triangle |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1930 |
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| Significance |
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In the opinion of the survey, this property is located in a potential historic districe (National and/or local). |
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This building was designed by architect Louis Svarz as a “Store Building for the Puget Sound Notion Company,” according to original drawings which date from October 3, 1929. The firm of Hall and Stevenson was the structural engineer. In 1979, architect Merwyn Haneberg remodeled the building for use by Alpha Cine. The actual changes involved the addition of wood stud and plasterboard walls, to create a series of rooms, including printing rooms, animation rooms and editing rooms on the main floor. None of these changes affected the exterior of the building. According to extant drawings from 1992, the bay infills along the Terry Avenue elevation occurred around 1992.
In general, aside from the infill of the Terry Avenue elevation openings, the exterior of the building is reasonably intact. The Lenora façade, virtually intact, is a striking example of Art Deco design in Seattle. Svarz also designed the Art Deco 812 Howell Street, also located in the Denny Triangle area. 1001 Lenora Street complements the neighboring Volker Building, which is located across the street and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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| Appearance |
| This three story Art Deco building has a 120 foot by 60 foot rectangular footprint. It is located on the southeast corner of Lenora Street and Terry Avenue, across the street from the Volker Building, designed in the Art Deco style. The main façade along Lenora Street, more or less faces north, or northwest. It is clad in golden buff brick and has a cast stone base and ornament. The Terry Street elevation also is mainly clad in motley tones of golden buff brick and has cast stone ornament. The east elevation, originally not meant to be seen from the street, reveals the building’s concrete structure. The building has a flat roof and parapet, which is dramatically raised over the central bay of the main façade on Lenora Street. The two long, continuous, engaged piers, that frame the central bay, each end in a cast-stone finial, which rises above the parapet. Each finial includes an elongated pyramidal shape, topped by a flattened cube. Below, the main entry is adorned with a simple cast stone surround, which has vertical incisions and includes what appear to be stylized flower stems, with, above each stem, a single, stylized flower.
Directly above the entrance level, the central bay is divided into three sections, each with a small rectangular opening, filled with metal sash. The spandrels above the second and third floor windows are decorated with a recurring motif of large, stylized leaves. This ornament also projects up over the level of the concrete parapet. The central bay is flanked by two wider and simpler bays to the east and three similar bays to the west (toward Terry Avenue). At each floor, the standard bay has a large opening, usually filled with original multi-pane industrial sash, flanked by engaged piers, terminated by simple concrete caps.
There is a significant level change from east to west and this is reflected in the Lenora façade: the basement level is exposed on the western side of the façade. In this area the bottom two floors have newer glazing, with thick metal mullions and fewer lights. Futhermore, along the Terry Avenue elevation, street level storefront windows and a garage door are not original and date from the 1990s. It was also during the 1990s, that the upper level openings were filled and then clad with dryvit over stucco finish. Various vents, large and small were also incorporated into these new assemblies. Despite these changes, this side elevation retains intact brick cladding and distinctive cast stone ornamentation at the parapet level, very similar to the main façade.
The interior building structure was designed with regularly spaced concrete columns, which are hexagonal in plan and have splayed column capitals, a not uncommon structural design for concrete columns during the late 1920s. |
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