| Historic Name: |
Lakecrest/Shoremont Apartments |
Common Name: |
Lake Court Apartments |
| Style: |
French - French Eclectic, Tudor, Spanish - Mediterranean |
Neighborhood: |
Montlake |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1926-31 |
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| Significance |
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In the opinion of the survey, this property appears to meet the criteria of the National Register of Historic Places. |
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In the opinion of the survey, this property appears to meet the criteria of the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Ordinance. |
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This apartment complex was built in four sections. The first (northern) section was designed in 1926-28 by William J. Bain, Sr., and was originally known as the Shoremont Apartments. A compatible addition was constructed in 1930-31 by Bain and his partner, Lionel Pries; they received a state AIA Honor Award for the design. The southern section, two buildings originally known as the Lakecrest Apartment Court, was designed in 1928-29 as one of the earliest works of Paul Thiry and James M. Taylor. The final building, at the northeast corner, was designed in 1952-53 by Frederick Anhalt, and is perhaps the only apartment building that he actually designed. The complex is still owned by the Heathman family, who purchased it in 1944.
Bain had graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1921 and returned to Seattle to establish, eventually, what is now one of the largest architectural firms in the world, now known as NBBJ. His residences and apartment buildings used a wide range of architectural idioms, from 18th-century French and English seen here to the Georgian Revival and Streamline Moderne. His other apartment buildings of the period include the Modernist Bel Roy, the Envoy and the Consulate. During World War II he became state camouflage director, and was responsible for making the main Boeing aircraft plant look like a residential suburb from the air. It was in 1943 that the original partners of NBBJ began working together. Bain also formed a separate partnership with Harrison Overturf to design residences, often combining the Colonial revival with Modern design.
Lionel Pries (1897-1968) also attended the University of California at Berkeley and received his graduate degree in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania in 1921. After studying in Europe, he established a practice in San Francisco, working especially on commercial buildings in Santa Barbara following the 1925 earthquake there. He came to Seattle in 1928, working in partnership with his former classmate :William J. Bain, Sr., with whom he designed several apartment buildings, including the Bel Roy. He began teaching at the University of Washington School of Architecture, and taught full-time there after the partnership dissolved in 1932. . Following his departure from the university in 1958, he worked with several local firms. He was most t influential as an educator, but is also well known for his Modernistic residences throughout the Puget Sound area.
In 1928-29, both Paul Thiry and James M. Taylor were working for other firms--Thiry for Butler Sturtevant and Taylor for John Graham. The building, with its complex massing and turrets, exemplifies the historical styles Thiry used in his earlier works. Thiry (1904-93) later became best known for introducing the architects of the European Modernists to the Pacific Northwest. He was born in Alaska and received his degree from the University of Washington School of Architecture in 1928. His education included a year at the American School in France, and his familiarity with the Beaux-Arts tradition was evident in his early residential works which were typically Norman French, Colonial or Tudor in style. His work changed significantly after the early 1930s, when he spent another year abroad. He met with Modernist architects throughout the word, including Le Corbusier himself. In 1935 he designed his own Modernist house, with stark white unornamented surfaces and a stark, cubical form. For his clients, however, he developed a softer regional variant, with sloped roofs and natural wood trim. His work with Alban Shay between 1935-39) was primarily residential. During World War II he partnered with others to design and plan several large-scale defense projects in Port Orchard and Tacoma. After the war, his work broadened to included institutional buildings, schools, museums, libraries and commercial buildings. He was active on the Seattle Planning Commission, protesting the construction the Alaskan Way Viaduct and resigning in protest in 1961 over plans for the I-5 freeway. In 1957 he was appointed principal architect of Seattle's Century 21 world's fair, for which he designed the Coliseum (now KeyArena) and several other buildings. In 1963 he was appointed to serve on the National Capital Planning Committee in Washington, D. C. Thiry was particularly interested in building technology, and served as a consultant on the U.S. Army Corps of engineers Libby Dam project in Montana. Many of his works, such as the Coliseum, Saint Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church and the Mercer Island Presbyterian church used innovative concrete technology. Thiry received many awards, and was an AIA fellow and received a national AIA citation in 1965 for his working community design. He died in 1963.
By the time of this design, Frederick Anhalt had long been retired from the construction business, but he had designed a home in Laurelhurst for the Lake Court owners, the Heathman family. During the 1920s, Anhalt was Seattle's most prominent apartment developer, bringing a distinctive sense of style and promoting high-quality apartments as an alternative to single-family homes. His buildings are the best known of the city's numerous pre-war multifamily buildings, and set the standard for such projects. Anhalt combined the development, design, construction, landscaping, marketing and management functions in one firm. He moved to Seattle about 1924 after working in various trades in the Midwest, and in 1924 formed the Western Building & Leasing Company with partner Jerome B. Hardcastle, Jr. The company quickly began to centralize design and construction with the firm, and in 1928 Anhalt bought Hardcastle's interest. The firm built bungalow courts, apartment courts and commercial buildings on Capitol Hill, Queen Anne, West Seattle, Beacon Hill and Ballard, usually drawing from English Tudor or Mediterranean Revival precedents. In late 1928, the firm (now known as the Anhalt Company) built five larger-scale luxury apartment buildings on Capitol Hill, based on Medieval English and Norman French prototypes. Although the apartment business failed during the depression, Anhalt continued to building single-family homes until 1942, when he turned to his nursery business.
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| Appearance |
| This complex consists of five buildings with a total of 63 units. Because they are built around a series of courtyards fronting onto Lake Washington rather than the street, they are difficult to see and describe. The buildings are highly detailed, in the Tudor, Norman French and modernized Spanish Eclectic styles. The several carefully landscaped courtyards are also noteworthy. The east end of the property fronts onto Lake Washington, with a very large wooden deck and dock.
The Shoremont, the first building to be designed, by William Bain, Sr., is at the north edge of the property, set back from the street. It is a 1-1/2-story rectangular gabled structure, clad with heavily troweled yellow stucco, with a Norman French conical turret with a winding exterior staircase marking the west end. The east end, fronting on the lake, is two stories, with the hip-roofed second story extending over the lower to provide a sheltered lakeside deck. There are twelve units, opening onto the axial landscaped courtyard. Each entry has a vestibule with a gabled dormer. The casement windows have leaded glass, with an art glass window with a water scene in the turret. The second building, added by Bain and Pries in 1930-31 is generally similar in form and style, but it is more Tudoresque with a square turret and a half-timbered element at the east end.
Along the south side of the property are the two Lakecrest buildings, designed by Thiry & Taylor, in 1928-29. The most visible building is on the street, at the southwest corner of the property. It is a U-shaped structure, built around a very attractive landscaped courtyard on the north side. The street façade has a pointed arch entry leading into the courtyard, with stairs up to the apartments. Cladding is clinker brick with cast stone around the arch. The west façade is clad with wood shingles; rear doors of the apartments on this side open onto a narrow metal balcony. On the courtyard the south end of the building has a two-story square turret with a pyramidal roof, rising to four stories in places with the large dormers. The facades facing the courtyard are wood clad. Both the east and west façades have shingle-clad gabled dormers.
The second Lake Crest building is a long rectangular one, extending from the above structure down to the lake, parallel to the two northern buildings. It is Tudor in style, with clinker brick cladding, arched entries opening to the courtyard, and heavy wooden balconies sheltered by gabled roofs. At the west end, overlooking the lake, is a three-story section with a glass-enclosed sunroom on each floor, and elaborate decorative brickwork and wood shingles below.
The most visible building is the newest one (1952-53), at the northwest corner of the property. It is a two-story hip-roofed structure clad with beige stucco and a red clay tile roof. The street frontage is actually the rear, with a simple center entry and stairs leading up and down to the units. The front of the L-shaped building is on the east, facing a courtyard leading down to the lake. Here there are two simple entries with no lobby. The building is notable for its large picture windows, which look like they were added but are original, and the ventilation system. This consists of groups of red clay tile pipes that pierce the walls of each unit, allowing air to flow in. Interior doors allow the residents to close off the air flow. |
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