| Historic Name: |
Gottstein Building |
Common Name: |
City Loan Building/ Buttnick City Loan Building |
| Style: |
Commercial |
Neighborhood: |
Pioneer Square |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1903 |
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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, known as the Gottstein Building, was constructed in 1903 for M. K. Gottstein, a wholesale dealer of liquor and cigars. He occupied the building until January 1, 1916, when it was no longer legal to sell liquor. The building was later associated with the North Pacific Banknote Company. The building shares a party wall with the Buttnick Building to the north, part of which is the remnant of a building from 1889, known first as the Commercial House and then as the Kenyon Building.
Its more recent history is significant to the lore surrounding Pioneer Square Historic District. This ground floor of the City Loan Building was occupied by a restaurant (“The City Loan Pavillion) run by Francois and Julia Kissel, famous Seattle restaurateurs, who brought good French food to Seattle in the 1970s and 1980s. Their other restaurant, the Brasserie Pittsbourg was located in the basement level of the Pioneer Building. The Kissels hired Seattle architect James Daly to restore the building in the 1970s.
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| Appearance |
| The Heritage Building is a five story building with street facing elevations on Jackson Street and on First Avenue South. The building has a full basement in concrete and has a footprint of roughly 120 feet by 111 feet. Exterior walls are mainly of brick, with stone veneer – sandstone- on the First Avenue South and Jackson Street facades. Alley facing walls are of red brick.
The Jackson Street façade is divided into five bays. It consists of storefronts with transom lights at the ground level. The First Avenue South elevation is divided into six bays, and continues the Jackson Street storefront in its north bay. On both facades, the second, third and fourth floors have wide trabeated openings. A projecting stone belt-course occurs above the ground floor level and another just above the fourth floor windows. Between the first and second belt course, each vertical bay is slightly recessed and emphasized at the top by dentils or repeated stone squares just below the second belt course. The top level of the facades reads as a loggia, with each bay composed of a horizontal row of three separate trabeated openings framed by short columns (rectangular in plan), with simple bases and capitals. Engaged pilasters in the same design are set at the corners of the facades. The stone cladding also turns the corner from Jackson Street to the east façade and stops a few feet in, where red brick takes over. Topping both facades is a generous projecting cornice in stone with underneath a row of frequent modillions.
The First Avenue South elevation is detailed in the same manner as the Jackson Street façade on the floors above the ground level. The ground level has the following openings: the north bay has storefront; following this are two recessed bays, each with two smaller rectangular windows with stone sills. The fourth and fifth bays are mainly storefront and the sixth bay (to the south) has a single opening again with a stone sill.
The building stands out in the simplicity and unity of its classical design and also in the relative richness of its cladding, since the building is entirely clad on Jackson Street as well as First Avenue in stone. The restoration by NBBJ done in 1982, has retained the historic appearance of the building, aside from changes at the storefront level. The storefronts in the fourth and fifth bays on First Avenue South are reconstructions, based on the original storefronts, as is the lower section of the north bay storefront and at least one of the storefronts and the entry on Jackson Street. The interior spaces were reconfigured to meet code and to serve the needs of the NBBJ headquarters. |
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| Status: |
Yes - Inventory |
| Classication: |
Building |
District Status: |
NR, LR |
| Cladding(s): |
Brick, Metal, Stone, Wood |
Foundation(s): |
Concrete - Poured |
| Roof Type(s): |
Flat with Parapet |
Roof Material(s): |
Asphalt/Composition |
| Building Type: |
Commercial/Trade - Warehouse |
Plan: |
Rectangular |
| Structural System: |
Masonry - Unreinforced |
No. of Stories: |
five |
| Unit Theme(s): |
Commerce |
| Integrity |
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Changes to Original Cladding: |
Slight |
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Storefront: |
Moderate |
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Changes to Plan: |
Intact |
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Changes to Windows: |
Slight |
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| Major Bibliographic References |
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King County Tax Assessor Records, ca. 1932-1972.
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Crowley, Walt. National Trust Guide: Seattle. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998.
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Lange, Greg and Tim O’Brian. “Virtual Pioneer Square,” unpublished manuscript, 27 October 1996. City of Seattle, Department of Neighborhoods, Historic Preservation Program files.
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