Historic Name: |
Garage and Maintenance Shop for Western Union Tel. Co. |
Common Name: |
The Barking Lounge |
Style: |
Modern, Other - Industrial |
Neighborhood: |
South Lake Union |
Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1951 |
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Significance |
In the opinion of the survey, this property is located in a potential historic districe (National and/or local). |
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This property is no longer extant. Based on field examination conducted in January - February 2014, it has been demolished. Specific demolition date has not been established.
This building was designed by the architecture firm of Otis E. Hancock and Associates in 1951 for owners Sam R. Rock and E. M. Hanson, as a “Garage and Maintenance Shop Building” for Western Union Telegraph Company. Aside from the integrity of the building’s exterior, particular theindustrial sash windows, the building is interesting because of the original bow trusses. Original drawings show the truss design, as well as force and stress diagrams, produced by engineer Roger V. Gillam. Born in 1893 in Duluth, Minnesota, Otis E. Hancock came to Seattle with his family in 1907. After attending Carnegie Institute of Technology and serving in the U. S. Navy during World War I, he was employed by several well-known Seattle architects, including Arthur Loveless, from 1920 to 1922 and B. Marcus Priteca from 1922 to 1923. He established an independent practice which lasted from 1925 to 1927 and then an architectural partnership in Seattle with Frederick V. Lochman from 1925 to 1933. This building dates from the period during which he apparently established a second independent practice, which was begun in 1933. He retired in 1971. Based on his early training, he was probably conversant with historical styles, so that this building represents a shift to International Modernism and a functional, engineering aesthetic. In 2004, Heather Johnston of Place Architects produced the drawings for the interior remodel of the building to house the Barking Lounge, a daycare for dogs, still housed in the building
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Appearance |
This is a one story building, with exterior walls of concrete, facing west and south and of concrete block, facing north and east. The west and south elevations are distinguished primarily by large rectangular window openings, filled with industrial sash. On the west, Dexter Avenue façade, starting from the north end of the façade, there are three large openings, with industrial sash, divided into square lites, six in a typical horizontal row and five lites in the vertical direction. An operable window, a square defined by four panes is placed symmetrically, one row up from the lowest horizontal row of individual lites. The three large window openings are following by a frame door with a clerestory consisting of four panes (2 over 2). The end of the façade has a large, vertical window opening with {two contiguous sets} of two vertical rows of five panes each. The south elevation has two large openings with industrial sash, nine lights horizontally with five lights vertically, followed by three sets of clerestory windows, also in industrial sash. A door is set under the most eastern of these smaller openings, and is succeeded, at the end of the façade, by a roll-up garage door. Watering troughs in sheet metal, serving the building’s current, main clientele, dogs, are set near the main entrance on the Dexter Avenue façade. Aside from the painting of the exterior concrete, a pea/olive green, and the white trim color used for the industrial sash and the addition of the fancifully designed water troughs, the main façade of the building exterior appears to have changed very little. This is also true of the south elevation, except for the additional of mechanical ductwork, which comes out of four smaller window openings. The interior was designed with large, original wooden bow trusses, which span from north to south. |
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Status: |
No - Altered |
Classication: |
Building |
District Status: |
INV |
Cladding(s): |
Concrete |
Foundation(s): |
Concrete - Poured |
Roof Type(s): |
Other |
Roof Material(s): |
Asphalt/Composition |
Building Type: |
Transportation - Road- Related |
Plan: |
Rectangular |
Structural System: |
Concrete - Block |
No. of Stories: |
one |
Unit Theme(s): |
Architecture/Landscape Architecture, Manufacturing/Industry, Science & Engineering |
Integrity |
Changes to Plan: |
Intact |
Changes to Windows: |
Slight |
Changes to Original Cladding: |
Intact |
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Major Bibliographic References |
King County Property Record Card (c. 1938-1972), Washington State Archives.
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Ochsner, Jeffrey Karl, ed. Shaping Seattle Architecture, A Historical Guide to the Architects. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994.
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City of Seattle, Department of Planning and Development, Microfilm Records.
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