| Historic Name: |
Castlewood Apartments |
Common Name: |
Castlewood Apartments |
| Style: |
Art Deco |
Neighborhood: |
Eastlake |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1929 |
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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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The Castlewood Apartments is an exceptionally well preserved building significant for its unique expression of the Art Deco style and as an important early work of Paul Thiry. Thiry designed it in 1929 for the Wood and Milner Company. It has twelve units and is now a condominium.
The Eastlake area developed in the early 1890s after David Denny opened a streetcar line connecting with downtown Seattle and the neighborhoods to the north, near the new university campus. Denny built the line to promote development of the Denny-Fuhrman Addition, which encompassed the land from Roanoke Street north to Lake Union. While the neighborhood was predominantly single family, many high-quality apartments were also built in the 1920s. Most are carefully designed and of a modest scale to fit into the residential surroundings, as this one does.
At the time of this work, Thiry (1904-93) was primarily designing houses and apartments in the Revival and eclectic styles common in all Seattle neighborhoods of the time. He later became best known for introducing the architects of the European Modernists to the Pacific Northwest, and this is one of his earliest Modernist works. 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.
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| Appearance |
| The Castlewood is of brick construction, with an irregular L-shaped plan. A series of three projecting gables make up the street façade of the east elevation. The entry is in the far corner of a landscaped courtyard on the north side of the buildings. The courtyard is entered through an arbor resting on stylized brick piers set in a low wall. A square pavilion centered on the north elevation (south side of the courtyard) and an octagonal pavilion in the corner contain the two main entrances. Extending above the roofline, these projecting pavilions are embellished with decorative woodwork and brickwork, including a small octagonal cupola atop the corner pavilion. Octagonal porthole windows and a number of Chicago-type windows plus patterned brickwork and woodwork further enliven the exterior. A band of patterned brickwork covers the entire first story of the east and north elevations and extends to the walls on either side of the entry piers. The building has a high degree of integrity, including its original wood sash in its fixed, casement and double-hung windows. There is a full basement and a garage acessed from the alley on the west. |
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| Status: |
Yes - Inventory |
| Classication: |
Building |
District Status: |
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| Cladding(s): |
Brick, Wood |
Foundation(s): |
Concrete - Poured |
| Roof Type(s): |
Gable |
Roof Material(s): |
Asphalt/Composition |
| Building Type: |
Domestic - Multiple Family |
Plan: |
L-Shape |
| Structural System: |
Brick |
No. of Stories: |
three |
| Unit Theme(s): |
Architecture/Landscape Architecture |
| Integrity |
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Changes to Windows: |
Intact |
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Changes to Plan: |
Intact |
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Changes to Original Cladding: |
Intact |
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| Major Bibliographic References |
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Sound Transit, Historic and Archaeological Report, Draft Environmental Impact Statement, 1998.
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Shaping Seattle Architecture: A Historical Guide to the Architects. Jeffrey Karl Ochsner, ed. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994.
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