Northwest Reports

The Steinbrueck Files Pt 2: The Fight to Preserve Pioneer Square

In the ’60s, Seattle’s oldest neighbor was facing demolition. Newly discovered files show how Victor Steinbrueck helped stop the wrecking ball.
In the mid-1960s, Seattle wasn’t known for historic preservation. Many believed that in a city so young and so forward-looking — that had progressed from log cabins to the Space Age in its 100 years — there was nothing historic worth saving. Indigenous history was largely ignored, obliterated or acknowledged in “totem poles” that did not reflect cultures of the region's Coast Salish tribes.
Spurred by the federal government, cities across the country with more history were ripping up neighborhoods under the banner of "blight" and tearing down historic housing to make room for freeways. Seattle’s downtown business community was eager to join that trend.
One person who was interested preservation was architect Victor Steinbrueck. He grew up in Seattle and taught at the University of Washington where he had attended architecture school. He valued bustling urban areas with character and he had an egalitarian point of view.
That perspective is found in many of the half-century-old files that were recently discovered in Steinbrueck's former Eastlake home. Those files, which are the subject of this week’s episode of the Crosscut Reports podcast, also reveal in greater detail Steinbrueck’s fight against so-called urban renewal and the lengths he was willing to go to preserve the Seattle’s history.
For photos from The Steinbrueck Files and an accompanying essay by editor-at-large Knute Berger, go here.  
Stay tuned for the final episode of The Steinbrueck Files, detailing Steinbrueck's role in preserving Pike Place Market. It will be released next week. 
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Credits
Host/Producer: Sara Bernard
Reporter: Knute Berger
Editorial assistance: Brooklyn Jamerson-Flowers
Executive producer: Mark Baumgarten
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If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

The Steinbrueck Files Pt 1: Who Designed the Space Needle?

Newly discovered files shed light on the creation of the Seattle icon and the fight over who deserves the credit for its distinctive look.
When the Space Needle rose quickly on the Seattle city skyline, the response was varied. Some loved it, some hated it. Some likened it to a flower blossoming, others said it resembled a mushroom cloud. The Cold War was on everyone’s mind. So was the future. The Needle was supposed to represent the Space Age, a bright future that looked to the stars. It was also supposed to represent the aspirations of the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, also called the Century 21 Exposition, and reflect the forward-looking city itself.
But in the fall of 1961, as the Needle tower neared completion and the citizenry warmed to it, controversy broke out, an all-out war of words between the architects — Victor Steinbrueck and his boss John “Jack” Graham, Jr.
That there was a war is no secret — the conflict played out in the press at the time. But the dispute between these two groundbreaking architects goes deeper than previously understood. New files discovered in the dirt cellar of Steinbrueck's Eastlake home reveal that Graham sought censure of the man who provided the sketches that gave the Space Needle’s tower its unique shape.
This and other revelations surrounding the Space Needle's creation that were found in those files are the subject of this, the first episode of this first season of Crosscut Reports.
For photos from The Steinbrueck Files and an accompanying essay by editor-at-large Knute Berger, go here.  
Stay tuned for more discoveries from The Steinbrueck Files. Episodes detailing Steinbrueck's role in preserving Pioneer Square and Pike Place Market will be released each Wednesday for the next two weeks. 
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Credits
Host/Producer: Sara Bernard
Reporter: Knute Berger
Editorial assistance: Brooklyn Jamerson-Flowers
Executive producer: Mark Baumgarten
---
If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.