Pioneer Square’s National Building
February 8th, 2008 @ 12:42 am by Cliffe | Sorted Historic Buildings
I can never get enough of those beautiful brick buildings in Pioneer Square. Back when it was warmer and the sun didn’t go down at 4:30 pm, I stopped by one such building — The National Building located on Western Ave. Designed by Kingsley and Anderson Architects, it was built in 1904 to act as a produce and grocery warehouse. At the time, it was the headquarters of the National Grocery Company with its strategic location near Railroad Avenue (now Alaskan Way). By the 1950’s the building housed light industry, offices, and shops. From 1980 through 1982 the National Building was renovated with the heavy structural timbers and floors stripped of years of paint and the cornice restored along with other missing architectural elements. The structure was then listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a Seattle Landmark Building in 1982. A real beauty, isn’t it? Have a look at the photographs. Click on the images for full-res.
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| The National Building at the corner of Western and Spring. | The front of the structure along Western Ave. |
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| The section of the building facing Madison. | A look down the alley between the National Building and the adjacent structure. |
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| Alternate angle of the streetscape along Western. | A closer look at the Spring Street face. |
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| Dramatic shadows cast by another building. | “National Bldg” painted onto the brick exterior. |
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| A look inside the fourth floor office space. Pool anyone? | Opposite angle of the fourth floor office area. The brick was also stripped of years of paint in the early 80’s and repainted. |
February 8th, 2008 @ 11:33 pm
It’s tragic they way they fill those beautiful spaces with hideous flourescent lights.
February 9th, 2008 @ 5:50 pm
Just a suggestion-
Have you considered/tried fixing the vertical perspective in your photos? The massive angles created by shooting with such a wide angle lens tilted up makes the images “hurt the eyes”.
This can be easily done in photoshop btw.
You can also improve the wide angle vertical perspective of exterior shots like these by elevating the camera more (like on the end of a pole etc).
February 9th, 2008 @ 7:51 pm
I usually forgoe the vertical perspective fix in the interest of time. It’s one more step with the crop. Updates with large numbers of photos take a lot of time to process and post, as is. If too many people have hurting eyes, I can do it.
My pole, though, is in the shop.
Cliffe
February 10th, 2008 @ 7:24 pm
I get the time thing. School has taken up a lot of mine and when I update my blog, I have to do it quickly as I usually barely have time to edit.
February 10th, 2008 @ 10:08 pm
Are the bottom two photos shots of the rent-an-office business that was written up in the Stranger last week? Looks somewhat similar.
February 11th, 2008 @ 12:48 am
No, this is the Myspace office. Could be the same building though.
Cliffe