Just when you thought the already chaotic bureaucratic brouhaha over the Alaskan Way Viaduct replac
ement couldn’t get any more chaotic, Art Skolnik is seeking
to have it delcared a historic landmark. It’s really a push to bring back the retrofit option to the discussion, which the state has shelved since they say it would cost 80% of a full replacement.
So do you think we should declare it historic… err retrofit or replace
? For the first time on this blog, I have to say it:
tear it down! Check out this vintage photo of the Viaduct, taken some time in the 50′s.
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| At sunset on the Alaskan Way Viaduct at Seattle, Washington. The Viaduct makes it possible to pass non-stop through the downtown business district. Docks and ships are very spectacular from the viaduct. Ektachrome by Max R. Jensen. |
Judging from the cars, I’d say this shot was from the early 50′s, when the Viaduct was brand spankin’ new. And, it hard to miss the Kalakala in the background.
i’,m with you. tear it down and don’t replace it. let drivers figure out alternative routes or leave the car at home and take public transportation. i was also shocked when i read the proposal to make it a historic landmark. this should be one for the history books about worse urban planning
Definitely closer to 1953 than 1967. I *thought* that was the Kalakala! Wow.
It’s the ugliest freeway ever built, and built in entirely the wrong place.
It’s that ugly wart right on the tip of Seattle’s nose.
Tear it down and build a park along the waterfront, a promanade if you will.
Run the S.L.U.T. into every neighborhood, or build the monorail, but please tear this abomination down.
Not that I really care;<)
I like it.
And it easily meets all the requirements for historical landmark status.
My father, a former Seattle Landmarks Board member, once submitted an application to declare the viaduct a landmark… as an April Fools joke! (He had previously submitted a joke application for the Lusty Lady.)
He also worked on the original conversion of Queen Anne High School into apartments in the 1980s… I should send him a link to this blog!
I remember being a kid in the 50s riding in my parents car down the Alaskan Way Viaduct on our way to visit relatives in Puyallup. That part of the drive was my favorite because the viaduct was up high enough so you could see right into people’s windows. I always wondered who lived there (though they were most likely offices then).