The Former Coca-Cola Bottling Plant
August 7th, 2008 @ 12:19 am by Cliffe | Sorted Historic Buildings
Today the Landmarks Preservation Board met to decide the ultimate fate of the former Coca-Cola bottling plant at 1313 E. Columbia. This handsome Art Deco / Moderne facility was built in 1939 for Coca-Cola, designed by architects Jesse Shelton and John Graham Sr (the latter was also known for designing the Frederick and Nelson building, the Roosevelt Hotel, and Dexter Horton Building). In 1974 the building changed hands and was used by NW Bell Telephone Company. The site is now owned by Seattle University, who plans to use the building in the short term as a temporary library replacement. However, in the proposed Master Plan for the next twenty years, the University is proposing to raise the allowable height in the block to 65 feet — allowing a building far taller than the Coca-Cola facility. You know what that means. It reminds me of the area’s Wonder Bread Bakery building demolished last year to build a particularly atrocious apartment building — though the Coca-Cola building is in far better condition. You can read the whole nomination report here. So what did the Landmarks Preservation Board decide? As it turns out, they did vote unanimously to designate the site and the exterior of the building a landmark. This is just the first step in this process and does not, by any means, signal that the building is safe from demolition. Stay tuned.
August 7th, 2008 @ 12:50 pm
What is with modern (I mean 2008-vintage, not the specific architectural term) architecture, anyway? OK, I don’t think I’d actually want the entire city to look Art Deco, but this is a great-looking building. Can you believe bottling plants actually used to look this good?
August 7th, 2008 @ 2:34 pm
Have you seen the famous one in Los Angeles that looks like a 1920’s era cruise ship?
http://tinyurl.com/59et94
August 8th, 2008 @ 6:36 pm
This is a gorgeous building, even for Coca-Cola.
August 11th, 2008 @ 9:14 am
It’s interesting that the 1940 picture is devoid of power poles and wires, but the 1941 picture is all ugly with them. Any idea why that would be? I guess the likely answer is that the poles a wires were installed after the 1940 picture, but just seems sort of surprising that it looks different within just about a year.
August 11th, 2008 @ 5:04 pm
I love that building.
Some of the closest free evening parking to the SU law school is on that block, and so I would lug my eighty pounds of law books nightly past those gorgeous curves.
It looked like it had been in the hands of the phone company forever, so I always thought it was an early Ma Bell building. What a surprise to learn she was built for Coca-Cola!
December 23rd, 2009 @ 12:16 am
I know this is kind of an old post, but you can see its little brother if you’re ever down in Portland. Its on NE 28th and Hoyt, almost directly behind the Laurelhurst theater.