Rendering Commodore Apartments
February 16th, 2010 @ 12:27 am by Cliffe | Sorted Historic Buildings |
Earlier this month
we had a look at Thomas Edward Osborn’s unbuilt bus terminal building but today we admire one of his creations that did get built. Though the final product wasn’t quite as grand as the rendering, The Commodore Apartments building on the U.W. campus is still a real gem. You can have a look
here at the street view. Click below for higher res.
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| Born and educated in England, Edward Osborn arrived in Seattle about 1910 and worked as a delineator for several well-known architectural firms. From 1920-1930, he occasionally worked as an independant designer. Osborn was known especially for his watercolor renderings. This drawing shows an early, decorative design that was later scaled back. In the 1950s, the Commodore Apartments and Duchess Apartments were renovated and joined together to provide student housing for married couples on the University of Washington campus. Rendering by Edward Osborn, graphite on board, 1923-1927. Image courtesy University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections Division. |
It’s Edward Thomas Osborn. This rendering looks to be sited in downtown Seattle, with West Seattle in the background between the large buildings.
This looks like it’s in downtown Seattle rather than the U-district judging by the street slope. Possibly an unrelated project. Too bad it was never built!
The street that the Commodore is on actually does slope similarly to the drawing.
The slope from 15th down to University Avenue is very steep. Very steep indeed.
There’s hardly any slope from 15th to University Way. This looks right to me. Interesting that it’s said to be on the campus, though. The UW might own it, but it hasn’t taken over that part of the U District … yet…
Not sure you can say it isn’t “on campus” when the UW owns Gould Hall across the street to the south of the Commodore-Duchess, and Schmitz Hall across the street to the north, as well as Terry, Lander, Mercer, Steven’s Court, and Condon Hall all to the west of the C-D, along with a miriad of other smaller buildings around the area. I would say that pretty much puts it on the campus….
That slope is actually along 15th Ave NE from what is now Campus Parkway to NE 40th. The C-D is across the street from main campus. UW owns pretty much all the surrounding property, acquired as part of the ethically questionable Northlake Urban Renewal. The major exception is the NRHP College Inn. When I lived at the Commodore-Duchess as a grad student it was very convenient to have Easy Mart, a restaurant, and of course the College Inn Pub all on my block.