City Survey of Historic Properties
A City-Wide Survey of Historic Properties
By Heather MacIntosh, Preservation Advocate
The City Council approved a $170,000 budget for a historic building inventory project for 2001-2002. The project, conceived as a 6 year endeavor, will help the City better understand its historic resources, and the relative significance of older buildings within our many city neighborhoods. The first phase of the project will investigate how the existing Neighborhood Matching Grant program might be used to accomplish more with less funding, and will engage the University District as a prototype for community volunteer involvement.
What's the Point of a Survey?
Like the Census, historic resource inventories help governments plan for the future and suggest policies that reflect a community's needs. Historic buildings, like natural resources, labor, businesses and other community assets, make up the character of neighborhoods and determine the city's overall identity. Good historic resource management policies and appropriate budgeting make the most of what we have.
Historic resource inventories serve multiple purposes. They help communities determine the relative value or significance of older buildings. This is useful when making decisions about landmarking and preservation, because arguments for significance are often made in relative terms, i.e., a house becomes more significant if it is the only one of a style or type within a district, rather than one of many.
Surveys also provide a comprehensive view, and help identify areas of significance, that is, potential districts that contain a large (relative) percentage of properties related in style, type, function, or historic period. This information can be incorporated into neighborhood plans, and can be incorporated into neighborhood driven design review guidelines. In many cases, new construction in older neighborhoods can be guided by these guidelines to guarantee the preservation of community character.
In Seattle, and other West Coast cities prone to earthquakes, an inventory of older buildings keyed into a searchable database provides critical information that can potentially guide mitigation efforts and post-earthquake response. A base of information on older buildings can provide the foundation for quickly accessing damage after quakes, and provide a systematic means of evaluating need for aid. The City of Seattle conducted a survey of its properties before the Nisqually Quake, and entered this information into a searchable database. The result was a rapid, and thorough damage assessment.
A database of information on older resources has a number of uses, even for those interested in new development activity. Property owners looking to redevelop properties can quickly determine the significance of properties before considering changes or demolition - information that will save time and money during project planning. City and regional transit authorities can quickly gauge the impact of new transportation patterns and expansion activity on cultural resources, which is part of the standard Environmental Impact Statement required by the federal government and is part of the State Environmental Protection Act.
Why Now?
Historic Seattle conducted the city's last historic building inventory in 1975. Architects Victor Steinbrueck and Folke Nyberg documented buildings and many city neighborhoods. Their research led to the recognition and designation of many current city landmarks throughout the city.
A lot has changed in the past quarter century. Seattle has seen incredible growth in the last decade. An inventory and database of information is more valuable now than ever. The survey project is more than a preservation tool - it's a community planning resource and guide for future development.
What do the 2001 Mayoral Candidates think about the City Survey?
The following is an excerpt from the October 2nd Mayoral Candidates Forum on Historic Preservation co-sponsored by Historic Seattle. To read the entire transcript, click here.
Walt Crowley (moderator): Let me follow up on that just to zero in on a couple of the current projects and ideas floating around. I don't think any of us are looking for gold plated promises and pledges, just to get your response to some of these ongoing projects. First, the city is currently engaged in an extended multiyear survey of historic properties. This is the first survey to be conducted since 1975, literally since Folke Nyberg and Victor Steinbrueck driving around in a VW bug looking through their windows. This is very important, particularly identifying properties since 1900. These are structures that are unrecognized. There are costs associated with that and a need for a willingness to act, to further investigate these properties, to move them through the landmarks process, and potentially provide some kind of assistance to property owners if its required to preserve these structures. This is wide open. Any ideas for how to sustain that kind of effort and provide a financial foundation for it?
Greg Nickels: Well, let me first recognize that it is an important effort. It's gotten off to a huge start. We aren't talking about huge dollars, and I think that it's something that's started and that we should now continue to finish the work. That gives you good information upon which to base some judgments as to how to fund heritage programs in the future. What is the challenge that we face? What are some of the structures around our city that aren't being maintained well? What are some of the techniques we can use to preserve them? I think that finishing the survey is a good first tool. That gives us ammunition for understanding what the other tools may be to take action.
Mark Sidran: Well, I basically agree with that. I think the survey is an important tool not only for historic preservation purposes. (It is) also important for property owners. It gives some a greater predictability and certainty about what's likely to be on the register but not yet designated. It gives people more confidence in terms of their own development investments about what they can expect from the city. I think in general it's a very useful tool. Understanding the current budget situation, we will either maintain funding for it or either expand the capability to use volunteers or find funding from other sources to bring this about.