406 results for: Construction and Urban Planning
Photograph
View underneath the Alaskan Way viaduct at South Main Street and Alaskan Way, Seattle, May 2010
The Alaskan Way Viaduct was an elevated highway in Seattle which was completed in 1966 after 16 years of construction and decades of planning. The double-decked highway ran along the Elliott Bay waterfront above the surface street, Alaskan Way, following previously existing railroad lines. The viaduct provided Seattle with its first bypass route around the downtown business district. The viaduct…
ID Number:2017.14.24
Date:2010
Ephemera
"Don't be deceived by the down town landlords" leaflet, 1912
The Municipal Plans Commission of Seattle, established in 1910, hired civil engineer Virgil G. Bogue to prepare a strategic development plan for the city. Bogue’s 1911 proposal was very ambitious, including a Civic Center in the Denny Regrade area, a park and boulevard system, separation of railroad tracks from streets, and a variety of other municipal improvements. The plan, as…
ID Number:2018.3.3.17
Date:1912
Ephemera
Denny Clay Company receipt, December 6, 1893
The Denny-Renton Clay and Coal Company (also Denny Clay Company) was founded in 1892 by Seattle pioneer Arthur A. Denny (1822-1899) when he bought out predecessor company Puget Sound Fire Clay Company. Clay's popularity over wood as a building material grew substantially after the Great Seattle Fire in 1889. Raw material was extracted with hydraulic mining equipment from heavy glacial…
ID Number:2018.3.3.78
Date:1893
Cartographic material
Map of Harbor Island and Duwamish waterway districts, Bogue map, No. 7, September 1911
The Municipal Plans Commission of Seattle, established in 1910, hired civil engineer Virgil G. Bogue (1846-1916) to prepare a strategic development plan for the city. Bogue's 1911 proposal was very ambitious, including a Civic Center in the Denny Regrade area, a park and boulevard system, separation of railroad tracks from streets, and a variety of other municipal improvements. Bogue's "Plan…
ID Number:2019.3.5
Date:1911
Cartographic material
Open Space Proposed Zoning Map, Seattle, December 1985
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the City of Seattle showed interest in purposefully growing the city. In 1903 the city contracted the Olmsted Brothers to create a comprehensive Seattle park and boulevard system, and in 1910 hired Virgil G. Bogue to prepare a strategic plan. The Seattle Zoning Commission was created in 1920 to divide the city into…
ID Number:2019.3.19
Date:1985
Cartographic material
Comprehensive plan of Seattle, September 1956
In the late 1940s, Seattle’s City Planning Commission began work on a comprehensive plan for the city in order to plan its future development and growth. The results, in the form of a map, were presented to the mayor in October 1956 and accepted in principle by the City Council in April 1957. The plan had three major parts: land…
ID Number:2019.3.26
Date:1956
Poster
Seattle Commons Draft Plan poster, 1992
In 1991 Seattle architect Fred Bassetti and Seattle Times columnist John Hinterberger first proposed the idea for a 61-acre park stretching from downtown Seattle to Lake Union, envisioning a vast civic lawn framed by high-tech laboratories, condos, restaurants, and urban amenities. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen donated $20 million to buy property for the Seattle Commons, but the plan eventually failed…
ID Number:2020.51.2.1
Date:1992
Cartographic material
Birdseye View of Lake Forest Park and Seattle, 1910
The land that is now Lake Forest Park was originally occupied by a winter village of the Snohomish tribe, which increasing white settlement displaced in the late 19th century. In 1909, property developer (and future Seattle mayor) Ole Hanson formed the North Seattle Improvement Company and began buying land at the north end of Lake Washington in order to build…
ID Number:2023.3.4
Date:1910
Poster
Building Trades Day for the United War Chest poster, 1942
This poster advertises Building Trades Day for the United War Chest, held on Monday, October 19, 1942, during World War II. On this day, men working on building and construction projects were asked to give a day's pay to the War Chest. Unions donated generously, with many receiving "E" (for excellence) banner blue ribbon awards. Text on poster: Some of…
ID Number:2024.15.1
Date:1942
Photograph
View of Holgate Street looking east at 9th Avenue South, Seattle, May 22, 1923
This photograph of Holgate Street looking east towards Beacon Hill depicts two workmen at ground level, perhaps working on the pilings which raise the street and buildings above the marshy ground. Other pedestrians are also visible. This area south of downtown Seattle was originally made up of tidal flats; soil dredged from the Duwamish River and sluiced from the Denny…
ID Number:Lib1988.13.7.2.19
Date:1923