there is no hope

I like it. It’s catchy.

Didn’t the city council read the consultant’s report? It recommended stabilizing the building, not to tear it down. Nowhere in the report does it say, “there is no hope.” The decision to have hope should be something our elected officials decide to have, or not.

she is right. I should probably go too.

Sorry Tacoma, there is no hope for your pet rock.

There is no Hope = Apathy

HOPE is so 2008.

Ben Franklin once said that “he who lives upon hope dies farting.”

2009 is the year of NO HOPE.
Which begs the question: What is the theme for 2010?

You guys need your prozac.

Turn lemons into lemonade. How?

Demolition party!!!

WHAT TIME IS THIS DEMO GOING TO HAPPEN?

Thanks Derek. I asked the crew and they told me they’d begin at 7:00.

Sad to see it go. It really could have been something…I hold the Pacific Grill and Bank of California building as an example of such a success. But, in the end, this building had its best chance of salvation in 1986 when it was saved from the wrecking ball. Here we are, 23 years later and no one took advantage of that opportunity. That doesn’t bode well for the next “Luzon.”

Let’s also not forget to celebrate the successes of preservation: Pacific Grill, UWT, Union Station, One Pacific Avenue, Old City Hall, The Pantages…the list is long!

There once was a time when a very influencial civic player didn’t want an eyesore next to his shiny new building. So the City engineer pulled the alarm and everybody in public works had their hair on fire trying to tear down Alber’s Mill. I thought the outcome proofed the way our community dealt with it.

So now we all smell hair burning again and this time they have a million dollars to spend chasing an aesthetic that admires parking garages in overcoats more than world class architecture.

Our 20 year streak of not losing a historic building downtown means nothing in some quarters and just because some folks are discouraged by the Russell dump doesn’t mean Tacoma has lost its amazing capacity to repair and reuse reusable buildings..

The greenest building is the one that’s already built and any new structure that forces the loss of a reusable existing building should lose LEEDs points and public credit for high sustainability standards.

BTW there is no asbestos on the upper two floors and such a miniscule amount in the rest of the building that the demo guys are taking no environmental accomodation. They will mist the forced collapse and monitor air and water conditions with sensors that must be lab tested for results(should see those a few days later).

@ 19, well put.

I’m sure the entire block will be replaced with a soulless box and then many of the same people posting on this subject will be shaking their fists and whining about gentrification.

artifacts —

I totally agree with your comments regarding LEED certification and the notion of taking into consideration the circumstances of lot/parcel clearance. The same should apply to tree or wetland mitigation on raw land sites.

There is one amusing element to the Luzon demolition: it is safe to assume that the building that replaces it will be soulless; but it’s even safer to assume that the building that replaces it will not last nearly as long or admirably as the Luzon.

In my opinion, the City of Tacoma does not have to demolish the Luzon!!

I have spoken to various concerned parties, and read the first engineering report (July 1, 2009) which recommended bracing of one wall ASAP. I haven’t been able to read the second (peer) engineering report — which, essentially, said that a different wall was also in very bad shape.

Apparently, taking into account that just in the last year a girder beam has broken, as well as other failing elements inside, there is a risk that the building could collapse. (But remember, it has managed to stand since 1891).

Now, if it were braced on four walls (@ a cost of about $600,000, not including any mitigation for one surrounding property owner), it would not collapse outward, but could collapse inwards despite being braced. This is why the City is going for demo. (Just as a side note, an estimate from August 2009 put the cost of demo at just under $700,000. But I do not know for certain whether this is still accurate.)

However, no one can put any real time on when such potential collapse might happen — although going through another winter would be problematic because of the pooling of water in the building.

I believe that the City is not going for bracing because it believes that it won’t find a developer anytime soon. We are just coming out of the worst recession since the Great Depression. With all the historic preservation tax credits available to this project, I simply can’t believe that a gorgeous (on the outside) building located right downtown will not attract interest in a strengthening economy.

When I look at this building in relation to those near it — and particularly after having seen some of the incredible architectural detailing in close-up photos — this building simply anchors the entire surrounding area with its superb character. There is no way it should be totally demolished. Perhaps it could be gutted, but the exterior saved.

I am sure that if a committee of concerned citizens were to search the country for developers, one could be found.

It is amazing to me that this building is located right downtown and estimates to rehab are around $8 million. That really doesn’t seem to be very much considering that some single family homes in Seattle and Bellevue are in the millions.

In the meantime, I would urge the City to brace and hold off on demolition — or to hold off on demolition for a few weeks in the hopes that a developer could be found who would begin to shore up the building.

ye who comment here, abandon all hope.

“It is amazing to me that this building is located right downtown and estimates to rehab are around $8 million”
A fraction of what the city spent on indoor parking across the street. The city’s priorities are very strange at times. Perhaps we need a new mission statement or purpose statement. And policies that back that up. I like what I heard earlier: fist, do no harm. Second perhaps: plan for people. Third: handle historic and natural heritage with outmost care. (Because we only have it on loan).

Not much more to say. Shame. Astonishment. Embarrassment. Sorrow. I thought those shprt-sighted “urban renewal” days were over. I naively took it for granted that our elected leaders embraced appropriate preservation. In the future I will attempt to vote more carefully.

Jim Merritt would have never let this happen. He would have kept the building up through sheer force of will.

I too, naively, took for granted that Tacoma would do the right thing. I did not think it possible for the city council to be indifferent and lethargic about historic preservation and resource protection. How many times can we say never again?

Its over and amid the rubble is a reputation Tacoma had for being smart about reusing the reusable built environment. We were also talking about a sustainable approach to building the City going forward. The on and off facts about asbestos coming from the City were on again when it was decided that nothing would be recycled. It’s all going into the waste stream and landfill. We should also be very discouraged by the hypocritical concern by the City that the building was in danger of collapse. Friday afternoon a crew of folks walked in the Tacoma Historical Society with elevator doors and interior building parts they had spent the day removing at the City’s request. Guess life safety is also an off and on thing depending.

“Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will not die, but long after we are gone be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistence. Remember that our sons and our grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty.”

Daniel H. Burnham

“There is no hope.”

Erik Anderson

@andre #36,

Political posturing is still technically ‘doing something’.

other’s haven’t even bothered to play lip service.

I camped out inside the LUZON as long as I could to prevent her destruction. I was physically removed from the building by Erik Anderson himself. He is a big man. He is a cruel man. He and his goons beat me with phone books before the ICE agents hauled me away to the detention facility on the tide flats. Luckily I had hidden my iphone inside my body so I could tell my story to the world through this comment box on exit 133.

Lord help us all.

It’s weird. They keep scooping up debris and putting in a caravan of dump trucks. No matter how much they scoop up and dump, it is never going to end. The pile of debris never gets smaller. They will be there forever. The building will never go away.

Mofa: ?Que es la Luzon?

Mofo: La Luzon es no mas.

Mofa: ?Es verdad?

Mofo: Si.

I think Anderson made the right call and I hope it sends a message to the other property owners that let these buildings sit and decay. How long has the city horsed around with the Elks Building owners? When is that eye sore going to start falling down? I bet if a big chunk of the Luzon fell on a person, car or building….. everyone would be jumping up and down about “how did the City let this happen” and who is going to pay. Right?
If you can’t rent it or fix it, you shouldn’t own it. I hope Anderson cracks down on the other slum lords and speculators that have gone broke and keep holding onto these heaps.

“Phuck You, Tacoma city government. It’s something I never could have said when I worked at The News Tribune (1999-2005), even when it needed saying.” – Jen Graves

slog.thestranger.com…

I ask myself, how does this make me feel? Safe and Clean? I think the beautiful angle poster dudes have gone too far.

@47 and 48
Beautiful tribute by Jen Graves. For three decades, I have routinely stood up for and defended Tacoma against the many detractors I’ve always encountered. Despite small leaps forward now and then, Tacoma’s leaders always find a way to cough up the ball. It has come full-circle to the 80’s again, so I’ll let others (including some young friends posting above) take over my reigns of hope – I’m throwing in the towel. Tacoma came close, but I now believe we’ll never really get there.

I’ve only lived in Tacoma for 2 years, so there’s a chance that I need to find a private place to remove my head from my lower abdomen. However, I have spent 9 years working in civil engineering firms with planners, designers, and municipal entities. If I compare the Luzon situation to many of the redevelopment situations I’ve witnessed, the result is the same old cynical grunt: “What did you expect?” But that’s not enough.

There is a corrective note of hope here. It is tempting to attach an irrational significance to an event like the Luzon demolition. Such a singular, stark, lonely building easily translates into a symbol. That it met its demise due to political apathy and malfeasance further strengthens the symbolism to possibly fetishist levels. If we’re too busy stomping our feet and throwing up our hands, we’ll never ask ourselves the question: What if it HADN’T been knocked down? Would anything truly be changed?

The nakedness of The Man’s plan for Tacoma is breathtaking — and absurd. Whether Luzon stood or fell made no difference to the ultimate plan: to shape Tacoma into another Calabasas, Sherman Oaks, Bellevue, Belltown, Westwood… or any other haven for the Class of $100,000. A place to eat tapas (or whatever the next trendy word for “rich people’s bar food” is). A place to dip organic blue tortilla chips into mango wasabi duck-sauce salsa. A place where one can feel sophisticated simply because they’re not at Target.

Those places are all the same, and all of them strangle the unique culture of the cities they inhabit. But they bring tax revenue — in the short term.

But I don’t worry about this happening to Tacoma. The barrier between reality and the Mauve Condos is just too thin. The Class of $100,000 doesn’t want to look out their picture window and see Murray Morgan bridge. They don’t want 9th and Sprague to be within walking distance. They don’t want to see the Port in the near distance. They can get the same Mauve Condo somewhere else, for the same price, without the rust. And they will.

Tacoma’s throwing its pearls at swine, desperately flirting with the prom king.

Portland found a cultural niche by mining its own cultural and natural resources, rather than importing cultural gold-leaf from the “creative class.” Tacoma has just as much — or more — to offer, and can create tax revenue by selling its culture to the rest of the world. THAT is an exciting possibility and THAT is why I’m so so so so so pleased to live here. Tacoma is incredible.

Squid: It’s delicious.

Tacoma used to be the kind of place where when your Ford Falcon blew a piston you could park it in the front yard and let it rot.

Same with a house or commercial building. A hardworking guy could buy either, and it was his right to let it rot if he wanted to.

If the Luzon is a symbol, then last Saturday’s demolition and clean-up action is new evidence of the kind of place that Tacoma is not—-This is not the land of unconditional liberty.

By the way, anybody from Portland or Seattle could have freely bought the Luzon —-that precious jewel.

And lastly, the idea of Tacoma selling its culture to the rest of the world to create tax revenue—-What exactly would you ask foreigners to trade their hard-earned dollars for?

“…I was on the wrong track; I was trying to teach adults in the business world as though they were college freshmen. I saw the futility of using Webster, Burke, Pitt, and O’Connell as exmamples to imitate.”
–Dale Carnegie, on the fundamentals of effective speaking.

Hey!

…mmmm…smell The Cheesecake Factory…Gap Outlet…ColdStone Creamery…Cinnabon….Orange Julius….ATT store…Lady Foot Locker…Johnny Rockets…Sanitized For Your Protection

When captiveyak’s comments are read by stephen hawking, it sounds quite poetic and philsophical, like a PBS documentary.

mofo sounds diabolical.

squid…everyday is Halloween for me….

This is some great exchange. I hate last Saturday, but really, this is fascinating.

Today marks the one week anniversary of the Luzon demolition. I’ve never been much for words; just my nature I guess. Well maybe now, with the Luzon gone, I have a reason to speak. Oh yes, I know that Exit133.com has a staff poet. But recently I read that he is on sabbatical. So today, people of the blog, and people of Tacoma, I will humbly offer words of remembrance to a community who so desperately yearns for improvisational poetic expression.

• THE LUZON •

Hey! Where did the Luzon go?

It was just here, it seems.

Pollywogs swim in distant mud puddles.

A tugboat calls out in the fog.

Somewhere two architects are weeping.

One has a frog in his throat.

Tacoma has no vision.

Same visionaries that lost Russell. Same visionaries that hire firms from Seattle to promote economic development in Tacoma. We have so many amazing resources in Tacoma: our historic buildings, inspired artists, civic activists, small business owners with big city moxie. Please hear our plea elected and appointed officials: you represent us. What is in our best interest? Is it a rush to tear down a building? Is it turning down requests for Russell to handle the City’s employee investment package? Is it hiring a PR firm from Seattle instead of the remarkable talent right here on Broadway, Pacific or Dock Street. Why do you make these choices and think it doesn’t hurt the soul of the city? The impact of each choice, builds on the other. We care about the decisions you are making.

hmmm. wonder why NYC officials didn’t just throw in the towel and tear it all down to the last brick? i thought that was the only way to ensure public safety.