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Overview

During the 1960s, the firm of John Graham and Company offered cities in WA State planning services. The State of Washington's passage of the Planning Enabling Act of 1959 stimulated the need for professional consultants capable of researching and publishing a master planning document for cities and counties. John Graham and Company developed the the Planning, Traffic and Highway Engineering Division, under the guidance of G.R. Cysewski, who supervised the firm's planning efforts in Puyallup and Anacortes, WA, (1961), among others, in the 1960s.

Building Notes

In his letter to Mayor Jack N. Geiger, Graham planning chief Cysewski wrote about the need for planning in Puyallup: "Puyallup is facing a serious challenge that is also a great opportunity. National and State population growth in the next ten years will approximate that of the last twenty-five. Washington State is now entering the age of freeways. Freeways sharpen competition--they will lead to Puyallup if convenience, esthetics and selection are there--they will lead away from Puyallup if these are offered better elsewhere. The character of the city is established early in rebuilding. These formative years are most important--proper guidance must come from civic leaders. It is not often that we must rebuild our cities. What we build now, our grandchildren should look back on with pride in our accomplishment. What we build now must perpetuate and improve Puyallup's economic status in the Puget Sound region." (See John Graham and Company, Central Development Planning, Puyallup, Washington, [Seattle: John Graham and Company, Architects-Engineers, 1964], frontispiece.)

In 1964, Cysewski was assisted on the Puyallup plan by Gordon Y. Ericksen, project planner, Ruben D. Ramirez, economics, Donald C. Knappett, graphics, and Donald G. WIlcox, sketches.

PCAD id: 21847