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AKA: Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (AYPE), Oriental Building, Seattle, WA; University of Washington, Seattle (UW), Armory, Seattle, WA
Structure Type: built works - exhibition buildings - exposition buildings
Designers: Howard and Galloway, Architects and Engineers (firm); Schack and Huntington, Architects (firm); Édouard Frère Champney (architect); John Debo Galloway (civil engineer); John Galen Howard (architect); Daniel Riggs Huntington Sr. (architect); James Hansen Schack Sr. (architect)
Dates: constructed 1908-1909
Overview
On early plans of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (AYPE), the bullet-shaped building located just to the north of Manufactures Building and the Arctic Circle was labeled the "Mines Building." In these early maps the Mines Building was located opposite the similarly shaped Fisheries Building, representing two of the three largest industries of early WA State. Confusingly, however, the Mines Building was also known as the "Oriental Foreign Exhibits Building" and Fisheries as the "European Building." Most newspaper articles discussing the pavilion as it was being constructed during 1908 and 1909 referred to it as the "Mines Building."
Building History
The Mines / Oriental Foreign Exhibits Building was located just to the east of the Cascade Court, a central, axial water feature that flowed in stages down to the Arctic Circle fountain composing the heart of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (AYPE). In 1909, the Oriental Builidng was bounded on the west by the East Cascade Court, on the north by Vancouver Avenue, on the east by Bering Avenue and on the south by Yukon Avenue.
It is likely that the theme of the Mines and Fisheries Buildings had to be broadened to become the European and Oriental Pavilions, referred to in the press as the "Foreign Buildings," because the Federal Government paid for their construction (along with the three other large structures, the Hawaii, Alaska and US Government Pavilions). This public investment could not be seen to be backing specific industries over others and therefore the buildings became focal points of foreign relations at the fair.
The San Francisco architectural firm of Howard and Galloway, Architects and Engineers, designed the Mines / Oriental Building assisted by the local Seattle architectural partnership of Schack and Huntington.
By 1919, the Mines / Oriental Building of the Alaska-Yurkon-Pacific Exposition had become the University of Washington Armory Building.
Demolition
The AYPE Oriental Building was demolished c. 1920, at about the same time that the old UW Powerhouse #1 (later the College of Mines Building) was razed. The College of Mines erected its second hall, later known as Roberts Hall, the first portion of which was completed in 1921.
PCAD id: 7088
