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AKA: University of Washington, Seattle (UW), KCTS Broadcasting Station and Drama Department Building, Seattle, WA; University of Washington, Seattle (UW), Chemistry Library Building, Seattle, WA
Structure Type: built works - public buildings - schools - university buildings
Designers: Grainger, Thomas and Baar, Architects (firm); Kumata and Associates, Architects (firm); Pangborn, C.A., Engineer (firm); Strandberg, E.L., Structural Engineer (firm); VFT / A Division of Coffman Engineers, Incorporated (firm); Edward Joseph Baar (architect); Clyde E. Grainger (architect); Nardone (building contractor); C. A. Pangborn (engineer); E. L. Strandberg (structural engineer); Donald Partridge Thomas (architect)
Dates: constructed 1956-1957
Overview
The Seattle architectural firm of Grainger, Thomas and Baar designed the Modern structure on the University of Washington Campus, known as the "Drama / TV Building" in 1955. Grainger, Thomas and Baar was a successor firm of Naramore, Grainger and Thomas, the architects of the Chemistry Department's home in Bagley Hall, completed in 1937.
Building History
The University of Washington's School of Drama originally maintained its costume workshop in this building. Additionally, the KCTS / Channel Nine public broadcasting station also occupied space here before it moved to a new location in Seattle Center. The Drama Department later moved to other facilities in Hutchinson Hall and to a building on University Way NE.
KCTS made its first broadcast from its new Drama / TV Building on Monday afternoon, 02/18/1957. Seattle Post-Intelligencer Television and Radio Editor, W.F. John, discussed the new UW studio building and the public broadcasting station's history in his "Televiews" column of 02/17/1957: "Educational television in Seattle will 'come of age' this Monday when KCTS starts telecasting programs for the first time from the new half-million-dollar Drama-TV Building on the University campus. The initial programs Monday afternoon, from the first of the two new studios on the campsu, will be seen exactly 27 monts to the day from the time the first test pattern was aired by KCTS on Channel 9, November 18, 1954. The final broadcasts from the original temporary studios at 4037 15th Avenue N.E. were made last Friday." (See "Seattle Televiews: Educational TV Will Move to Campus Studio," Seattle Sunday Post-Intelligencer, 02/17/1957, 5th Section, p. 1 [consecutive page 66]).
Grainger, Thomas and Baar designed the Drama / TV Building in association with E.L. Strandberg, Structural Engineer and C.A. Pangborn, Mechanical and Electrical Engineers. Specifications for the Drama / TV Building were dated 11/1955.
This building later housed the library for the UW's Chemistry Department, after 1987.
Alteration
A Drama / TV Building Library and Locker Room was designed by the University of Washington's Department of Buildings and Grounds, with plans dated 10/08/1956. S.M. Metzger was the Department of Buildings and Grounds Superintendent in 1956.
The Drama / TV Building underwent large-scale renovations in 1986-1987. The design team for UW Renovation Project #1446B included Kumata and Associates, Architects; V.F.T./A Division of Coffman Engineers; and Nardone Mechnical Contractors.
PCAD id: 8721
