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the following program is a
production of KSPS Public
television and is made possible
by the Friends of Seven
The date, May 22nd
1993 after a long dreadful
winter the fresh warmth
of spring was finally in the air
it was an appropriate time to
celebrate with open arms a new
chapter in the ongoing story of
one of Spokane prized historical
treasures. With its majestic
corinthian columns its grand
vaulted loudly and seven ornate
fireplaces it was clear the new
home of Spokane's Integrus
archtecture was a building from
another time and although this
festive open house in the spring
of ninety three marked a brand
new chapter in the continuing
story of this historic landmark
it also at the same time was a
fitting conclusion to a riveting
story of preservation.
From a noble public
servant as a library
and learning center to a
neglected public disgrace and
finally back to a contemporary
office building of regal
splendor this is the story of
Spokane's Carnegie library.
To recount to the
history of Spokane's
Carnegie library our
story drifts back to the turn of
the century it was an era of
great expansion for spokane when
civic leaders began realizing
the communities potential as a
metropolitan center in the
spirit did was decided in
nineteen hundred one the growing
city needed and deserved a
public library however the
problem how to pay for it one
possible source was two thousand
miles away in new york city home
of a well-known philanthropists
(Kit Garrett) Andrew Carnegie
donated money across the country
for library facilities in
communities like Spokane on and
there was a a tremendous effort
on the part of citizens in the
community to get mister Carnegie
interested in Spokane for this
particular building.
>> eventually after several
enquiries the city's efforts
paid off when Andrew Carnegie
agreed to donate seventy five
thousand dollars to the project
in nineteen hundred three with
the funding now in hand and
property near brown's addition
donated by wealthy Spokanite
Amasa Campbell, the library
project was well under way. The
next step was to come up with a
design. Early in 1904 the city
sponsored a design competition.
Whereby drawings from Spokane's
society of architects were sent
to New York's Columbia
University to be judged, in the
end the designs submitted by the
architects of Pruce and Zittle
was selected. (Garrett) In terms
of design it's a neo classical
typical of what was happening in
the Bozart era at the turn of
the century, but for Spokane it
was a very monumental building.
It echoes a lot of what was
happening along riverside avenue
on the kind of follows along
that theme of the um...
impressive civic buildings that
were being built in that area
>>shortly after the selection of
the design team the bid H.J.
Skinner to build spokane's new
public library was accepted on
september twelfth nineteen
hundred four construction
officially began with the laying
of the cornerstone by then the
spokane mayor L.F. Boyd the
ceremony including speeches from
various dignitaries was well
received however there was some
controversy surrounding the
inscription on the cornerstone.
shortly before the big event it
was discovered that Amasa
campbell's name had been placed
on the stone in front of Andrew
Carnegie's, this seemed highly
inappropriate to mister campbell
who requested the library
commission in charge of the
project to change the
inscription they agreed yet to
this day over nine decades later
the cornerstones inscription
still remains the same fourteen
months after putting the
infamous cornerstone in place
spokane's new public library
opened with a great deal of
fanfare in november of nineteen
hundred five it was a day worth
celebrating not only for the
citizens of spokane who gained a
new library but particularly for
those responsible for a project
whose road to completion that
been far from a smooth one. due
to various construction delays
and revisions the building had
taken seven months more complete
than originally scheduled
furthermore the project finished
nearly eight thousand dollars
over budget this was
particularly embarrassing to the
library commission who suddenly
found themselves without the
funds necessary to furnish the
building adequately consequently
the city had once again to
appeal to the kindness of Andrew
Carnegie for the additional
funds initially carnegie was
less than receptive to the
city's request asking in a curt
note back to the mayor
(Carnegie voice) Why was
the library building not
planned in accordance
with the resources
provided it seems a strange way
to carry on a project of this
kind to make plans so big that
you can pay for nothing but the
shell. >>fortunately after
further correspondence carnegie
softened and agreed to increase
his donation from a library from
seventy five to eighty five
thousand dollars it was far less
than the twenty five thousand
asked for but the library
commission realizing they were
in no position to negotiate made
do with some extensive
modifications modifications that
were hardly noticed on the
opening day described a spacious
and handsome by the citizens who
saw her for the first time
Spokane's new public library
displayed a selective mix of
architectural styles and
imagery. some of its more
distinctive features included a
neo classical column and
entry of vast mediterranean
style lobby atrium colorful
mosaic tile flooring marble
stairway huge wooden window
seven ornately different
fireplaces and even a water
powered elevator it was plain to
see that this newest addition to
carnegie is legacy and achieve
the standards of architectural
excellence established in the
hundreds of other carnegie
funded buildings around the
country however those same
architectural attributes that
made it so beautiful also made
the building less functional as
a library because of its
copacious design coupled with
added features of seven
fireplaces and two front
stairways the building while
grand lacked valuable storage
space a problem it didn't take
long to become apparent after
all this was a library and as
the years passed by the carnegie
is distinctive wide open design
eventually had to give way to
various modifications and
additions all necessary to
handle the libraries
ever-increasing volume of books
and staff yet despite its
cramped condition spokane's
carnegie library served the
community well for over four
decades until it was deemed too
small and later close in favor
of a larger library facility in
nineteen sixty two. During i'ts
tenure as the city's main
library the Carengie, despite
its shortcomings
was often considered
by both its staff and
those who used to it of very
special place (Pat Williams) I
was thrilled that this library
because earlier in my childhood
i discovered ancient greece and
there was beautiful corinthian
columns out product that this
was the most beautiful buildings
and the children's room had well
i suppose nowadays we would use
the term ambiance that to me it
was a almost a home library
crammed with books uh... certain
feeling of of warmth i think i
remember it's still the whole
building was being held up by
books. (Toni Savalli) Well I
remember working here from
nineteen forty-seven until we
moved out sears building
downtown i remember coming here
as a high school student, here
before i start with mostly the
fed debaters did speach people
always came down and stop
magzine carry-over we thought it
was you know a terrific library.
I remember the display cases on
the balcony children's room that
always had wonderful things in
it the reference counter was
usually lined up three four deep
with people who can be a good
evening ticket reference service
(Delores Ellis) I remember when
I came in 1946 in my first
professional job came from me
east here but i think that
because of what what strongly
dedicated wonderful people
around us I left part of my
heart here.
>>following its closures
a library in the early
nineteen sixties the story the
carnegie took many different
twists and turns as the old
building played host to a number
of different tenants however by
nineteen eighty three the
carnegie was left vacant and on
the road to decline eventually
as developers and their promises
came and went the property
defaulted back to city ownership
in nineteen ninety finally after
years of neglect and abuse
including an arson fire the
carnegie was purchased in
nineteen ninety-two by Spokane's
largest architectural firm for
one hundred seventy one thousand
dollars integrus archetecture
had bought itself not only a
significant landmark but an
intricate and costly restoration
project as well at the time the
firm's decision to take on such
a project was based on two
important factors
(Jerry Winkler) Our
internal thought process
and i think is driven by
perhaps couple different issues
one is economics we uh... say
that we would like to own our
own building rather than paying
rent to somebody else that uh...
historic structure allows us a
better opportunity there's uh...
another issue trying to take a
responsible role in retaining
some of the uh... character of
the community and we felt very
strongly about that we are
investing in retaining that
uh... an important part of
Spokane's heritage.
integrity was uh... we think
will be very rewarding uh...
along so that's very important
to us. >>one of the local
organizations that was
instrumental in bringing the
carnegie together with Integrus
was Spokane's preservation
office under the direction of
kit garrett the preservation
office provided Integrus within
invaluable information and
assistance much of the
information provided dealt with
uh... various tax incentives
available to developers
interested in restoring
historical property the special
tax breaks are designed to make
restoration projects like the
carnegie more attractive however
there are strings attached
including certification on both
the local national historical
registers. (Garrett) By pursuing
those types of designations
there are tax incentives that
are available for property
owners with the national
register there's a twenty
percent investment tax credit
for properties that are
rehabilitated um... and then
with the Spokane register
there's a program called special
valuation which in essence helps
to delay an property taxes on
improvements through property
for a period of ten years
they're very straightforward
guidelines have been developed
by that national park service
for renovation of historic
buildings and one of the things
that we try and make clear to
people is that if they want to
take advantage of tax incentives
and those guidelines tend to be
more strict then what they would
do on a normal basis but in the
sense those tax incentives are
there to help outweigh an offset
those expenses that might be
necessary (Winkler) there's
quite a bureaucracy to go
through numbers of applications
to to submit uh... receiving
excellent advice from Kit
Garrett on the type of
information that we need to
include in our submittals
because she's been very
available to us as far as uh...
some of the design proposals
that were putting forward and
helping and so on evaluate those
from historic perspective.
>>once the restoration and
design proposals satisfied the
various requirements of both
local and national historic
registers integrus was ready to
begin the Carnegie's much-needed
facelift a monumental task
considering years of decay had
transformed this once proud home
of books and students into a
haven for vagrants and a flock
of marauding pigeons yet despite
the despair those close to the
project still saw a potential
(Garrett) I've walked through an
awful lot of um... buildings
that have been strewn with
pigeon droppings there even
piles of it in um... remnants of
mattresses and all clothing and
buildings that have been
terribly vandalized on but
there's always something there
and a lot of times a very
special feeling if it's only in
seeing those original door
frames and moldings um...
regional hardwood floors into
some of those things that you
know when it's cleaned up in a
lot of those cosmetic things are
taking care of and you have a
building that offer so much more
than what we can get with new
construction these days. (Van
Clark) Well you see a lot of
work is still is obvious work
but uh... it's a challenge like
any new building. It just
presents a different challenges
all (Jim Crowley) When i first
walking around you could tell
that the building had been
sitting vacant for a long period
of time there was a real musty
smell there was an incredible
amount of moisture uh... the
woodwork uh... the plaster was
starting to peel from the walls
because of the expansion at the
heat in the cooling of the
building there had been so many
other uses of this building in
the last uh... three-four years
i was being used everybody that
came and added walls and they
threw a partitions and doorways
in that that was just a real
heartbreak to see that. I saw
there was a lot of potential in
this building is absolutely
beautiful but there was a lot of
work ahead be done. >>There was
indeed much to be done which
required the two men in charge
of the project Van Clark of
Integrus and Jim Crowley of
Walker construction general
contractor to hit the ground
running in the fall of nineteen
ninety two (Crowley) my
particular job is maintain, to
see that the schedules is
maintained and to set up a
schedule for the subs to get in
here at a certain time in it was
really imperative everybody did
exactly what they were supposed
to do when they were supposed to
do it. (Clark) that i have to
deal with it changes that we
make through the contractor the
cost implications of those
changes and the time
implications of some of them and
then when we have a problem that
we've incurred that we didn't
anticipate which there's always
that in the building of this
we've got to deal with that
>>One of the first problems that
required immediate attention was
the buildings lack of heat
(Crowley) since the building had
been unheated for a long period
of time we really could not do
anything except demolition until
we got some serious heat into
the building. we first started
putting heat with propane
because it was taking a long
time to get natural gas hooked
up. that was really intregral
because one of the things that
we had to do was scrape all of
the paint plaster off the walls
and off the ceilings. the more
we heated the building up the
more plastered separated from
existing surfaces. so that told
us right away uh... we were have
to bring this temperature up to
about seventy degrees for at
least a couple of weeks before
we can even complete some of our
demolition. >>besides providing
heat another initial concern of
the contractor involved
protecting during construction
all the historic finishes in the
building that needed to be
maintained we have mosaic tile
in the atrium. we had an
incredible amount of traffic
that has was to go over the
surface of this mosaic tile,
including heavy equipment so we
covered that with plywood also
the existing staircase as marble
treads, subcontractors in order
to get their work done will be
drained materials and uh...
supplies and equipment up the
stairs so we had to protect them
some way so we designed them an
inverted set of stairs that fit
over the top of this marble to
protect that also on a project
like this all of your material
since the buildings are rebuilt
all of the material had to come
in by door way window on the
outside of the building we have
terra cotta window sills which
are very very soft you could
take a break those really
easily, uh... there was another
area that we had to protect as
well. >>once jim was satisfied
all the necessary precautions
were in place interior
renovation of the carnegie went
into full swing meanwhile
outside renovation of the
buildings exterior was also
underway (Clark) exterior we
have to look at how we were
going to be able to restore the
outside without changing its
appearance because they're
certain limitations on how you
clean the masonry uh... what you
can do to the window and the
wood work outside the granite
the outside has to be left a
near original it was. And some
of those things are difficult to
do (Jim Dierks) The restoration
of buildings has pretty well
generalized there are certain
products that you have to use
are different like the sandstone
and uh... and brick it's a lite
color brick has to be done
different depends on me
materials that are in the
building that products that they
use. the solution put on the
building the period of three to
five minutes there depending on
how dirty it is. Then we us a
high pressure to wash out the
dirt. Here we have the railroad
tracks soot from the old trains.
>>Fortunately much of the
Carnegies exterior restoration
was completed just before the
start of the winter of ninety
two, a winter that proved
to be a harsh one.
cold outside, warm and busy
inside or a myriad of
restoration challenges were
being dealt with the most
important of these included
restoration of the buildings
ornate plaster work it's huge
wooden framed windows, and its
colorful mosaic tile flooring
proper restoration of these
high-profile areas could make or
break the project the first item
on the list the Carnegie's
extensive plaster work demanded
immediate attention
(Clark) Plaster was uh...
real that problem
because it had been in
here for so many years with no
moisture control and there
plaster was cracked all over the
building the windows are framed
with uh... plaster moulding
ceilings have plaster crown
moldings in there on a memo
plaster rosettes around a lot of
those have been just uh...
destroyed or damaged and we were
able to get a plaster contractor
whose experienced in
restorations where it was
damaged we've made new plaster
mouldings and replace them
they've made a cast of the
rosets, replaced them
so as uh... in most
instances we've repaired or
replaced all of the damaged
plaster molding >>another
plastor item that
required time and patience
was the intricate
colored plaster wall located in
the lobby this expensive wall
the greets visitors as they walk
in it was important to Integrus
because it would ultimately be
the firms signature wall (Del
Phillips) it was just a process
of of how much color you add to
the plaster and uh... and how
you applied the plaster before
we got to that and we had to try
different ways uh... the thing
with colors is it fades close to
seventy percent so we'd put one
on let it dry out would say oh
that's way too lite that we
would add more color and uh...
try different various techniques
on texture and and had a how to
try to mingle those colors
together. I don't know how many
samples we made till we finally
got a right >>The second
high-profile item the presented
a major restoration challenge
involve the carnegie's huge
six-foot windows (Clark) with
this many windows and and the
size of the windows our energy
consumption would be tremendous
if we couldn't deal with the
windows with insulated glass
from historical standpoint we
could not replace the windows
but we could reglaze the windows
which we did we have some uh...
problems with that restrictions
of the national park service to
regulate these features. we
originally wanted to use what
they call lo ee glass they
wouldn't permit that some of the
early low ee glassk was somewhat
reflective outside buildings of
this did not have any type of
glass and that was reflective in
nature and uh... i think they
felt that the other lo E glass
would still be somewhat
reflective. >>with that issue
finally resolved there was now
of the challenge of reglazing
each window (Clark) their
reasoning that only single glass
in them. to put double glazing
in them space for the one frame
sees the glass and there was
limited ways that they would
permit us too stop in the glass.
and what we were able to do was
to remove the old glass, keeping
interior near as possible we
routed out the frames and
enlarged them to receive the
insulated glass and we refaced
the outside with completely new
wood stock which didn't change
the exterior facing the building
or the windows at all
>>The final high-profile
item that was dealt with
late in the restoration
project was the beautiful mosaic
tile flooring gracing the lobby
as well as the upstairs
mezzanine (Crowley) Our intent
at the very beginning was there
were areas that we're gonna be
seen and we needed to pack and
repair those areas, and there is
an area rug right in the center
right in front of the reception
desk that we knew was going to
be there so we decided that we
would remove mosaic tiles in
that area and reuse that
material in areas that would be
seen it took quite a few days in
remove and prep those tiles
clean them up embed them in
locations and try to match the
existing patterns that they had
too uh... in then after all was
said and done after everything
was grouted they came in and the
contractor proceeded to clean
the mosaic floor on both levels.
>>As the blustery winter of '92
lingered on the pace of activity
within the carnegie accelerated
particularly as the projects
deadline of march first drew
closer with numerous contractors
all trying to finish their work
at the same time it was up to
the principals in charge to keep
the restoration moving ahead
smoothly (Crowley) It was a
matter of dealing week by week
on the schedule and so of course
there were some areas where
somebody didn't have the right
equipment or the right equipment
didn't show up and it was the
wrong equipment. Basically you
have to hash it out.
(heat pump conversation)
Everybody knew
right from the beginning how
critical the schedule this was.
so everybody worked for that
end, and everybody cooperated.
>>Ultimately that cooperation
would be critical because it was
clear the Carnegie's rebirth
involved more than just
reclaiming the buildings
handsome historical features it
was also with the addition of
updated mechanical and
electrical systems a renovation
project the carnegie was being
converted from a tired old
building into a new modern
office building. The challenge
for Integrus was to balance
these new needs of a modern
facility while still maintaining
the Carnegie's historic
ambiance. To pull this off
Integrus needed the help of all
contractors involved (Crowley) A
case in point the electrical
contractor came in here and he
knew that putting a bunch of
surface mold the wire mold on
the faces of these walls with
the with the switches in the
boxes, the receptacles, surface
mounted would be atrocious so
they took it upon themselves
they literally saw cut into the
existing masonry walls embedded
and buried all of the conduit
and all the new wiring, that's
something that wasn't required
uh... however they felt as well
as everybody else felt that
let's go this extra step and
uh... there again that's back to
the attitude of let's do this
right >>And right they did in
many ways as promised to
carnegie open for business the
first week of march and after
completion of exterior finishes
that had been delayed by the
weather integrus was ready
to show off its new home in may.
for the first time in over a
decade the carnegie now and
nationally registered landmark
opened its doors to the public.
(greeting visitor)
With it's architectural
elegance restored the
Carnegie as it did at the
turn of the century, dazzled the
hundreds that came to inspect
her. for some the
moment was nostalgic
while for others it was a brand
new experience. But for all it
was evident the rebirth of this
old friend known as Spokane's
Carnegie Library, had indeed
been done right.
(Crowley) I can't step
back and take a look
think of anything that i would
do differently. There were
so many things have changed
throughout the project that
really enhanced it. and we took
care of things immediately. and
because of that we were done we
knew that it is exactly the way
it should be. and it gave
everybody a really good feeling.
(Winkler) it's a little
difficult to see the effort
that went into this
thing, what you see is the
result of real creative effort
not only from the design but
from the contractors
efforts too.
(Sheri Barnard) It's a
treasure to our
community, and it's important to
preserve all our structures,
every time I think some
buildings deserve to be torn
down, but to see this building
and the fireplaces and uh...
furniture and architectural firm
in here is what is what a city
should do.
(Williams) Well i think it's
wonderful it's wonderful at that
they have restored some of the
original architectural features
the detail. I think what thrills
me the most is that they have
restored its pride and made it a
building of usefulness again.