Actions and Opportunities
Support Our Buildings
Visiting and/or sketching your local URMs is a great way to interact with history and understand the value vernacular structures hold in our city, whether they are designated landmarks or not. Click on each image to get a walking tour of Pioneer Square/Chinatown International District, Ballard, and the Central District. These are just a few of Seattle’s many neighborhoods with URMs, although the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections maintains a list of URMs by neighborhood, as well as an interactive map, to help with exploring the rest of Seattle.
These maps feature some buildings that have been retrofitted and are successfully surviving and thriving in the community; some that have been partially retrofitted but need more support to reach present-day standards; and some that show no signs of retrofit at all. Not all buildings on the list are included in the tour maps. The unretrofitted URMs, highlighted in pink, are buildings that demonstrate significant architectural and community value, and should be championed for preservation. Is one of these buildings important to you? Champion that building by nominating it to the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of Most Endangered Places. If you are the building owner, reach out to Historic Seattle for assistance or consult a preservation professional through Historic Seattle’s directory.
Pioneer Square / Chinatown International District
Georgetown
Central District
Lower Capitol Hill
Ballard
SUPPORT OUR COMMUNITIES
In 2018, Sandi Doughton and Daniel Gilbert wrote in The Seattle Times,
“If seismic retrofits raise rents or lead to demolition of old buildings, the burden will fall disproportionately on communities of color and low-income people. But when the next earthquake hits, the same population is likely to pay the highest cost in terms of lives lost, injury, and displacement.”
This conundrum explains why Seattle has struggled for decades to pass a URM ordinance, but has never managed to follow through in mandating retrofits. No matter what rules we try to pass, retrofitting just won’t happen if small businesses and marginalized communities can’t afford to do the work. Action toward seismic safety is necessary, but must include support to empower building owners and tenants in understanding and performing this necessary work.
The Portland chapter of the NAACP protesting the placarding ordinance. Photo by Zane Sparling.
A recent case in Portland illustrates the unintended consequences that can result from policy without support. In 2018, the City of Portland passed an ordinance requiring building owners of URMs to post signs in their buildings stating that the building could collapse in the event of an earthquake. Leaders of historic Black churches that were among the URMs pointed out that posting this signage could affect their abilities to secure loans and gain investment in their structures--the investment they would need to be able to perform a seismic upgrade.
The Central District and the Chinatown International District (pictured) could lose not only brick vernacular buildings, but also vital businesses and services if building owners cannot meet seismic standards. Photo by Mary Waelder.
Jonna Papaefthimiou of the Portland’s emergency management bureau says that although the City had good intentions: “What we didn't recognize was also that Portland's history of land-use planning [...] is one of redlining, restrictive real estate covenants, redevelopment that disproportionately displaced communities of color.” For communities that had already been harmed by racist planning practices of the past, she said, “this was one more program that was a requirement that those communities could not afford.” Jonna concluded:
“if we had centered our work truly in support to those communities, and had a plan to provide support to the neediest owners, then [...] we would have had allies in communities where we really needed them.”
While support for Seattle’s property owners, small business owners, tenants, and neighborhood leaders should be a part of seismic policy, there are some actions individuals can take which can help right now.
Donate to Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority. The C-ID has many of Seattle’s locally-owned URMs, and many in the neighborhood are low-income and elderly. SCIDpda advocates for the people and places of the C-ID and is a vital liaison between the neighborhood and the City.
Donate to the Africatown Community Land Trust, which works toward community ownership and development of land in the Central District, in order to support the cultural and economic thriving of people who are part of the African diaspora in Seattle. The Central District has many URMs and neighborhood support is needed to include these in future development.
Contact your City Council representative and communicate support for a URM policy that includes financial incentives for underserved communities and small businesses.
For architecture or engineering firms that have a pro bono allowance, offering consultations to building owners considering a retrofit would give them a clearer path forward.