Steinbrueck, Victor: A GUIDE TO SEATTLE ARCHITECTURE 1850 – 1953. New York: Reinhold Publishing Corp., 1953.

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A GUIDE TO SEATTLE ARCHITECTURE 1850 - 1953

Victor Steinbrueck

Victor Steinbrueck: A GUIDE TO SEATTLE ARCHITECTURE 1850 - 1953. New York: Reinhold Publishing Corp., 1953. First edition. Slim quarto. Photo illustrated saddle stitched wrappers. 56 pp. Illustrated with maps and black and white photographs throughout. University library stamps to Contents Page, otherwise a very good or better copy of a rare and ephemeral document.

5.5 x 8.5 saddle-stitched guide with 56 pages illustrated with maps and black and white photographs throughout. This Guide was published for the American Institute of Architects National Convention held in Seattle in 1953. All imaged properties are referenced by date of completion, designer credits and physical addresses. This is the type of document that sends people to Google Maps to find out how well Seattle has valued its Modern Architectural heritage over the last 60 years.

  • Acknowledgements
  • Publisher's Note: William W. Atkin
  • Introduction
  • Historical Architecture
  • Seattle And Its Architecture
  • Selected List Of Seattle Architecture: Central Seattle, North Seattle, Across Lake Washington, South Seattle
  • Photographers
  • Map Of Seattle

Features work by James Stephen, John Wieland, Ellsworth Stroey, Andrew Willatsen, Albert Balch, Thomas, Grainger & Thomas, Gaggin & Gaggin, Roland Terry, R. C. Reamer, Naramore, Bain, Brady & Johanson, Young & Richardson, Aitken, Bain, Jacobsen, Holmes & Stoddard, J. Lister Holmes, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Young Richardson, Carleton & Detlie, George Wellington Stoddard & Associates, John Ridley, Oliver W. Olsen, Bain & Overturf, Victor Steinbrueck, Chiarelli & Kirk, Tucker, Shields & Terry, Wimberly & Cook, John T. Jacobsen, Paul Thiry, James Hussey, Philip A. Moore, Lawrence Waldron, R. J. Peterson, John A. Rohrer, Paul Hayden Kirk, Decker & Christenson, Pietro Belluschi, Robert Dietz, Charles Macdonald, Sigmund Ivarsson, Roger Gotteland, James J. Chiarelli, John Graham, Bassetti & Morse, Paul Delaney, Henry Olschewsky, Young & Richardson, Carlton & Detlie, Wendell Lovett, John R. Sproule, Lloyd Lovegren, Durham & Lindahl, Moore & Massar, Roderick Parr, Ron Wilson, Bliss Moore, Jr., Gardner & Hitchings, John Herman, Cushman & Van Horne, Perry B. Johanson, Jones, Ahlson & Thiry, Ralph Burkhard, and Robert J. Massar.

Victor Steinbrueck [1911 - 1985] was a Seattle architect, and University of Washington faculty member, and best known for his efforts to preserve the city's Pioneer Square and Pike Place Market.

Steinbrueck was born in Mandan, North Dakota, and came to Seattle in 1913. In 1930 he enrolled in the University of Washington Program in Architecture, graduating in 1935 with a Bachelor of Architecture (B. Arch.). In this period he also worked in the Civilian Conservation Corps. After apprenticing in a number of private Seattle firms and serving in the military during World War II. He joined the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Washington in 1946. He also initiated his own practice and, over the next two decades, designed a series of regional-modernist residences, built with indigenous materials suited to the climate.

Steinbrueck's focus on the character of Seattle's architecture and urban places dates from the early 1950s when he authored A Guide to Seattle Architecture, published for American Institute of Architects national convention held in Seattle in 1953.

Steinbrueck went on to publish several other books promoting awareness of the unique character of Seattle: Seattle Cityscape (1962; published to coincide with Century 21, the Seattle World's Fair), Market Sketchbook (1968), and Seattle Cityscape #2 (1973). In the 1960s Steinbruck became active in historic preservation, and, with others, successfully fought developers' plans to obliterate Seattle's most significant historic district. He was instrumental in the creation of Seattle's first two historic districts, Pioneer Square (1970) and Pike Place Market (1971). His own projects were guided by a strong sense of public spirit and social consciousness: low-income housing, the inclusion of social services, and a number of city parks co-designed with landscape architect Richard Haag, including the one that now bears his name.

Working as a consultant to John Graham & Company, Steinbrueck played a key role in the design work of the Space Needle. In 1963, Steinbrueck was elected a Fellow in the American Institute of Architects.

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