victor steinbrueck: father of our landmarks
Seattle’s three most recognizable landmarks are the Space Needle,
Pike Place Market, and Pioneer Square. Victor Steinbrueck had a hand in
designing or preserving all three. He was one of the principal architects
of the Space Needle, and both Pioneer Square and Pike Place Market were
saved from redevelopment by efforts he helped organize.
This savior of landmarks was raised in a working-class neighborhood in Seattle. The city fascinated Steinbrueck from an early age. As a child he wandered through the streets, poking into every corner and back alley. As a youth, Steinbrueck often came to Pioneer Square with his father. They would have supper at a local cafe after working late and watch the neighborhood’s human spectacle of workers, street people, and soapbox orators.
Steinbrueck received his degree in architecture from the University of Washington in 1935 and entered private practice in 1938. During World War II he volunteered for the Army and spent his tour of duty designing airport runways in Newfoundland. The only conflict he saw during the war was with his superior officers. Asked if he liked the Army, he replied that if he had, he wouldn’t have seen any point in going to war to fight fascism.
Back in Seattle, he opened an architectural practice and started teaching part-time at the UW. He eventually made teaching his vocation, feeling that he could have a greater effect on the field of architecture by influencing students than by designing buildings.
Steinbrueck began his activist career in the 1960s, when the Seattle City Council was considering razing the buildings in Pioneer Square to make room for high-rises and parking lots. Around the same time, Pike Place Market was also facing redevelopment. Steinbrueck was determined to save his beloved childhood haunts. He gathered support from like-minded Seattleites, and the long struggles with City Hall began. Eventually he and his compatriots prevailed: Pioneer Square was designated a historic district in 1970, and Pike Place Market was granted similar status through a 1971 initiative.
Steinbrueck spent much of his time trying to convert his colleagues to the cause of civic restoration, but he was often unsuccessful. He grew dissatisfied with what he believed was mainstream architects’ lack of social conscience. For a time he even left the American Institute of Architects, frustrated by what he felt was the futility of getting Seattle’s practicing architects involved in civic planning issues.
Steinbrueck passed
away in 1985, but he is unlikely to be forgotten. Many of the city’s
landmarks are his memorials.
