Alaska Legislature Building Update

Before on the right, after at left. Click to enlarge

  While I'm at updating how the new CIRI building looks, I might as well also provide a photographic update of the Alaska Legislature Building downtown. As you can see, it is a huge difference. When the building was built some 40-plus years ago, the sides of the building had no windows -- those were added later. Now, as you can see, natural sunlight dominates the interior. And no, you're not imagining things, the front of the building did get wider. The Anchor Pub was a two story building that sat next to the Legislature building and actually got its start as the Empress Theater nearly 100 years ago. The theater was shut down and the buildings facade was recladded in concrete to look like the Legislative building next door. Both buildings were at the time used by Interstate Bank. So yes, it was kinda sad to see the old theater go, but it's not like the building was being preserved to keep its 1920s appearance or anything.

Before and after as seen from 4th Avenue.

And while I'm at that, I might as well also provide a comparison of 909 Ninth Avenue, which itself was recladded about three years ago in what in my mind was a badly needed makeover.

909 Ninth Avenue. After at left, before on right.

                      With all these 70s era buildings being recladded, it makes me wonder what else will get a change of skin. Downtown is afterall dominated by 60s and 70s era concrete slabs. I suppose the new candidate in need of change are the two Westward Anchorage buildings that flank the Hilton's East Tower. Anyways, while the legislature building and 909 Ninth Avenue have been given new life, I'd still say the most famous restoration was the McKinley Apartments tower.

Legislature Building Remodel Takes Shape

I was downtown today and just thought I'd snap a pic of the new facade going up on the western side of the Alaska Legislature building on 4th Avenue. This is the culmination after years in which the legislature looked around for a new place to do business. Eventually they settled on staying in their current digs but not without an extensive remodel. Originally the Interstate Bank building when it opened in the 1970s, the original facade had no windows. Later on some windows were punctured through, but they appeared more like peep-holes in the overwhelming concrete wall. In addition to the current remodel of the six story high-rise, the former Empress Theater next door was demolished so as to expand the footprint of the tower. Not many people realize that the Empress Theater building still existed for its original façade was replaced when the theater gave way to becoming a bank. Mark Pfeffer, the developer overseeing the project, wants to utilize a piece of the old theater in the remodeled building. LaBomba Shelter blog has great coverage on the fate and history of the old Empress Theater. I encourage you to check it out.

I suspect that the reason the original façade had no windows was because the developers of the building assumed that it would not be long before their new high-rise would be sandwiched between two other buildings of good height. With high-rises sprouting allover in late 60s/early 70s downtown (and midtown), it was inevitable, they may have reasoned, that high-rises would show up on 4th Avenue. In a way, this is kind of sad for the new glass curtain gives nod to the fact that any building of measureable height will not be built on the neighboring parking lot. I'm not saying I necessarily want high-rises, I think they're out of scale for 4th Avenue. But any building on that parking lot would be nice. Way back in the day, a three story building sat on the site of the present day parking lot.

While I'm at it, here's a look at another pipeline era building that recently got a face lift. Built in the 1970s, 909 Ninth Avenue once housed Union, then Unocal, and then Chevron in the later 2000s before being restored to host its new main tenant, NANA Corporation. I was most especially happy to see the building stripped of its gold tinted windows. Interestingly, the state legislature was looking at this building as a possible site for re-location before the deal fell through.