They this got going Saturday morning early. They are pulling it down from the front on Pacific Avenue side and trying to save some of the steel cross beams that are the historic elements because they were the cutting edge technology when the building was built in the 1890s. They are using a 155 foot high reach. The reporter said the Wm. Dickson Co. has the job and looks to be working really carefully. We shall see.

Tacoma, WA - Saturday, September 26, 2009

Last-minute hope: Attorneys searching for judge to halt demolition

A desperate effort to save the Luzon from demolition continued into the night Friday.
At least two Tacoma attorneys worked to find a Pierce County Superior Court judge to issue a temporary restraining order that would prevent destruction of the 119-year-old building, which was set to begin this morning.

“This is not the normal course of business,” said lawyer Jack Connelly at 8:45 p.m. “Normally you’d want to go into the courthouse and set up a hearing where everyone would argue their position.”

“There’s not a textbook that tells us what to do in this circumstance,” he said.

Connelly said the issue surrounds whether the building is a safety hazard, since a report exists from a Seattle engineer that implies otherwise.

Efforts to save the six-story building at South 13th Street and Pacific Avenue were renewed Friday morning after a local developer tried to coordinate the transfer of the building to a state historic preservation group, and then plan for the Luzon’s shoring and rehabilitation.

But a team put together by Grace Pleasants, which included that report from the Seattle engineer, failed to convince city officials that they could quickly remove the risk of the Luzon’s collapse.

“This is not about me and my company and what we do, this is about saving a historic building,” Pleasants said.

After a 50-minute meeting Friday morning at the Municipal Building, City Manager Eric Anderson was unconvinced that a plan existed to mitigate the danger, and he confirmed that demolition would start at 7 a.m. today.

“From what I’ve heard so far, I don’t see how we don’t go forward tomorrow,” Anderson told the group Friday. “My legal charge is health and safety. My personal preference is for preservation, but if someone is damaged by the building if it falls, that’s no defense for me.”

Mayor Bill Baarsma said Friday afternoon that the die is cast.

“I think (Anderson’s) made up his mind and he feels he’s doing the right thing and that’s what he’s paid to do,” Baarsma said. “If I were to make the call, I’d wait. I’d get some more information to see if in fact there was a way to stabilize the building. But I understand how (the city manager) system (of government) works and where he’s coming from.”

But Friday night, Connelly and mayoral candidate Jim Merritt’s campaign manager, Ronnie Bush, said Baarsma was trying to coordinate City Council members to provide political pressure to stop the demolition.

Attempts to reach Baarsma later Friday were unsuccessful.

The other attorney working on the issue is Jim Bush, who is married to Ronnie Bush.

Ronnie Bush said Baarsma called her and asked if there was anything Merritt could do to prevent the razing. Bush and Connelly said they were calling judges all evening.

“We have two attorneys who are willing to meet tonight at midnight,” she said. “One of the judges who looks like he will (agree to hear the case) has a function that ends at 10 p.m. This particular judge is a real hometown person.”

Ronnie Bush said Merritt, through friends, got the cell phone number of the president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, though it was unclear if any conversation occurred.

Bush said Merritt was upset by the news that the demolition was moving forward. “I have never seen him as upset as he was,” she said. “He couldn’t go on campaigning when he heard.”

The other candidate for mayor, city councilwoman Marilyn Strickland, said Friday night that she would have several questions about any 11th-hour plan to save the Luzon.

“What we can’t afford to do is compromise public safety and put the city in the position to spend funds we don’t have,” she said.

At Friday morning’s meeting, Pleasants’ team was represented by Stuart Young of the architecture firm BCRA. He presented information from a Seattle-based engineer that the building was not in imminent danger of collapse and could be shored up within four to six weeks, then rehabilitated at some point.

At the meeting were Young, Anderson, city building and land use chief Charlie Solverson, city engineer Jim Parvey, historic preservation consultant Michael Sullivan and city economic development official Elly Walkowiak.

The city announced last week that the brick building, abandoned and open to the elements for years, must be razed to protect the public. An engineering report showed bulging walls, broken beams and collapsed floors inside the building.

The Luzon has housed a bank, a Chinese restaurant and an arcade among other businesses. It was designed by famed Chicago architects Daniel Burnham and John Root, and it is one of two Burnham & Root structures remaining on the West Coast. Its internal metal structure was an early precursor to modern skyscraper construction methods.

During the discussion, Anderson expressed frustration about the recent history of the building.

“I wish there were representatives of two to three other people here,” he said. “One would be those who have owned it for years and didn’t do a … thing.”

The Gintz Group, which owns the building, bought it two years ago with plans to save it by remodeling it into office and retail space, but tenants needed to secure financing never emerged. Then Gintz and Tacoma contractor Igor Kunitsa were unable to work out the details of a building rehabilitation plan in the last several weeks that satisfied the city.

Now the city will put a lien on the property to recover the cost of the demolition, estimated to be around $600,000.

Ron Gintz, chief operating officer of the Gintz Group, did not return a call for comment Friday.

At Friday’s meeting, Young presented a letter from the Gintz Group, agreeing to deed the building to the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation for $10. Young also had a letter from Terry Lundeen, a principal at Seattle engineering firm Coughlin Porter Lundeen.

Baarsma said part of that letter read:

“In the absence of a significant environmental event, such as a moderate to large earthquake or an extreme snowfall, the exterior of the building does not appear to be an imminent collapse hazard that would endanger the general public.”

Anderson said he understood there would be a second letter from an engineering firm agreeing with Lundeen’s conclusions, but Young said he did not have it, though someone from Swenson Say Fag