Rehabilitated old buildings - links entry

I think one of the coolest things about urban renewal is the rehabilitation of historic architecture. Certainly there are times when, after 100 years or so, a building is just a complete loss and must be torn down. But I think it's great when an old building can be rehabbed into something modern and useful, but still preserve the charm of the original structure. Today I'm going to share some links regarding two of my favorite rehabbed buildings in my neighborhood:

The library at the University of Washington Tacoma was built in 1908 as a transformer house for a power company. It served as a fuel company, and a warehouse, and then was boarded up for decades, before being rehabilitated in 2008 as the college library.

• Here's the building in 1937 when it was a fuel company
• This was the building in the 1970's
• Here is the current exterior of the building
• Inside, they left some of the old machinery in the rafters
• Lots of old brick was preserved inside and out
• Industrial-looking fixtures help preserve the building's origins
• One of my favorite additions is this reading room with lots of windows
• Another exterior of the reading room here
• Inside the reading room - a magnificent Chihuly sculpture!
• Here's a shot of the sculpture at sunset

The Alber's Brothers' Milling Company built their Tacoma mill in 1904. The building served a variety of industrial uses, and then in 2004 was rehabbed in a manner that left much of the original brick building intact, but added modern additions alongside.

• Here is a link to some history of the building
• These two pictures are both fairly modern, but show what the building more or less has looked like since 1904
• The building can be seen in the top center of this 1929 photo
• Also in the top center of this 1975 photo
• Here's the building today, showing the modern addition on the water side
• And from another angle you can see the modern additions, with the original brick building nestled within them
• And this is another good angle
• Inside the building, it has been partitioned into rental spaces for apartments, offices, retail, and an exercise studio.