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.
