22 October 2008 Nuclear Reactor Building University of Washington (completed 1961) On Friday 17 October 2008, the Nuclear Reactor Building on the University of Washington campus was approved by the State of Washington Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) for inclusion on the State Heritage Register and nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. The National Register nomination will be forwarded to the National Park Service in Washington DC for final action to list the building on the National Register. Some may be surprised that this small, 47-year old building has been given this recognition, but support was widespread. The nomination was reviewed and approved by the City of Seattle through the CLG (Certified Local Government) process. Supporters of the nomination include the Washington Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (the state office headed by the State Historic Preservation Officer [SHPO]), the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation, Historic Seattle, and DOCOMOMO- WEWA (Documentation and Conservation of the Modern Movement, Western Washington). Criteria and Evaluation Properties that are listed on the National Register must meet at least one of the following four criteria. Many properties meet more than one. A. That are associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history; or B. That are associated with the lives of persons significant in our past; or C. That embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, or that represent the work of a master, or that possess high artistic values, or that represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction; or D. That have yielded or may be likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history. The ACHP found the Nuclear Reactor Building eligible for the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A for its direct connection to the broad patterns of the development of nuclear energy. More specifically, the structure, housing a small nuclear reactor, served as a teaching tool for a variety of students who learned through handson experience, about the daily complexities of running a nuclear reactor facility. Further, the building s unusual transparent design, made nuclear technology more visible to a wide range of students, faculty, staff and campus visitors. The ACHP found the Nuclear Reactor Building eligible for the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion C both as a unique example of architecture from the
post World War II period and because it represents the work of several noted Pacific Northwest modern architects. The building demonstrates modern architecture s close relationship with science, art and technology, blending these ideas into a unified visual statement. In addition, because the Nuclear Reactor Building is only 47 years old, it was required to belong to a special category of building: g. A property achieving significance within the past 50 years if it is of exceptional importance. The NPS document Guidelines for Evaluating and Nominating Properties that have achieved Significance within the Past Fifty Years notes that the 50-year rule was not designed to be mechanically applied, and that the periodicity of history moves forward in uneven leaps of years. This statement is important because America s (and the State of Washington s) nuclear age clearly began in World War II, so the context for evaluation of the Nuclear Reactor Building extends well beyond the 50-year limit. Finally, the National Register includes properties important to our shared local, state, and national experience. National or international significance is not required. Significance at the state, or even at the local level, is all that is required. Thus, the Nuclear Reactor Building was approved for the National Register because it has local/state significance under Criterion A and Criterion C and it is considered of exceptional importance. Origins The Pacific Northwest has played a pivotal role in the development of nuclear technology in the United States. From the early 1940s, when nuclear research and production facilities were developed at Hanford, Washington State has been at the forefront of the nuclear technology industry. By the early 1950s, the College of Engineering at the University of Washington, under the leadership of Dr. Albert Baab, had begun the development of a curriculum in Nuclear Engineering. The first Master of Nuclear Engineering degree was granted in 1958. That same year General Electric s Graduate School of Nuclear Engineering, which had been located in Richland, Washington, moved to UW. UW maintained close relationships with Hanford/Richaland for the next several decades. A full-fledged program in Nuclear Engineering required a teaching reactor. The UW received a grant of $150,000 from the Atomic Energy Commission to construct a teaching reactor. The location chosen for the new Nuclear Reactor Building was a prominent site in the center of the UW Engineering complex, reflecting the importance the Engineering College and the UW placed on the program. Thus, the design of the Nuclear Reactor Building was especially important as the building would be a symbol of the University s forward-looking innovative approach in addressing the latest in engineering and technology.
The Design of the Nuclear Reactor Building The designers of the Nuclear Engineering Building were a talented group of professionals with very close connections to the UW, The Architect-Artist Group (TAAG). TAAG was conceived as collaborative group that would integrate architectur, engineering and art. The group included architects Wendell Lovett, Gene Zema and Daniel Streissguth; engineer Gerard Torrence; and artist Spencer Moseley. All but Zema were UW faculty at the time. (TAAG was the vision of Lovett who instigated formation of the group to seek larger design projects.) Dr. Baab worked closely with TAAG and was instrumental in the development of the concept of the building. Baab and TAAG designed the Nuclear Reactor Building with the specific intention of making the nuclear process visually accessible, and open to the public or casual observer. Typical practice at the time was to enclose a reactor within a concrete shell. Dr. Baab and TAAG, after analyzing several teaching reactors, decided the UW reactor could be revealed through walls of glass if the reactor was placed below ground level so that any potential released radiation would be absorbed by the ground. The slope of the site in the UW Engineering complex allowed a design with the reactor protected by the earth, but visible to anyone from above. Thus, the main level of the Nuclear Reactor Building was an observation deck, overlooking the reactor; the slope allowed access to service and loading to be at the rear of the building at the ground level. The primary materials of the Nuclear Reactor Building are concrete and glass. The most visible elements are the cast-in-place beams and the precast concrete roof elements. In the design each element is clearly articulated so the logic of the structure is easily read. The treatment of the concrete shows the influence of Brutalism, reflecting the influence of the work of LeCorbusier, especially in the ability to read the board forms in the cast-in-place frames which support the roof. (The term brutalism is derived from the French words breton brut which roughly translates as raw concrete, and generally refers to concrete that was left unfinished or roughly-finished after pouring and left exposed visually.) The glass infill and the curtainwall at the rear are fairly standard off-the-shelf systems of the period. The Architects of the Nuclear Reactor Building The primary designer of the Nuclear Reactor Building, acknowledged by all who were involved, was architect and UW professor Wendell Lovett. Lovett is a graduate of the UW who went on to receive his Master of Architecture at MIT. He began teaching at UW in the late 1940s and taught until his retirement in the 1980s. All through his teaching career and after retirement, Lovett was a practicing architect. His work, particularly as a residential designer, was widely recognized and his buildings were published nationally and internationally in Architectural Record, Domus, Sunset, House & Garden, and other journals. From 1953 to 1980 at least 50 articles addressed designs for which Lovett was responsible. Lovett also won numerous honors and awards throughout his career including, local, state and regional AIA Honor Awards, the Seattle Times Home of Year, and a Progressive Architecture Design Award. Lovett was elected to the AIA College of Fellows in 1978; he was awarded the Seattle AIA Medal (for distinguished lifetime achievement in architecture) in 1993. He was only the 12th honoree when his name was added to the UW College of Architecture & Urban
Planning Roll of Honor in 2005. Lovett is one of a very select group of Northwest architects whose work has been addressed in a scholarly monograph; A Thriving Modernism: The Houses of Wendell Lovett and Arnie Bystrom, by UW Professor Emeritus Grant Hildebrand, was published by University of Washington Press in 2004. Lovett s co-designers were architect and UW Professor Daniel Streissguth and architect Gene Zema. Like Lovett, both were graduates of the UW architecture program. Streissguth joined the UW faculty in the early 1950s and retired in the early 1990s; he twice served as Chair of the Department. He also carried on a professional career as an architectural designer. Zema opened his practice in 1953 and was quickly recognized for the quality of his designs as well as the detailing and craftsman of his buildings, primarily residential and small commercial office structures. Over the course of his 25-year career he received numerous design awards form the local and regional AIA. Streissguth and Zema were two members of the team that designed UW s Gould Hall. All three of the designers remain alive today, but all have been fully retired from architectural practice for close to a decade. Completing the Nuclear Reactor Building Wendell Lovett received a Fulbright Scholarship as a guest critic at the Technical Institute in Stuttgart for the 1959-60 academic year. Before he left Seattle, the design for the Nuclear Reactor building was finished and the working drawings were almost complete. Zema took the lead in supervising construction, aided by Streissguth; the quality of the craftsmanship, particularly of the concrete work, reflects their continuing involvement in the project. The Reactor Building was dedicated in 1961, the year of UW s centennial and one year before Century 21, the 1962 Seattle World s Fair. The reactor reached critical and sustained fission in April 1961 and began operation at 10 kw. In 1962, the Nuclear Reactor Building was especially celebrated during the Engineering Open House that took place during Century 21. Recognition for the Nuclear Reactor Building At the time of construction, the Nuclear Reactor Building was recognized for its innovative design in regional, national and international professional publication. Articles appeared in Architecture West, Arts and Architecture, Architectural Record, Progressive Architecture, Pacific Architect Builder and L Architecture d Ajourd hui. Later History of the Nuclear Reactor Building The Nuclear Reactor Building was used for testing and teaching consistently throughout the 1960s. In 1967 the reactor s power production was raised from 10 kw to 100 kw. The Nuclear Reactor served more than just the Nuclear Engineering Program. Its location made it convenient producing short-life isotopes for the University Hospital. The reactor was even used for testing for cystic fibrosis in infants, which could be diagnosed by the radioactivity levels of the child s fingernails. In the 1970s there was a general decline in the prosperity of the Nuclear Engineering Department and in 1988 the reactor was shut down. By 1990 the fuel rods had been
removed to the Hanford. In 1992 the UW Nuclear Engineering program officially disbanded, due to lack of student enrollment and interest. After a variety of clean up efforts and some selective demolition of mechanical components inside the building, in 2007 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission officially decommissioned the building and certified the structure clean. Conclusions The UW Nuclear Reactor Building reminds us the optimism of the years from 1945 to 1970 that nuclear fission would prove to be a key energy source for the future. The building reflects the commitment of the university to the education and research in nuclear technology. In its transparency, it embodies the belief that technological processes should be visible to all, not hidden away. The structure is exceptional in its expression of the symbiotic relationship between modern architecture, science and technology. The location of the Nuclear Engineering Building clearly indicates that the Nuclear Engineering program was seen as the crown jewel of the UW College of Engineering. As a work of architecture, the UW Nuclear Engineering Building is unique. Its clarity of design, articulation of structure, and use of concrete allow it to stand in contrast to its surroundings relatively conventional brick-clad rectilinear structures. The Nuclear Reactor Building is the one realized project of The Architect Artist Group. It reflects the conceptual influence of Dr. Baab, who wished a structure that would showcase nuclear technology, and the design vision of architect and UW professor Wendell Lovett. The record of publication stands out no other post-war era (1945-1973) building on the UW campus attracted the level of national and international recognition achieved by the Nuclear Reactor Building. The Nuclear Reactor Building is an important part of the heritage of the University and the Pacific Northwest. It should be celebrated, not destroyed. Note: As of January 2008, 2,332 of the near 76,000 properties listed on the National Register have been nominated under criteria consideration G (properties less than 50 years old). In Washington State 70 properties have been listed before reaching 50+ years of age.