Seattle City Council member Peter Steinbrueck thinks the design for a new Queen Anne water tower is just plain ugly, and he had a powerful urge to send it back to the drawing board as chairman of the Urban Development and Planning Committee. The project ended up in front of his committee because the work requires a height variance, he said.
But Steinbrueck, an architect, said he was distinctly unimpressed with the look of a new water tower that will replace one that has been a Queen Anne landmark for around a century.
Fellow committee member Tom Rasmussen also didn't think much of the design or the landscaping he saw at an earlier presentation, and sent the project back to Seattle Public Utilities, mainly for the landscaping problems, Steinbrueck said.
"They came back to the second meeting with modest changes to the landscaping," he said. But the design of the tower remained the same, and that was a problem, according to Steinbrueck.
"The care and attention to detail and material (of the old one), I think, stands in startling contrast to this industrial monstrosity," he said. The pseudo crown in the design looks ridiculous, he added. "It doesn't disguise anything."
The new water tower, Steinbrueck noted, will be around for 50 to 100 years. "And it's going to be an eyesore for 50 to 100 years," he groused. "I'm very disappointed."
Still, the design is the result of endless community meetings and around $1 million in design work already, something Seattle Public Utilities pointed out, Steinbrueck conceded. "SPU said, 'You fuss around anymore, and you're going drive this cost up even further,'" he said.
"I just felt defeated at that point," lamented Steinbrueck, who considered voting no. However, that would have delayed the project for a couple of weeks, so Steinbrueck abstained, he said.
On the other hand, fellow committee members Rasmussen and Richard Conlin voted to approve the project and send the matter to the full council for consideration. Steinbrueck wouldn't hazard a guess at how the full council will vote on the project.
But assuming the water tower gets the full council's go-ahead, construction will start later this year, said SPU project manager Bill Heubach. The work, which includes adding a new pump station and water main, should take 14 to 15 months, he said.[[In-content Ad]]
