Luzon will come down Saturday

Tacoma's city manager confirmed Tuesday the 1890s Luzon Building in downtown Tacoma will be razed Saturday.

During City Council's noon study session, City Manager Eric Anderson said the building has been enclosed by fencing and the Tacoma Fire Department confirmed the building has been vacated. The contractor began to mobilize on the site Tuesday. He also added an effort to save the Luzon had ended (see editor's note below).

"Saturday is the day the building is scheduled to come down because there will be fewer people in the area," said Anderson. "There are two issues. As we take the building down, we can't have it collapse and have bricks and other materials(as frp grating) hitting people. We also need to be careful about asbestos. It is friable and we have to make sure we don't create a cloud. We're trying to balance everything."

The building should come down right now," he added. "It's very dangerous. It may collapse at any time. What we are doing is securing the site as best we can, and we want to take down in a controlled way as best we can."

On Sept. 15, the City announced it would take emergency action to demolish the crumbling six-story, 119-year-old Luzon Building before the end of this month (see "City will demolish 1890s Luzon Building," TDI, 09/15/09 -- http://tacomadailyindex.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=88&cat=23&id=1624138&more=0 ).

The City's action aimed to address its concern the building, located at the corner of South 13th Street and Pacific Avenue, will suddenly collapse due to an outside engineering firm's report of roof, floor, and wall deflection; separation of floor framing from exterior walls; broken girder beams; and missing columns. On Aug. 11, the City shut down South 13th Street between Pacific Avenue and Commerce Street -- a perimeter around the building -- citing the need for public safety.

The City is taking the action under Tacoma Municipal Code 2.01.060.I, known commonly as the "Dangerous Buildings Ordinance," which gives the City the ability to vacate a building, barricade public sidewalks and streets, secure the building from unauthorized entry, and shore up or repair the building if it believes the structure is "an imminent danger" to public safety. According to the code, if these measures still don't address public safety concerns, the building may be demolished at the owner's expense.

According to Anderson, the Building and Land Use Chief Charlie Solverson has reviewed the circumstances of the building and finds it does present a public threat of danger. "He has directed the building be demolished," Anderson told councilmembers. He added it would take a contractor about five days to tear down the building. Anderson has signed an emergency contract for the demolition. Contractors aren't expected on site until the middle of next week. Demolition and cleanup are expected to cost $600,000.

Anderson also said the City would try to salvage as much of the building materials as possible.

According to a Sept. 10 memo from Deputy City Manager Tansy Hayward to Public Works Director Dick McKinley, a notice was sent Sept. 4 to the building's owner, Tacoma-based Gintz Group, advising that failure to address public safety concerns by Sept. 15 would result in emergency action by the City.

On Tuesday, Anderson responded to criticism the City is moving too fast in its decision to tear down the building.

"I am not at all happy about this building coming down," said Anderson. He noted the city approved a $1.65 million low-interest loan for the Gintz Group's plan to renovate the building. "For the last two years, we worked real hard to keep this building up. There was a yeoman's effort to save the building. For a variety of reasons, we weren't able to do it. It came to this point not in the last two weeks, but over the past 15 to 20 years."

"I think everyone hoped this would work," said Councilmember Rick Talbert of the plan to restore the building. "In reality, it didn't."

In an editorial published in the Index , Historic Tacoma Board President Sharon Winters commented, "We mourn the pending loss of the Luzon, the City's most significant architectural treasure. But we must take the lessons learned from this . . . and put policies and incentives in place to preserve significant historic structures which have just recently come to be regarded as assets and economic development tools for the City."

"I would love to report there's hope," Anderson said Tuesday. "But there is no hope."