Email #13a– Elaine Remembers 202 Before 202

In response to my last "Bare Naked Stairs" email (#13), Professor Elaine Latourelle remembers Rm. 202 before it was Rm. 202. She says the recently exposed stairs were added in the 1980's.

Elaine got her B.Arch. here in 1961 and then later joined the architecture faculty in 1975. She retired after the 2006-2007 academic year. Here are some of her memories of Architecture Hall (see also email #15):

“Stairs to the attic and roof used to be a circular stair from the area we recently knew as the Design Jr. seating area. When I was in school here, at lunchtime in the spring, we used to climb the stairs, open the hatch, sneak thru the attic space, out onto the roof. Of course it was illegal. I remember sitting on the sloping part of the roof behind the parapet watching construction of the I-5 freeway as they lifted the big trusses (orange then) into place from that incredible vantage point.

“The space we know as 202 was all open in those days, from the front of the building all the way thru and between the stairs. It was "waste" space, not used for anything. 

“There were four studios on the 2nd floor - two long ones on each side - so I know what those are going to be like in the new renovated space! Everything comes full circle, I guess.

“Our class went to St. Vinny's and got some 2nd hand wicker furniture. We covered the chair cushions in purple velvet. That space (in center) became the first Architecture Lounge.....with a coffee pot.

"I also remember about in 1979-80 when Linda Buzkowski, grad student, design-built the first real enclosed Design Coffee Shop...it had been a make shift affair before that.”

Elaine Day LaTourelle, AIA
July 29, 2006

Associate Professor
Director of Student Services  
Department of Architecture
University of Washington     elainel@u.washington