Does The Showbox deserve to be made a Seattle landmark?

I walked past The Showbox this weekend across the street from Pike Place Market and paused for a minute to think about it being torn down.

The nostalgic side of me flashed on the many great shows that I’d seen there. Most recently for me, I saw soul singer Andra Day deliver an amazingly intimate show. All the old ’90s memories of Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, and Nirvana are jumbled in my mind. Was that show at the Moore? Maybe it was The Showbox. I think that one was at The Crocodile. But I digress. People are besides themselves with the thought of The Showbox being torn down to be replaced with a proposed 44 story tower.

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There is now a local effort to classify the venue as a historic landmark. I stood on the street and looked a few buildings down at the Seattle Art Museum. It’s connected to the Russell Investments building that clocks in at 42 stories. I tried to superimpose that building on top of The Showbox footprint, and wow, that’s definitely going to change the skyline. But what else would it change?

From a music lover’s perspective, I can definitely join in and say ‘don’t tear it down.’ From a developer’s perspective, it’s basically a fairly nondescript two story building on a prime lot in the fastest growing city in America. Yes, the marquee is famous, and there are a few interesting features inside the building, but does The Showbox deserve to be saved by designating it a historic building?

This is an edited version of the King County Landmark Code: “The protection, enhancement, perpetuation and use of buildings, sites, structures and objects of historical, cultural, architectural, and ethnic significance located in King County.  The preservation is necessary in the interest of the prosperity, civic pride and general welfare of the people of King County. Such cultural and historic resources are a significant part of the heritage, and cannot allow the unnecessary destruction of such resources.”

So does The Showbox qualify? As a building, I’d say no. It’s not that great. Kinda interesting inside, but our cultural heritage doesn’t hinge on the guts of this concert hall. But is it historical and cultural? You bet. Music historian Charles Cross wrote an amazing piece for Crosscut where he eloquently and passionately states his case.

Cross questions why we have a street named after Edgar Martinez and not one named after Jimi Hendrix? He writes:

I have long argued that it was the Seattle music scene that made the city an international hub and gave it the ‘coolness’ that, in turn, attracted young tech workers … What happens to the future Jimis of Seattle if there is no Showbox, no Crocodile, no El Corazon? How much of Seattle should we save or should we develop the site of every single-story building in the city as long as there is economic demand?

In my mind, the Showbox qualifies. It is significant to me.

Maybe there’s a way to do what developers were required to do with the Old Spaghetti Factory building a few years ago. Preserve the bottom two floors, and then build whatever you want on top.