Folke Nyberg Passes Away at Age 76: His contribution to our city's character
should be remembered!
Last week Professor Emeritus,
Architect, Planner, and longtime "Neighborhood Activist" Folke Nyberg passed
away from prostrate cancer at the age of 76. While he was not so visible in
recent years on the political scene, for at least four decades Folke's writings
as well as his actions had a profound, albeit more often behind-the-scenes,
impact on Seattle's physical, social, and political landscape.
He also was a force whose inquiries into these
arenas had a great impact on the way I personally understand and respond to
these things.
Folke was for a time in the 70's
and 80's a regular columnist for the Times critiquing Seattle's architecture. He
is credited with designing several buildings in the area, notably some very
unique dorms on campus at Western Washington University, when he worked for a
time for noted architect Henry Klein. In recent years in the architectural
realm he contented himself designing and working on homes for those in his
family.
Folke staffed the Planning Commission back when that body had real power over
land use decisions (In the 60's and early 70's that body was pretty darn radical
and not the complacent status quo advisory body it is today). Folke was a
confidant and extremely close friend to Victor Steinbrueck and worked closely
with him during the days of saving the Pike Market and Pioneer Square.
Art Skolnik, noted community activist and historic preservationist who worked
back then in the city's planning office next to Folke's office sent me these
recollections of his association with Folke in that era:
"Folke was a driving force with strong opinions and a great sense of humor. What a laugh!!! His wife, Lisa, worked in the City Architect's Office as well, before they got married, so we saw a lot of Folke coming over to see her. His partnership with Victor was like Twiddle De and Twiddle Dum. Their successful work to get Pioneer Square designated and placed on the National Register of Historic Places resulted in the City ultimately passing it's own designation ordinance, thwarting the DSA's (Downtown Seattle Association) campaign to have it all demolished for perimeter parking for the balance of Downtown. It was the birth of Historic Preservation policy for the City . If it weren't for the two of them, I would have not had my career in preservation. Folke and Victor were mentors par excellence."
Like
Victor, Folke also had an enormous influence on a generation of progressive
architects who took his design studios and excellent seminars which covered a
broad range of subjects particularly urban design, regionalism, and Scandinavian
Architecture. He instilled in his students a people's or populist perspective
on architecture, and especially city planning. A number of them are at work now
out there in our city and region.
He also was an intellectual, trained as an undergraduate at Yale in philosophy
and classical rhetoric, who had a unique ability to critique the local political
landscape. It was a mix of postmodernism, anti-globalization (You should read
his critique of WTO-the best I've ever read), populism, and especially a
celebration of neighborhood and family. That's where ones' loyalties should lie.
There was a smattering of marxism in their too (Although he would vigorously
deny that as someone who shunned overarching meta-theories and unifying analysis
of any kind). The best archeologies for him were those dug up in ones own back
yard or by understanding as well as one could and borrowing from out-of-the-way
localities first hand and from other unique corners of the world.
Soon after the Khomeini forces toppled the Shah's dictatorship in Iran at the
end of the Jimmy Carter era, Folke was one of the first if not the first
American academic (joining academics from dozens of other nations) to fly into
Iran. He told me he wanted to see for himself on the ground what was really
going on there behind the tv images - what that sea change really meant for the
people of that country . The rise of emerging non-european sometimes religiously
or locally based communities to challenge the dominant liberal, european, and
global capitalist ethos was of continuing interest to him. He sought an
understanding of those movements both their attributes and their excesses. In
that vain, he was an ardent supporter of the Palestinians struggle for
self-determination.
Closer to home, Folke was a thorn in the side of the U of W also and their plans
for campus and off-campus expansion. He fought unsuccessfully to block
construction of the new Law Building because of it's impacts on the campus
setting, open space and tree canopy.
If you google the Seattle Times website you'll also see some of his columns for
the Times. They literally go back decades. He also wrote a number of
brilliant essays for Column V, an architectural journal published by the UW
College of Architecture and Urban Planning.
Folke's emphasis on the importance of localism, regionalism, community, and it's
scale as the basis for good planning and especially urban design led to my
hooking up with him and Victor Steinbrueck in the late 70's early 80's. Folke,
some of his and Victor's former and current students like Jennifer Dee and Ann
Hirschi, Victor himself, Attorney Peter Eglick, myself, Joe Martin, David Bloom
et all - we formed what was called the Downtown Neighborhood Alliance and
challenged several highrise office and/or condominium projects including Paul
Schells' Waterfront Center Project along first avenue.
The latter was a fight that eventually led to a settlement guaranteeing
relocation assistance to three dozen displaced businesses forced off First
Avenue. Schell also contributed dollars to help us save over a hundred units of
low income housing elsewhere in downtown. As the former head of the City's Dept
of Community Development, later to become our Mayor, he agreed to at least do
that much in mitigation but not before accusing Victor, Folke, and the rest of
us of standing in the way of progress (or at least his vision of it for
downtown). Walt Crowley a friend of Schell's writing in the Weekly at that
time, called us a bunch of marxists "with a small 'm'". I never did get a
chance to ask Walt what the heck he meant by that.
These efforts were not just battle's for preservation of the physical character
of our downtown and surrounding neighborhoods, it also was a fight over what
would remain of the city's social character and its soul. What would carry
over, guide, and be the basis for future planning decisions? Only a fraction of
the old SRO's, shops, working waterfront, the storefronts and historic character
would be left at the end of the 80's office boom - a product of our city leaders
shameless blind promotion of runaway growth during that era. (Over 5000 low cost
housing units were wiped out in downtown alone as were dozens of historic
structures)
But what did remain - and a number of buildings and structures fortunately were
saved - was thanks to people like Folke and Victor, a number of their students,
and people who followed in their footsteps. I was privileged to be a part of all
that. (There also were others making their contribution to the cause including
Allied Arts, Historic Seattle, the League of Women Voters, David Brewster,
others from the Weekly including Rebecca Boren, Walt Crowley (despite
differences over the Schell project we often agreed with Walt's perspective on
the future of downtown), writer/activist Peter Staten, and Grace Jansen's and
others from the neighborhood movement. Later in the decade Victor's son Peter
and Margaret Pageler launched their effort to "CAP" runaway growth. We all were
immersed in this struggle to save at least a bit of Seattle's character. We all
owe debt to Folke (and Victor) course.
Until very recently, and for decades, Folke could be found in the mornings
before class and in retirement at the Allegro Coffee House socializing, writing,
discussing and sometimes arguing with students, activists, and fellow academics.
The Allegro - the oldest remaining coffee house in the city - is still there in
the alley just off the 'Ave' in the U-District at 43rd where many of its
longtime denizens still hang out. There's news though that ownership has
changed. And recently a garish '65 foot tall building went up across the alley
blocking views from the Allegro of "hippie hill" across 15th on the edge of
campus.
More often by increments, but sometimes in a crashing instant, things change. Folke
fought to preserve the best of our history in the face of changes eating away at
our city's character. He resisted that, not change itself. We'll remember him
for his enormous contribution.
A service will be held in Folke's honor on
Sunday, October 24th from 4-7 PM at the University of Washington Faculty Club
Displacement Coalition responds:
Mercer Corridor Groundbreaking Sept 8th:
“
They still need
$100 million for Mercer West Phase II – what other critical needs in our city
will be sacrificed to cover that cost?
Patty Murray, Mayor McGinn, and other local elected
officials were on hand Sept 8th for the official groundbreaking of the Mercer
Corridor Project in South Lake Union. They will be there to pat themselves on
the back for finding the funds needed to complete the $170 million plus first
phase of that project now estimated in total to cost over $300 million for both
phases. (Costs for phase I were as high at 195 million but the winning bid
came in at 170 million - by the time phase I is finished were betting that phase
will easily top the 195 million)
What these elected officials won’t be telling you and
hoping you will conveniently forget is that in order secure federal stimulus
funds needed to complete phase I of Mercer, these same elected leaders had to
turn their back on the residents of South Park and allow closure of the South
Park Bridge. The roughly 40 million dollars in federal stimulus and other
federal funding dedicated in 2009 for Mercer (including 10 million funneled
through the regional council), came at the direct expense of the necessary
federal funding needed to repair and keep the South Park Bridge open.
In the fall of 2009, when the City submitted its
application for stimulus funding, the County also submitted an application for
the
After the 2009 State Legislature killed use of federal
stimulus funds for Mercer, Mayor Nickels, Jan Drago, other city officials came
right back in Sept of 2009 and reapplied for between $50 and $60 million of
these dollars for Mercer in a second round funding – which includes about 10
million in federal dollars thru the Puget Sound Regional Council. With only
about $1.5 billion available nationally in that second round – enough to cover
only a tiny fraction of the hundreds of applications it received nation-wide -
it was a forgone conclusion that at most one local project would be approved for
use of these precious funds (over and above monies likely to go to replacement
of the 520 bridge). .
Patty Murray, Mayor Nickels, Jan Drago and the rest of the
Seattle City Council knew then that when they pushed for use of these limited
federal dollars for Mercer it would result directly in denial of funding needed
to repair/replace the
Neither Patty Murray or any of these electeds have ever
acknowledged their responsibility in this regard. Without
We obviously are glad to see that these same officials now
are seeking funding for a new
City officials are also pushing ahead with the second phase of mercer now estimated at about 100 million dollars. No funding has yet been found for that phase but some of the costs they are seeking to conceal/bury in the 3 billion downtown tunnel budget……. More of our city’s limited transportation dollars will be wasted in this phase and this is before likely costly overruns drive the budget still higher. All for a project that when finished will do nothing to relieve congestion in that area.
For more information contact 206-632-0668
[Hpn] The Seattle Bench Project
Seattle Time Story on Undergrounding by Bob Young and its costs: