In 1916 the Arctic Club, a fraternal men's club of successful veterans of the Alaska Gold Rush, (1897-1899) moved into a building commissioned by the club. The nine-story Arctic Building was one of the first in the region to use terra cotta panels over a steel reinforced concrete frame. Similar to the nearby Smith Tower, much of the terra cotta panels are off-white. However, the building also utilized submarine blue and orange brown in the details of the exterior. One of the most distinctive exterior features of the Arctic Building are the walrus heads that adorn the third floor walls and the oyster shells that ring the top floor.
When it opened the building had commercial space, but most of the space was devoted to club, which included a bowling alley, private dining rooms, corridors of Alaskan marble, billiard and card rooms, a ladies tea room and a private rooftop garden. The building currently serves as a hotel. The Arctic Building is on the National Register of Historic Places.
No comments:
Post a Comment