Constantine honored with state historic preservation award

Metropolitan King County Councilmember Dow Constantine was honored for his role in saving downtown Seattle’s First United Methodist Church sanctuary with a 2008 Washington State Award for Outstanding Achievement in Historic Preservation.

Constantine received the Special Achievement Award, which he shared with developer Kevin Daniels, at a May 13 ceremony in Olympia’s Legislative Building. A total of ten awards were given to Washington citizens, organizations, and companies by the Washington State Historic Preservation Officer.

At a time when the First United Methodist Church congregation had reached a tentative agreement with a developer to sell and demolish the historic 1910 structure, Constantine successfully intervened to restart discussions between church leaders and preservation-minded developers. With Constantine enlisting political and community support, Daniels floated a new proposal to preserve the sanctuary while developing a new church building in a nearby neighborhood to allow First United Methodist Church to continue its ministry to downtown’s homeless population.

“For all the wealth and excitement of the new Seattle, I have grieved every wooded hillside, beloved community institution, and historic building lost to the march of progress over my lifetime,” said Constantine. “The almost gleeful announcement of the planned demolition of this last historic downtown church, this lone survivor, was the last straw.”

Constantine’s bid to reopen the dialogue began with a May 18, 2006 guest column in the Seattle Times, in which he wrote that the demolition of the sanctuary would represent “a failure of vision, of leadership, and of will.”

But, even as he was making the case for saving the sanctuary in the public arena, Constantine privately contacted church leaders and developers Kevin Daniels and Frank Stagen of Nitze-Stagen, whose prior offer to save the sanctuary had been rejected in favor of one to destroy it.

Constantine worked hard to obtain the backing of King County Executive Ron Sims and Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels. Daniels credits the joint appearance of these two local officials at a meeting with church leaders as “the turning point” in the effort to save the church. The final agreement took almost a year to negotiate and was hailed as a masterful compromise that preserved Seattle’s last historic downtown church, while ensuring a stable future for the First United Methodist Church congregation and its ministries.

Constantine was honored earlier this year for his role in saving the sanctuary by the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation with a 2007 Landmark Deeds Award for Public Service. He will also be inducted as an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects Seattle on May 31.

“This city and region will continue to grow and change,” said Constantine. “Whether that change enriches or degrades our quality of life depends on how well it respects the natural, social, and physical fabric that defines us. The current proposal to restore the historic sanctuary—while adding a dynamic new building next door—passes that test.”