Ralph D. Anderson was an architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

, based in Seattle, Washington, USA. He was a founder of Ralph Anderson and Partners, later Anderson Koch Smith. Although much of his work is modernist

Modern architecture

Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely...

, he is also strongly associated with preservationism. In that latter respect, he was an early and important contributor (including as an investor) in the restoration of Seattle's Pioneer Square

Pioneer Square, Seattle, Washington

Pioneer Square is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of Downtown Seattle, Washington, USA. It was once the heart of the city: Seattle's founders settled there in 1852, following a brief six-month settlement at Alki Point on the far side of Elliott Bay. The early structures in the neighborhood...

 neighborhood and also participated in restoration projects along First Avenue in the Pike Place Market

Pike Place Market

Pike Place Market is a public market overlooking the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle, Washington, United States. The Market opened August 17, 1907, and is one of the oldest continually operated public farmers' markets in the United States. It is a place of business for many small farmers,...

 Historical District in the 1970s.

Early career

Anderson graduated from the University of Washington

University of Washington

University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

 Architecture School in his native Seattle in 1951 and received his Washington State architectural license in 1954. He worked several years for architect Paul H. Kirk

Paul H. Kirk

Paul Hayden Kirk was among the most significant Pacific Northwest architects from 1945 to 1980. Paul Kirk's designs contributed to development of a regionally appropriate version of Modern architecture...

 before opening his own practice. His early work, including his own first home at Hidden Lake, constituted what he later called his "modernist glass-box phase". Having discovered how difficult it was to heat such a house he moved on to what he called a "Northwest

Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...

 design style. "I tried to use a lot of wood, and I tried to work with the contours, textures and vegetation of the Northwest, the wooded environment. Quite often I would have big, hovering roofs that would open up to the view." The style was also characterized by "broad windows", "exposed framing", "an emphasis on verticality" and often "a formal T-shape plan." Many of these houses were set to take advantage of views of water or mountains. He styled himself "the poor man's Roland Terry

Roland Terry

Roland Terry was a leading Pacific Northwest architect from the 1950s to the 1990s. He was a prime contributor to the regional approach to Modern architecture created in the Northwest in the post-World War II era....

."

After about a decade of building houses mainly in Seattle's eastside suburbs Mercer Island

Mercer Island, Washington

Mercer Island is a city in King County, Washington, United States and the name of the island in Lake Washington on which the city sits. The population was 22,699 at the 2010 census....

 and Bellevue

Bellevue, Washington

Bellevue is a city in the Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, across Lake Washington from Seattle. Long known as a suburb or satellite city of Seattle, it is now categorized as an edge city or a boomburb. The population was 122,363 at the 2010 census.Downtown Bellevue is...

, Anderson opened an office at 108 S. Jackson in Pioneer Square, then known as Skid Road. It was a derelict neighborhood, and there was little concern for the mostly turn-of-the century buildings: people bought and sold land considering the old buildings relatively incidental. Along with Richard White, later of Foster/White Gallery

Foster/White Gallery

Foster/White GalleryRichard White established the Richard White Gallery in 1968 at 311 ½ Occidental Street in Seattle’s Pioneer Square District. The gallery was the first redevelopment in the Pioneer Square, Seattle neighborhood and is credited with saving Pioneer square from destruction...

, Anderson was among the first to see the possibilities of the neighborhood. He mortgaged his house to buy the Union Trust Building

Union Trust Building (Seattle)

The Union Trust Building on the corner of Main Street and Occidental Way South in Seattle, Washington, USA, was one of the first rehabilitated buildings in the Pioneer Square neighborhood, now officially a historic district...

 from Sam Israel

Sam Israel

Sam Israel was a real estate developer and investor.-Biography:Israel was born in Rhodes, then part of the Ottoman Empire, now part of Greece. He immigrated to the United States in 1919 and became a shoemaker in Seattle, Washington...

 and moved his office there. It may be the only building Israel ever sold. His renovation of the Union Trust Building and later of the Grand Central Hotel buildings contributed flagship buildings to what is once again a vibrant district.

Pike-Market neighborhood

The breadth of Anderson's work can be seen in the Pike-Market neighborhood. Within the Pike Place Market

Pike Place Market

Pike Place Market is a public market overlooking the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle, Washington, United States. The Market opened August 17, 1907, and is one of the oldest continually operated public farmers' markets in the United States. It is a place of business for many small farmers,...

 Historical District he was involved in the joint remodel of the historic Smith Block, Butterworth Building, and Alaska Trade Building and the nearby Fairmount Hotel in 1977. Four years later, he was one of the architects of Marketplace North, the modernist "stepped wedge" immediately north of the Historical District north between Western and First Avenues, north of Virginia Street. Among the tenants of the remodeled Smith / Butterworth / Alaska Trade buildings is the Seattle chapter of the American Institute of Architects

American Institute of Architects

The American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...

.

Rehabilitation

Anderson has rehabilitated numerous old Seattle buildings besides those mentioned above, including the 1977 remodel of the American Can Company Building into the Seattle International Trade Center. Restoration projects elsewhere in the state around that same time included the Fort Worden

Fort Worden

Fort Worden and accompanying Fort Worden State Park are located in Port Townsend, along Admiralty Inlet in Washington. It is situated on 433 acres originally built as a United States Army installation for the protection of Puget Sound. Fort Worden was named after U.S...

 Commander House in Port Townsend

Port Townsend, Washington

Port Townsend is a city in Jefferson County, Washington, United States, approximately north-northwest of Seattle . The population was 9,113 at the 2010 census an increase of 9.3% over the 2000 census. It is the county seat and only incorporated city of Jefferson County...

) and the Company Store in Port Gamble

Port Gamble, Washington

Port Gamble is an unincorporated community on the northwestern shore of the Kitsap Peninsula in Kitsap County, Washington, United States. It is also a small, similarly named bay, along which the community lies, near the entrance to Hood Canal. The unincorporated communities of Port Gamble and...

.

Colleagues

Among the prominent Seattle architects who worked for Anderson at some point in their careers are George Suyama, David Fukui, Jim Olson, Jerry Stickney, Ron Murphy and Gordon Walker. T. William Booth and Robert Koch joined Anderson's partnership in 1980, and Glen Duarte in 1985.

Restoration and rehabilitation

• Capitol Brewing / Jackson Building (1963, Pioneer Square, Seattle)
• Union Trust Building (1965, Pioneer Square, Seattle)
• Grand Central Hotel, also known as a Squire-Latimer Building, now officially Grand Central on the Park (1971/1972, Pioneer Square, Seattle)
• Fisher Studio Building (1974, Downtown Seattle)
• Pioneer Building (1970–1975, Pioneer Square, Seattle)
• Smith Block, Butterworth Building, and Alaska Trade Building (1977, Pike Place Market Historical District, Seattle)
• Fort Worden Commander House (1976, Port Townsend, Washington
  Port Townsend, Washington
  Port Townsend is a city in Jefferson County, Washington, United States, approximately north-northwest of Seattle . The population was 9,113 at the 2010 census an increase of 9.3% over the 2000 census. It is the county seat and only incorporated city of Jefferson County...
  
  ; also known as "Commandant's House")
• Company Store (Port Gamble, Washington
  Port Gamble, Washington
  Port Gamble is an unincorporated community on the northwestern shore of the Kitsap Peninsula in Kitsap County, Washington, United States. It is also a small, similarly named bay, along which the community lies, near the entrance to Hood Canal. The unincorporated communities of Port Gamble and...
  
  )
• Fairmount Hotel (1977, Pike Place Market Historical District, Seattle)
• American Can Company Building (1976–1977, Belltown / Central Waterfront, Seattle.) This was the conversion to turn this building into the Seattle International Trade Center. It was later refitted again in 1999 as the headquarters of Real Networks.

New buildings

• Dr. Tucker House (1957)
• Jans House (1959)
• McNair House (1961)
• Several buildings at the University of Washington Friday Harbor Laboratories (1962–1967), San Juan Island
• Miller House (c. 1963)
• Strom House (1965)
• Grey Gull Hotel (1969, Ocean Shores, Washington)
• Ambaum Medical & Dental Clinic (1965, Seattle)
• Pifer House (1970, Queen Anne Hill)
• Runion House (1972)
• Bellefield Office Park (1972, Bellevue)
• Lamphere House (1973, West Seattle)
• Middleton, Berner & Wood Medical Building (1974, Bellevue)
• Seattle Trust Court (1977, Seattle)
• Marketplace North (1981, Belltown / Pike-Market, Seattle; with Bumgardner Partnership)
• Fisheries Center Addition at the University of Washington (1968, Seattle)