2 Languages

The University of Washing – Tacoma is made up of historic buildings, all with colorful histories, dating back to the 1800’s.  In order to preserve some of our cities historic feel, the university has left much of our historic buildings outer features alone, including, their original brick architecture and left over ghost writing.  For our third project, two languages, I am going to use the Mattress Factory to draw a piece of history from and build off.  Currently the Mattress Factory houses UWT’s Admissions office and most of the student services and student involvement offices, as well as some classrooms. It still has much of its historic look on the outside, including ghost writing left on the side of the building from previous businesses, although the inside is completely renovated. 

       At the time the Mattress Factory was built, Tacoma was in the midst of huge economic developments. Several buildings were being built and business being started, most building still existing today.  The Mattress Factory was originally built in 1890 and was first used as the Lindstrom-Berg Cabinet Factory. According to UWT it was the largest cabinet company in the city. In 1907 the building was burnt down by a fire, “Curiously, the alley between this building and the wagon works was the point of origin for the district’s only two large fires: the first destroyed the cabinet works in October of 1907, and the second gutted the wagon works” (Anderson). Only 3 months later, the building was rebuilt in brick, which is the same structure we have on campus today.  The Lindstrom-Berg Cabinet Factory went out of business in 1928 and was used for several different businesses after including, a creamery, grocery wholesaler, and manufacturers.

For our project I am going to focus on the historic fire in 1907 to build off.

Although I cannot find the cause of the fire it is known that no one was hurt and the cabinet factory was able to continue running 3 months after the fire occurred. I am going to represent the fire in my piece by almost, literally, recreating a fire. To do this I am going to use red, yellow, and orange cello paper and cut flames out at different lengths. These flames will be attached to a silver/metal box fan. When the fan is turned on the flames will flicker and flow in its breeze. There will be a spot light on the flames, causing the colors and shapes to project on the wall, giving the illusion of the flames engulfing the wall.  This fire is being tied to my chosen site by blending my shape and material (metal) in with the square vents coming down from the ceiling. I will have the fan being held up about 4 feet off the ground by metal poles that look as if they are being extended from part of the venting fixtures. I will repeat this design with 2-3 vents in my area.

Bibliography

Anderson, Elizabeth. "Tacoma's Union Station Historic District." Tacoma Culture. City of Tacoma Economic Development Department, n.d. Web. 25 Oct 2012. <http://www.tacomaculture.org/historic/resource/Union Station Dist Walk.pdf?>.

 "Mattress Factory (MAT)." University of Washingtong | Tacoma. University of Washington. Web. 25 Oct 2012. <http://www.tacoma.uw.edu/campus-map/buildings/mattress-factory-mat>.