National Register of Historic Places

Nuclear Reactor Building

Seattle, King County, Washington
Listed
July 23, 2009
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
08001158

About this property

The More Hall Annex, formerly the Nuclear Reactor Building, was a building on the campus of the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle, Washington, United States, that once housed a functional nuclear research reactor. It was inaugurated in 1961 and shut down in 1988, operating at a peak of 100 kilowatts thermal (kWt), and was officially decommissioned in 2007. The reactor was housed in a reinforced concrete building designed in the Brutalist architectural style by UW faculty members. They designed the reactor room with large windows that allowed observation from the outside, in an attempt to demonstrate the safety of nuclear energy. The Nuclear Reactor Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009, after a campaign led by an architecture student in response to the proposed demolition of the building. A later demolition plan prompted a lawsuit from preservation groups, which ended with a court ruling exempting the building from the city's landmarks-preservation ordinance. While this decision was eventually overturned, the university demolished the building in July 2016 and replaced it with a new computer science building that opened in February 2019.

Location

3785 Jefferson Rd. NE
Seattle, King County, Washington
47.65470, -122.30745

Categories

ARCHITECTUREEDUCATION
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

University of Washington Faculty Club
Industrial
0.2 mi
Ye College Inn
Industrial
0.3 mi
Showboat Theatre
Industrial
0.4 mi
Sigma Kappa Mu Chapter House
Industrial
0.5 mi
Montlake Bridge
Industrial
0.5 mi

Nearby Battles

Puget Sound War — Battle of Seattle (January 26, 1856)
1856Indian Wars
3.5 mi
Yakama War — Battle of Seattle
1856Indian Wars
3.5 mi

Questions about this property

When was Nuclear Reactor Building listed on the National Register?

Nuclear Reactor Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 23, 2009.

What type of historic resource is Nuclear Reactor Building?

Nuclear Reactor Building is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Nuclear Reactor Building?

The period of significance for Nuclear Reactor Building is recorded as the industrial era.

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