Before it was largely administrative, this used to be a detainment center.
  • Before it was largely administrative, this used to be a detainment center.
The beautiful old U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services building at 815 Airport Way South in Seattle, which has been mostly empty since 2004 and was built in the 1930s, is starting to come back to life. It was bought in 2008 by a group of local developers, attorneys, contractors, and architects. At the time, partner Cihan Anisoglu, a Bainbridge Island architect, told seattlepi.com, "What we want to do is to get this building back into the fabric of the community."

At least a few artists are in the building already and there has been one "open studio event," according to reports on the ground from the gallerist next door, Scott Lawrimore of Lawrimore Project.

Who are the artists? What's the rest of the design look like? How soon will it be finished? Stay tuned.

This is all it says on Anisoglu Associates's web site:

This project is the renovation of the Federal Immigration and Naturalization building in Seattle. Built in 1930, this building is on the National Register of Historic Places and is in the Mediterranean Revival Style. Working with the historic preservation guidelines, the building will be retrofitted for office use while telling the story of immigration in Seattle, and will be submitted for LEED certification.