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Ibsen A. Nelsen collection, 1949-2000

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Nelsen, Ibsen A. (Ibsen Andreas), 1919-
Title
Ibsen A. Nelsen collection
Dates
1949-2000 (inclusive)
Quantity
455 architectural drawings; 2 landscape drawings; 206 b/w prints; 883 negatives; 1,575 color slides (3 boxes, 9 oversize folders)
Collection Number
PH2004-094
Summary
Photographs, negatives, and color slides of various apartment buildings, residences, parks, monuments, and architectural structures of historical significance in Seattle and the greater Puget Sound region.
Repository
University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections
University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA
98195-2900
Telephone: 2065431929
Fax: 2065431931
speccoll@uw.edu
Access Restrictions

Collection is open to the public.

Request at UW

Languages
English
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Biographical Note

Ibsen A. Nelsen was born on October 2, 1919 in Ruskin, Nebraska, the son of a Danish immigrant father and a mother whose parents had left Denmark for America. Later, the family fled the Dust Bowl for Medford, Oregon, where Nelsen graduated from high school. He served in the South Pacific theatre during World War II, where he won a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart as an infantryman and captain in the U.S. Army.

During a posting at Fort Lewis, Nelsen met Ruth Hanawalt and they married in 1946. After earning his architecture degree at the University of Oregon in 1951, he moved to Seattle with his wife and practiced with several Seattle firms. In 1953, Nelsen opened his own office in the University District. Over the course of the next four decades, he worked independently or in partnership with others to produce a number of notable works. His work with designing residences and commercial projects included a California home for the artist Morris Graves, the Inn at the Market and Stewart House in the Pike Place Market, Seattle's Museum of Flight, the Merrill Court Townhouses on Capitol Hill, and several buildings on the campus of Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington.

Nelsen was active in preserving landmarks in Seattle, including historic buildings in Pioneer Square and in the Pike Place Market. He played a key role in the battle to protect the Pike Place Market from developers eager to replace it with a high-rise office-commercial-residential project in the 1970s. As a design commissioner, Nelsen pushed for the inclusion of public art, tree plantings, and other amenities in commercial developments. During a period of tremendous expansion and construction, he was vocal in efforts to preserve the city's residential character and retain traditional architectural elements of the Pacific Northwest.

Nelsen was a member of the first Seattle Design Commission, the agency created by voters when they approved the Forward Thrust bond proposal in 1968. He served as the first president of the Seattle Municipal Arts Commission and president of Allied Arts of Seattle. Nelsen was elected to the AIA College of Fellows in 1981 by a jury of his professional peers. In 1989, he received the AIA Seattle Medal, awarded by the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects in recognition of his lifetime achievement in architecture and the Seattle community. Ibsen Nelsen died on July 19, 2001.

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Content Description

Images of various residences and buildings designed by Ibsen Nelsen while working at several Seattle firms, including Ibsen Nelsen and Associates and Nelsen, Sabin & Varey. Also includes a number of photographs, negatives, and color slides of various apartment buildings, residences, parks, monuments, and architectural structures of historical significance in Seattle and the greater Puget Sound region.

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Administrative Information

Acquisition Information

Gift of Eric Nelsen, September 29, 2004.

Processing Note

Unprocessed.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

 

  • Architectural Drawings

    • Residences

      • Description: Richard and Becky residence, Seattle, Washington
        64 drawings

        Includes site plans, floor plans, and foundation plans created by Ibsen Nelsen & Associates. Also includes several reprints of plans from the Arnold Dessau residence, originally drawn in 1938. There are additional drawings of the Allen residence located in folder 7.

        Dates: 1988-1991
        Container: Mapcase M289/1
        Location: Architectural Drawings / Residences
      • Description: Frank and Terri Close residence, Mercer Island, Washington
        16 drawings

        Includes landscape plans, floor plans, foundation plans, elevations, and section details as designed by Pai Chieh Lin, a professional engineer.

        Dates: 1988-1989
        Container: Mapcase M289/3
        Location: Architectural Drawings / Residences
      • Description: Morris Graves residence, Eureka, California
        19 drawings

        Includes duplicate copies of the original floor plans, site plans, and foundation plans designed by Ibsen Nelsen.

        Dates: 1966
        Container: Mapcase M289/8
        Location: Architectural Drawings / Residences
      • Description: John and Annie Hansen residence, Indianola, Washington
        27 drawings

        Includes duplicate copies of the original drawings made by Ibsen Nelsen & Associates.

        Dates: 1985
        Container: Mapcase M289/2
        Location: Architectural Drawings / Residences
      • Description: Miscellaneous residences
        34 drawings

        Various residences and projects in Washington State. Includes original drawings from the Allen residence and Boyer Children's Clinic related to materials found in other folders. Also includes original and duplicate drawings for the residences of Rubin E. Cyrus in Mercer Island (1992), Robert G. Feagle in Seattle (1953), Greg Martin in Vashon Island (2000), Charles F. Osborn in Seattle (1961, 1988), and Gilbert Sherer in Seattle (1986). There are a number of unidentified drawings which may be related to projects and residences found in other folders.

        Dates: 1953-2000
        Container: Mapcase M289/7
        Location: Architectural Drawings / Residences
      • Description: Shafer, Marty and Leslie McMichael Shafer residence, Vashon Island, Washington
        23 drawings

        Includes originals and duplicates of section details, floor plans, and land surveys as designed by Ibsen Nelsen & Associates.

        Dates: 1998-2000
        Container: Mapcase M289/5
        Location: Architectural Drawings / Residences
      • Description: Leland and Batoul Standley residence, Vashon Island, Washington
        31 drawings

        Includes originals and duplicates of a partial site plan, elevations, schedules, foundation plans, section details, and land surveys designed by Ibsen Nelsen & Associates. Also includes nineteen unidentified drawings of foundation plans that were created between 1992 and 1996, which may be related to the Standley residence.

        Dates: 1993-1995
        Container: Mapcase M289/3-4
        Location: Architectural Drawings / Residences

    • Projects

      • Description: Arsove Barn restoration, Vashon Island, Washington
        48 drawings

        Includes originals and duplicates of section details, elevations, and floor plans. Also includes seven unidentified drawings of residence that were created in 1986, which may be related to the Arsove Barn restoration project.

        Dates: 1992
        Container: Mapcase M289/5
        Location: Architectural Drawings / Projects
      • Description: Boyer Children's Clinic, Seattle, Washington
        57 drawings

        Includes original and duplicate copies of floor plans, section details, elevations, landscape plans, and site plans as drawn up by Ibsen Nelsen & Associates. There are additional drawings of the Boyer Children's Clinic located in folder 7.

        Dates: 1988-1989
        Container: Mapcase M289/3
        Location: Architectural Drawings / Projects
      • Description: Drachen Building, Seattle, Washington
        85 drawings

        Includes originals and duplicates of floor plans, foundation plans, site plans, section details, elevations, and a site survey. Also includes a number of drawings related to Pat and Julia's Espesso Express coffee shop, which may have been a business inside the building.

        Dates: 1996-1997
        Container: Mapcase M289/6
        Location: Architectural Drawings / Projects
      • Description: Miscellaneous projects
        34 drawings

        Various residences and projects in Washington State. Includes original drawings from the Allen residence and Boyer Children's Clinic related to materials found in other folders. Also includes original and duplicate drawings for the residences of Rubin E. Cyrus in Mercer Island (1992), Robert G. Feagle in Seattle (1953), Greg Martin in Vashon Island (2000), Charles F. Osborn in Seattle (1961, 1988), and Gilbert Sherer in Seattle (1986). There are a number of unidentified drawings which may be related to projects and residences found in other folders.

        Dates: 1953-2000
        Container: Mapcase M289/7
        Location: Architectural Drawings / Projects
      • Description: Roanoke Reef, Seattle, Wahsington
        17 drawings

        Includes original site plans, landscape plans, parking plans, floor plans, elevations, and section details designed by Ibsen Nelsen & Associates.

        Dates: 1980-1985
        Container: Mapcase M289/3
        Location: Architectural Drawings / Projects
      • Description: Unidentified project
        8 drawings

        Unidentified project mounted on five posterboards. Includes sectional details drawn by Ibsen Nelsen.

        Dates: 1996
        Container: Box 3
        Location: Architectural Drawings / Projects

  • Landscape Drawings

    • Description: Seattle freeway
      2 drawings

      Two color renderings of Seattle freeway landscaping proposed by the firm of Nelsen, Sabin & Varey around 1960.

      Dates: ca. 1960
      Container: Mapcase M289/9
      Location: Landscape Drawings

  • Photographs and Negatives

  • Color Slides

    Many of the slides feature images of residence and building projects, such as the Roanoke Reef project, YMCA, Governor's Mansion, Allen residence, and Hansen residence, that are also represented in the architectural drawing or photograph and negative portions of the accession.

    • Description: Crissey Flower Shop and 1039 Belmont Place

      One box containing ten color slides of the model for the Crissey Flower Shop at 5th Avenue and two color slides of the living room and dining room interior at 1039 Belmont Place.

      Dates: undated
      Container: Box 2
      Location: Color Slides
    • Description: Regional Architecture and Seattle Historic

      One box containing four hundred seventy-eight color slides of various apartment buildings, residences, parks, monuments, and architectural structures in Seattle and the greater Puget Sound region.

      Dates: 1961-1971
      Container: Box 2
      Location: Color Slides
    • Description: Miscellaneous Slides

      One box containing one hundred eighty-four color slides of various apartment buildings, residences, parks, and works of art. Includes images photographed by Mary Randlett.

      Dates: 1964-1986
      Container: Box 2
      Location: Color Slides
    • Description: Miscellaneous Slides

      One box containing three hundred eighty-one color slides of various houses, residences, scale models, parks, and other building projects. Includes images photographed by Mary Randlett.

      Dates: 1949-1989
      Container: Box 2
      Location: Color Slides
    • Description: Miscellaneous Slides

      One box containing five hundred twenty-nine color slides of various houses, residences, scale models, and other building projects. Includes several photographs by Mary Randlett.

      Dates: 1955-1988
      Container: Box 2
      Location: Color Slides

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Corporate Names

  • Ibsen Nelsen and Associates
  • Nelsen, Sabin & Varey

Form or Genre Terms

  • Architectural drawings

Other Creators

  • Personal Names

    • Randlett, Mary (photographer)

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Visual Materials Collections (University of Washington)


2012 (Last modified: 4/17/2018)

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