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.
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.
Collection is open to the public.
Gift of Eric Nelsen, September 29, 2004.
Unprocessed.
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.
Includes landscape plans, floor plans, foundation plans, elevations, and section details as designed by Pai Chieh Lin, a professional engineer.
Includes duplicate copies of the original floor plans, site plans, and foundation plans designed by Ibsen Nelsen.
Includes duplicate copies of the original drawings made by Ibsen Nelsen & Associates.
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.
Includes originals and duplicates of section details, floor plans, and land surveys as designed by Ibsen Nelsen & Associates.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Includes original site plans, landscape plans, parking plans, floor plans, elevations, and section details designed by Ibsen Nelsen & Associates.
Unidentified project mounted on five posterboards. Includes sectional details drawn by Ibsen Nelsen.
Two color renderings of Seattle freeway landscaping proposed by the firm of Nelsen, Sabin & Varey around 1960.
Two b/w prints and fourteen negatives of the Washington National Guard Armory building.
Five b/w prints.
Several contact sheets with twenty-three b/w images featuring a scale model of the proposed building.
One contact sheet with twenty-seven b/w images and twenty-seven negatives.
One contact sheet with thirty-four b/w images and thirty-four negatives.
Sixty-nine b/w images from various contact sheets featuring various unidentified buildings and models created by Nelsen's architectural firm.
One contact sheet with eleven b/w prints and eleven negatives feature Ibsen Nelsen standing beside the plaque on the Boyle Building.
Twenty-two contact sheets featuring b/w images of unidentified buildings and models, many created by Ibsen Nelsen.
Six negatives of the YMCA building
Fourteen negatives of the exterior details of the YMCA building.
Thirty-four negatives of the YMCA building.
Twenty-three negatives of the YMCA building.
Eleven negatives taken in September 1967.
Eighty negatives of the interior and exterior of the building.
Sixty-seven negatives.
Four negatives.
Twelve negatives.
Five negatives.
Five negatives.
One hundred forty-seven negatives of unidentified residences.
Twenty-eight negatives.
Twelve negatives.
Nineteen negatives of aerial views of Seattle.
Seventeen negatives of the building exterior and interior.
Presentation panel has ten negatives and three b/w prints of interiors and courtyard.
Three hundred and three negatives.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.