GRAY No. 3

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Formerly the American Scandinavian Bank, the newly renovated Hotel Ballard now offers 16 rooms. Interior designer for the project, Debera Riggle, chose a neutral theme of black, white, and light blue to let the historic features, such as crown molding, speak for themselves.

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Scandinavia Restored Written by Lindsey M. Roberts : Photographed by alex hayden

n the corner of Ballard Avenue and Vernon Place in Seattle,

one finds something a little different in Ballard, where in the late 19th century, fishermen from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, and Finland recreated a piece of Scandinavia. As part of that neighborhood, in 1902, the American Scandinavian Bank built one of the most expensive and prestigious buildings in the community at 5,000 square feet. But years later, the booming city of Seattle annexed Ballard and the bank was converted in the 1920s into an easily overlooked extended-stay hotel. Last year, about 110 years later and long after Ballard was known primarily for its hardworking fishing and boat-building men, new owners

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GRAY ISSUE No. three

transformed the rundown building into a more-elegant version of its former self, called Hotel Ballard.

Owners of the nearby Olympic Athletic Club, Jim and Debera Riggle, purchased the building in December of 2010, and then Riggle spent six months working with general manager Mark Durall to restore the hotel and preserve its “Old World charm of Ballard,” Durall says. “Debera wanted a clean, vintage appearance.”

The City of Seattle supported the team’s desire to make improvements and continue to operate the building as a hotel. However, because the business district is a Historic Landmark District on the National Register of Historic Places, the team couldn’t change the structural design of the