Steve Stroming – 2024 Council Award
Historic Seattle’s Annual Preservation Celebration is coming up on September 19, 2024. We’ll celebrate the projects and people that help amplify our mission. Today, we feature Steve Stroming, the 2024 Council Award recipient.
Congratulations Steve Stroming!
Steve Stroming is receiving the Council Award in recognition of his career-long commitment to preservation and his impact on Historic Seattle.
Steve originally thought he was going to be a structural engineer, but after exposure to the architecture program at the University of Washington, he went on to earn a degree in architecture. Graduating in 1980 (a terrible time in the economy), architects were not hiring, so he went to work for a construction company instead. Historic Seattle is very glad he did!
Steve was first introduced to historic renovation during his early years at Rafn when he was assigned to the Coliseum Theater seismic retrofit and renovation project for what was to become Banana Republic’s flagship store in downtown Seattle.
“During that work, we found what we called the opium parlor. We were removing concrete slabs and eventually revealed a trap door that was opened, and there was this sealed off room that looked like it was probably used during the Prohibition days as a speakeasy. Walls were finished with beadboard. There were old utensils, loose change, and even campaign literature from a mayoral campaign in the early 1900s. It’s like, this is fun stuff! Add to that bringing the building up to modern standards. You’re inserting new structures for seismic retrofit, new mechanical and electrical systems. Then restore the finishes and finally it’s all done. The ultimate compliment is when people walk in and they say, ‘Well, what did you do here? It looks the same as before.’ That’s one of the real kickers with doing historic renovation. All this work and it looks the same.”
As the Director of Preconstruction Services and a Project Manager at Rafn, Steve had a supersized impact on two of Historic Seattle’s most difficult and consequential projects, the Cadillac Hotel, poster child for the Nisqually earthquake and Washington Hall. His early involvement and leadership on these projects were critical to ensuring that we succeeded when success was not a sure thing and failure was not an option.
Steve recently said, “I just got the bug. It’s like these are the kind of projects that I want to work on as much as possible. I was lucky to be able to direct my career at Rafn to focus on that.”
So, thank you, Rafn, for giving Steve the opportunity to steer his 32-year career in the direction of historic preservation.
And thank you, Steve, for getting the preservation bug.
Historic Seattle and the city of Seattle are both better for it.
Image courtesy of The Washington Trust for Historic Preservation