page_title: Richard Hedreen
section_title: 1960s-1980s
hierarchical_section_title: Richard Hedreen / Career / 1960s-1980s
caption_attribution_description: P1020699 Taken at PAX 2008. English: Sixth Avenue, Seattle, Washington. Park Place building at left; Freeway Park at right.
context_page_description: Richard Hedreen is a Seattle-based hotel and property developer and art collector. Known for opposing unionization of hotel workers and conflicts with Seattle city government, he has been audited multiple times. The R.C. Hedreen Company has built the Seattle Hilton Hotel, the Grand Hyatt, the Olive 8, the Hyatt Regency Seattle and other Seattle skyscrapers.
context_section_description: In 1963 Hedreen began developing properties in Seattle; he built the 11-story Harbor House apartment building in Queen Anne for $1.6 million. Later that year he was named a board member of the Home Builders' Association of Greater Seattle. In 1967 Hedreen began building the 24-story Washington Park Tower in the Madison Park neighborhood. It took several years for permits to be issued for the structure after community protestors petitioned Seattle City Council to change rezoning laws and delayed construction.
  In 1969 Hedreen began building the 27-story Seattle Hilton Hotel in downtown Seattle. Initially permitted as a 10-story parking garage adjacent to the Washington Athletic Club, Hedreen revealed that the structure was really the Hilton after Seattle interm-mayor Floyd C. Miller announced plans for nearby Freeway Park, part of the Forward Thrust initiative. Hedreen was developing the 22-story Park Place building on the site of the park. Miller and Hedreen reached an agreement where Hedreen would help develop the park and underground parking and still be allowed to build the Park Place building. Hedreen also opposed the City Council's decision to convert the nearby Wilhard Hotel into low-income housing for senior citizens. The $10 million Hilton Hotel opened in November 1970. Hedreen built the Crown Plaza Hotel (then called the Park Hilton) in 1979 and sold it to Holiday Inn for $32.5 million in 1983; and the Madison Renaissance in 1983.
  Hedreen was elected to the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) board of trustees in 1978, serving as chairman for the museums' Westlake construction committee that oversaw the construction of Westlake Mall, and disputed with mayor Charles Royer over who would develop it. In 1989 Hedreen purchased the historic Music Hall theatre with plans to demolish the it and build a 31-story hotel. Community activists, led by Allied Arts of Seattle, attempted to preserve the entertainment venue as a historic landmark, but it was demolished in 1992 and is currently an office building. Hedreen sued the city for $10 million after the activists delayed the project.
caption: Freeway Park grounds with the Park Place building and parking garage entrance (left)
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