A 3:25 am photo by Robert Lype shows the Chena River and the Fairbanks waterfront, with Golden Heart Plaza and its iconic clock.
But where the once-tallest building in Fairbanks used to serve as a backdrop, there’s an empty spot.
The Polaris building, built in 1952, was an 11-story apartment complex built to address a housing shortage. Back then, Fairbanks was booming with federal investment in Cold War-era military infrastructure, such as Ladd Field and Eielson Air Force Base. The building also housed delegates for Alaska’s Constitutional Convention and was a hub of activity in the city. It had a gymnasium and a hair salon at one time, and the top floor had popular restaurants. Later, it became a hotel.
Then came the 2001 flood, when 800,000 gallons of Chena River water poured into the basement of the building, adding to its decline. Mold, asbestos, PCBs, and other hazardous materials made it too costly to renovate.
The building was abandoned in 2002. It was too toxic to be sold and the owner stopped paying the property taxes, so it became a city problem.
Deconstruction was planned for years, but with an EPA grant, demolition finally started in 2023 and will conclude this fall, forever changing the Golden Heart City’s skyline. All of its materials are being shipped out of state, as the building is considered toxic due to PCBs.
In the Robert Lype photo above, you can see the few stories remaining as demolition continues this week. In the photo to the right, taken by Lype in 2023, the work had just commenced.
Time marches on
I didn’t realize there was a flood in 2001.
The Polaris Hotel was a busy place during the TAPS and Prudhoe Bay construction ‘boom’ years of 1975-1978. The Polaris manager would occasionally phone me in the middle of the night to complain about certain itinerant employees of my construction company, who were gathering and carousing in their hotel rooms when the downtown bars had closed. “Maybe you should phone the cops…?,” I suggested from my bed to the Polaris manager. Anyhow, that’s my finest memory of the place. To understand that era you had to be there…
Indeed. I only caught the tail-end of it as we moved up here in 1978. It’s about to happen again.
It was certainly an interesting time…
@hasalaska,
But downtown bars didn’t close in the middle of the night during those years. They were just getting started for business. Bars closed at 5 or 6 am. The only bar still standing today on 2 Street is the Mecca and drunks still plow out of there at 3 am.
The Polaris Hotel was sandwiched by bars from all directions. The Kings Cup. The Cottage. Tommy”s Elbow Room. The Flame Lounge. The French Quarters. Plenty of strip joints too. And dozens of hookers playing their trade up and down 2 street in mini skirts and high heels. It was a veritable combat zone. The police didn’t care. In fact, the chief was seen driving around in a convertible red Mercedes, which was owned by the famous town madam……. Ruthie. Yes, the pipeline days were the roughest in state history. And Fairbanks was ground zero.
Not sorry to see another brutalist architecture building demolished. Inlet Towers is one of the few that have any curb appeal.