Wright building's future still a puzzle

The fate of the historic Frank Lloyd Wright building in Whitefish seems to still be up in the air.

After owner/developer Mick Ruis said last month he was dropping plans to demolish the architectural treasure and instead put the downtown building up for sale, redevelopment plans continued to proceed as the city’s Architectural Review Committee reviewed design plans for a three-story mixed-use commercial building that would replace the Frank Lloyd Wright building. Now Ruis and his build team are exploring whether the 1958 masonry building can be moved. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The preferred option for most Whitefish folks, we suspect, is to find a buyer willing to ante up the $1.6 million Ruis paid for the building and six city lots who is willing to preserve the building on-site. Moving the building obviously would be better than tearing it down, but the process likely would be costly.

Historic preservationists are pushing to save the building. The director of the Montana Preservation Alliance said “even the smallest Frank Lloyd Wright building is still a treasure.” In the end the preservationists probably will have to put their money where their mouth is if they want to spare the aging building.

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• Best of luck to new Whitefish city manager

Whitefish soon will have a new city manager. The City Council has tapped Montana native Adam Hammatt to replace retiring City Manager Chuck Stearns. With experience as a village administrator for three separate towns in Wisconsin, Hammatt seems well-poised to take the reins in Whitefish.

His current position as village administrator for Kimberly, Wisconsin, appears to be a jack-of-all-trades job. He heads all major city departments, including police, fire, public works, parks and recreation, finance and facilities maintenance. That breadth of knowledge should serve him well in his new job.

We wish Hammatt the best of luck in leading Whitefish’s local government at a time when city growth is brisk. Issues such as annexation and where to put that growth will continue on the Whitefish agenda for some time to come, we suspect.

It should be noted as well that Chuck Stearns has done an admirable job in leading the city through all kinds of growth, from the reconstruction of downtown streets to the City Hall and parking structure that are under construction. We wish him well in his retirement.