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Debris burns on one of the floors of the tall building at Renton’s Garden Plaza on Park Avenue
I received a link to an Instagram Post which shows the inside of the dilapidated Park Avenue (Garden Plaza) buildings. The owner of the Instagram account states in one of the comments that the photos were sent to him, so the time of the photos is unknown.
I also stumbled upon a youtube video from August 17, with thousands of views, showing the hazardous state of the inside of the buildings. It was obvious that no steps had been taken by the building owner to remediate interior hazards as of the time these images were captured.
The photos and video underscore the danger to anyone moving about within these buildings, and the fire danger these buildings represent to the community. Recently, even Renton’s firefighters and police officers have been instructed not to go into these buildings unless there is a critical life-saving emergency need. No one from the public should enter them. I’ve only included a few sample screenshots from the Instagram post in this blog entry.
The link to the photos was sent to me after this six-minute television news story was broadcast about these dangerous buildings and the negative impact the buildings are having on the community.
For background on the history of these vacant buildings, see more related blog posts here.
The buildings still could have been saved when I wrote my first blog post on the topic in June of 2023, here.
This image from the youtube video shows a deadly drop down an open elevator shaft. No one should be going anywhere near this hazard without fall protection. Given that the the building remains unacceptably physically open to workers, the unhoused, and curious explorers, the owners should immediately be installing safety railings and caution warnings on these elevator shafts to prevent falls.
An open elevator shaft is visible in this image
This view inside the parking garage appears to include a pile of metal shavings (likely associated with metal theft activities.)
Most of these windows are now gone on the east side of the three-story 10-13 building, and the structure is being damaged by the elements
pacnorthwest_media, which owns the Instagram account, explains that the pictures were sent to him
Two days ago when a concerned group of residents walked around the outside of the building we found at least four open fence openings, such as this person-size gap in the chain link. While we didn’t go onto the property, it looked like there were also unsecured openings into the inside of the buildings.
This fence should not be relied upon to keep children out of this building
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