Whittier, Alaska – A Manifesto. Rachel Finfer UPenn- Arch 711
1. Whittier came to be as the southern terminus of the Alaska Railroad in the early 1940s. It was a strategic location for an army base, as it was a port that was ice-free year round, often visually obscured by bad weather, and a convenient location for keeping tabs on the Soviet Union. A 1941 Army press release announced Whittier as the town’s name. The release read: “EVER HEARD OF THIS PLACE? WELL, YOU WILL”1 2. Whittier is a tiny town with a tagline: the “town under one roof”. This “one roof” is Beigich Towers International (BTI). 214 people live in Whittier, and of them, about 180 live in BTI. [2][3]
3. Whittier is named after the glacier that abuts the town, which is named after John Greenleaf Whittier, a poet who wrote many odes to winter.4 4. Whittier, Alaska is not the only thing named after John Greenleaf Whittier. Whittier, California; Whittier, Iowa; and neighborhoods in Minneapolis and Denver all share the same namesake. Greenleaf, Idaho remembers the same man in a different way. Whittier College, Whittier Law School, Whittier Education Campus all share his name. Whittier’s intent is not to be revolutionary. 5 5. Whittier is an isolated town—the nearest urban outpost is Anchorage, 60 miles away. A two-and-a-half-mile tunnel separates the two, with the Prince William Sound flanking Whittier on the other side. 6. The tunnel is the second longest in North America, boring through the seemingly impenetrable Maynard Mountain.6 It was built solely for rail travel, but opened to cars 16 years ago, allowing the cars to drive over the train tracks in one-directional shifts, opening every hour or so. The residents feared Whittier would grow and change. Many signed a petition to prevent the tunnel’s opening. But instead, about 50 people left.7 Before the tunnel became bi-modal, cars were loaded onto a railroad flatcar. Whittier was slowly becoming connected.8 7. When the tunnel opened to cars, eight safe houses were built to ease the claustrophobia, and jet engines were installed to circulate air after every trip. 9 It was hard for Whittier to connect. 8. To make the journey more inviting, the tunnel’s entrance is a rather comforting A-frame façade, inviting its guests into the mountain’s underbelly. However, the tunnel closes at night and costs $12 roundtrip, making the trek to Anchorage quite a commitment in terms of time, logistics, and cash.[10][11] 9. Surprisingly, the tunnel has a five-star rating on Yelp.12 10. Whittier is the wettest city in the United States, receiving 197 inches of rain and 241 inches of snowfall annually. High winds, reaching up to 80 mph, constantly torment the area. In the summer months the town becomes flooded instead with daylight and visitors. Its population skyrockets with seasonal fisherman and other workers. 13 11. After World War II, once Whittier had proved its merit as an army base, the army invested millions to ensure it could function permanently. Two buildings were designed to house the entire town. The crown jewel of the construction effort was the Buckner Building; complete with a library, hospital, photographer’s darkroom, hobby store, post office, barbershop, six-cell jail, bake shop, movie theater, four-lane bowling alley, and an indoor shooting range. 14 The other, slightly less magnificent building is the BTI. Today, the
Buckner Building lies in ruin, its only utility as a backdrop for ski videos and an apocalyptic canvas for the town’s vandals. The Buckner Building provides Whittier with a constant reminder of the fragility of its own existence and the obsolescence it defies. BTI faces its potential destruction and ruin. 12. At its peak significance, Whittier was home to 1200 people (it was designed with an emergency capacity of 30,000). Declining cargo eventually made the base irrelevant, and just four years after millions were invested in the building stock, the base was deactivated. In 1964, Whittier’s future looked grim, with many of the businesses closed and only 40 residents living in the shadow of the town’s former relevance.15 It was never intended for civilian life. 13. Options were explored to repurpose BTI as a prison, resort, or mental institution. Time Magazine noted that the “forbidding surroundings would set mental health back 50 years.” With no other promising options, the civilians were left to do as they please. The town of Whittier was incorporated in 1969, and has quietly carried on ever since.16 14. The remaining residents bought BTI from the army in 1973, turning it into a condo association, and they began to make the building and the town their own, regular town.17 15. The first floor of BTI is a synecdoche for the town’s main street. It houses the post office, laundromat, general store, weather station, notary public, city hall, and the police headquarters.18 16. Because of Whittier’s institutional architect (the Army Corps), BTI is sturdy, utilitarian, and indestructible. And not too cozy, though its residents do the best they can. The building is replete with 1950s military-issue details, lovingly masked with décor that spans the last half century of American interior decorating fads. 19 17. In some ways, the town’s design is innovative. For example, BTI was built on three sections with a gap of six inches, closed with a steel accordion shaped baffle, so that it could withstand earthquakes. 18. In other ways, the town’s design was stifled by the Corps handbook. Pitched roofs were not offered as an available feature, for instance. For a town with over 400 inches of precipitation annually, this has been the root of many buildings’ demise.20 19. In 1964, BTI weathered a 40-foot tidal wave that followed the 9.2 magnitude Prince William Sound earthquake, with little damage. In other words, BTI survived the second strongest earthquake ever recorded.21 In 2002, BTI braved a 7.9 magnitude earthquake. The top floors swayed, but the damage was limited to the toppling of knick-knacks, attesting to the building’s indestructibility. 22 Whittier perseveres. 20. As an indestructible structure, BTI clearly serves its purpose. As a home, it is brutal, banal, pastel painted concrete. 21. Whittier has no decadence. Only utility. 22. BTI has everything its residents need to survive. For months, or even years. BTI’s building superintendent once remarked, “we actually have a tenant on the 10th floor, I’ve never seen him leave, and I’ve been here for three years.”23 23. Whittier does not take itself too seriously. T-shirts and postcards boast “It’s always Sh**ier in Whittier” and “POW –Prisoner of Whittier”. [24][25] This irony just may be another form of pride. Needless to say, Whittier’s official slogan is much more palatable: “Gateway to Prince William Sound”, noticeably absent of any reflection of Whittier’s character, and more of an ode to a door than a place. Whittier has no intention of marketing its quirkiness.26
24. Others do, though. Whittier has been the feature of numerous 500 word, feel-good journalism pieces. In 2014, the town was thrilled to be selected as the site of a feature length film.27 The next year, when Alaskan film tax incentives dried up, the film was canned. Back to normal. 28 25. Whittier really prides itself on the door thing. It is the self-proclaimed “most visited gateway to the mesmerizing wilderness of the Prince William Sound.”29 26. Whittier has always served as a door, and was founded as a door. A port, connecting to a railroad, connecting the world to Alaska. 27. Whittier does not conspicuously consume. There are less than five stores: The Anchor Inn Store, the Harbor Store, Sound Idea Gallery & Gifts, and the Kozy Korner grocery store in BTI. There used to be a store called Cabin Fever – a combination video rental store and tanning salon. Times changed, and Netflix caused Cabin Fever’s demise. The tanning bed is now in someone’s condo.30 28. Whittier offers a glimpse into vertical city life, and is a modernist’s dream town. Le Corbusier once exclaimed, “We must kill the street!” His vision of the modern city was one that stacked the human elements of the city vertically. One of his proteges, Georges Candilis, proposed to redevelop Frankfurt so that the different functions of the city would be layered and raised to different levels – the hyperbolic modernism city.31 29. Le Corbusier would have been impressed by Whittier: the efficient, concrete town. 30. Planners hold contempt for principles of modernism, as they are concerned that it stifles the organic city and its natural evolution. 31. The City of Whittier is not organic. It did not evolve. 32. The City of Whittier was incorporated in 1969 as a fourth-class city. In 1972, Alaska’s Municipal Code was revised to reclassify fourth class cities as second class cities. First class cities have a threshold of 400 residents. For now, Whittier remains a second-class city.32 The town doesn’t care much either way—a rose by any other name. 33. Whittier is the antithesis of sprawl. There are only two residential structures, and all other attempts at single family home ownership have been lost to the elements. 34. Whittier is not without a manifest destiny though. Here, it is represented by Shotgun Cove, which holds promise as a single family residential development. As it stands, the newly paved road to Shotgun Cove leads to nothing. Nature is preventing the development at Shotgun Cove from coming to fruition. Wetlands and the risk of avalanche have kept development at bay, for now.33 In many ways, nature has dominion over Whittier. 35. For now, the city still resists horizontalization. There is still time to depart from America’s mistakes. 36. Some of Whittier’s residents do hunger for change. This includes 85-year-old Virginia Bender, who has lived in Whittier for 30 years. "Change will come. I know it's going to happen, you can't stand still.”34 37. This view is not universal. For many, Whittier is a refuge. Babs Reynolds originally came to Whittier to escape an abusive ex-husband. Because of the town’s limited entry, the tunnel operators were able to easily prevent her ex from entering. Even after his death, Babs stayed in Whittier--perhaps she had grown fond of the Kozy Korner. 35 38. Whittier has no stoplights. It does have stop signs. 39. Most residents facing the harbor own binoculars. It is ill-advised to take a piss on this side of the building.36
40. Whittier is a village. As one Whittier-raised youth put it (on her tumblr account), “When I think back to my childhood, I wonder – did my parents raise me, or was it the town itself?”37 41. Whittier’s residents are comfortable with themselves and with their town. Many of them walk around in slippers38. Students can knock on the teacher’s door at any time. Often they will find her drinking wine, an encounter she learned to accept.39 42. Houses in Whittier have no yards—not that Whittier really has houses anyway. Considering that the small town is entirely flanked by nature, Whittier has an impressive amount of dedicated open space in town, including both a dedicated city park as well as campground.40 South Los Angeles would be jealous. 43. Residents of Whittier are unable to express their wealth and power through the size or architectural beauty of their homes. All they can do is buy a condo on the highest floor. 44. With wealth and power only exerted by height, what becomes of a town? It’s barely capitalist! Who are the elites? Where is the class struggle?? Who are they impressing!?? 45. Jane Jacobs believes all good cities allow their residents to be anonymous. She probably wouldn’t have liked Whittier. 46. Whittier is cyclical. It’s boom and bust were very unnatural, but today its cycles feel more ordinary. After the police busted a pot-growing operation on the tenth floor, the lights were used to bring the school’s hydroponic vegetable garden to life.41 There is no anonymity in this town. 47. And yet, Alaska’s constitution includes the right to privacy in your own home.42 A complete lack of anonymity comes part and parcel with the right to it. 48. Whittier is strange. There are a pair of reindeer that live in a pen out front of BTI. There are provisions regarding “fish slime” included in the condo association’s guidelines.43 49. There’s an old saying about Alaska which fits Whittier well, “The odds are good, but the goods are odd.”44 50. Children commute to school through an underground pedestrian tunnel. They will have the same peers their whole school career, sharing one teacher. Unsurprisingly, the high school age boys quickly become frustrated by the dating pool.45 51. Whittier’s youth may be unparalleled in their boredom. An impressive collection of angstfueled art is available online. A particularly compelling science fiction piece offers a glimpse into life in Whittier: “A few times we’ve gone down to the edge of the water. Dad calls it the beach, but there’s no sand. Just concrete and a slope of deliberately collected boulders. This one time, he whistled as a bundled up figure passed, looking something like a lumpy eskimo. ‘Check out the figure on that one!’ he remarked.”46 52. Even Whittier cannot escape American indulgence. It is visited by 2000-odd participants of it every time a cruise ship embarks. They might buy a burger or even a trinket, but usually they don’t. The cruise ship industry itself admittedly estimates that only 7% of its passengers travel outside of the cruise-led tour groups.47 Whittier seems unconcerned. 53. Whittier’s spiritual needs are met in one nondenominational church which meets in a multipurpose room in BTI. Many residents yearn for more spiritual comfort, and hope to build a dedicated facility outside of BTI. For now, the pastor conducts baptisms in an inflatable pool in the basement.48 54. Whittier is a town reduced to its basic elements. It offers its residents no possibility for expansion, architectural upgrades, or McMansions. Some would question whether it offers an American Dream at all. And yet, it carries on, seemingly unperturbed.
55. Perhaps it offers a new American Dream. Babs feels that way: “You can live the American Dream right here. Everybody just kind of goes along and does their own thing, whatever it might be, whether its herding reindeer or delivering newspapers or shoveling snow. You got a lot of people who don’t want to do any of those things, so they don’t do them. And that’s fine because they have the option of staying in the building, which they can. They don’t have to go outside. You know, I don’t care. Each man for himself, whatever you want to do.”49 Taylor, Alan, The Strangest Town in Alaska, (Anchorage: Todd Communications, 2000), 48. "Whittier city, Alaska". American FactFinder; US Census Bureau. Accessed 5 Dec. 2016. 3 BTG Productions, The Strangest Town in Alaska, video, 14 minutes, 2011, https://vimeo.com/20704849. Accessed 28 Sep. 2016. 4 “Whittier History,” Cruise Port Insider, http://www.cruiseportinsider.com/whittierhistory.html. Accessed 3 Dec. 2016. 5 “John Greenleaf Whittier,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Greenleaf_Whittier. Accessed 20 Oct. 2016. 6 Feinberg, Ashley, “The Alaskan Town Living Under One Roof,” Gizmodo, 15 Jan 2015, http://gizmodo.com/the-alaskan-town-living-under-one-roof-1678831641. Accessed 29 Nov. 2015. 7 BTG Productions, The Strangest Town in Alaska, video, 14 minutes, 2011, https://vimeo.com/20704849. Accessed 28 Sep. 2016. 8 Haroldp, comment on samclemens, “A Town of 200 people, almost all of whom live in the same building,” Hacker News, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8840005. Accessed 20 Nov. 2016. 9 “Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel,” Atlas Obscura, http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/anton-andersonmemorial-tunnel. Accessed 1 Dec. 2016. 10 Halpern, Jake. Braving Home: Dispatches from the Underwater Town, the Lava-Side Inn, and Other Extreme Locales. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015, 62. 11 “The Strangest Town in Alaska,” Tumblr, http://the-strangest-town-in-alaska.tumblr.com. 28 Nov. 2016. 12 “Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel,” Yelp, https://www.yelp.com/biz/anton-anderson-memorial-tunnelwhittier. Accessed 1 Dec. 2016. 13 “Whittier Alaska: Gateway to the Prince William Sound,” City of Whittier, www.whittieralaska.gov. 14 Halpern, Jake. Braving Home: Dispatches from the Underwater Town, the Lava-Side Inn, and Other Extreme Locales. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015, 52. 15 Taylor, Alan, The Strangest Town in Alaska, (Anchorage: Todd Communications, 2000), 73. 16 Halpern, Jake. Braving Home: Dispatches from the Underwater Town, the Lava-Side Inn, and Other Extreme Locales. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015, 53. 17 Taylor, Alan, The Strangest Town in Alaska, (Anchorage: Todd Communications, 2000), 86. 18 Halpern, Jake. Braving Home: Dispatches from the Underwater Town, the Lava-Side Inn, and Other Extreme Locales. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015, 55. 19 Sheehy, Erin. “Gold Rush Whittier” in City by City, ed. Keith Gleesen (New York : n + 1/FARRAR, 2015), 58. 20 Hacker News. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8840005. Accessed 5 Dec. 2016. 21 “Largest Earthquakes in the World since 1900,” USGS, 2012, https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/world/10_largest_world.php. Accessed 1 Nov. 2016. 22 Dunham, Mike. “Beigich Towers, home to about half the population of Whittier, gets a much needed overhaul,” Anchorage Daily News, 19 Aug. 2006. https://www.adn.com/alaska-life/2016/08/18/begichtowers-home-to-about-half-the-population-of-whittier-gets-a-much-needed-overhaul/. Accessed 15 Nov. 2016. 23 BTG Productions, The Strangest Town in Alaska, video, 14 minutes, 2011, https://vimeo.com/20704849. Accessed 28 Sep. 2016. 1 2
Lee, Jeannette. “Alaska’s Strangest Town Strives to Remake Itself,” Juneau Empire, 10 June 2007, http://juneauempire.com/stories/061007/out_20070610008.shtml#.WFQN0aIrKHo. Accessed 5 Dec. 2016. 25 “The Strangest Town in Alaska,” Tumblr, http://the-strangest-town-in-alaska.tumblr.com. Accessed 28 Nov. 2016. 26 “Whittier Alaska: Gateway to the Prince William Sound.” City of Whittier. www.whittieralaska.gov. Accessed 15 Oct. 2016. 27 Devin, Kelly. “Big Budget Thriller to be filmed in tiny Whittier next year,” Anchorage Daily News, 12 Dec. 2004, https://www.adn.com/film-tv/article/major-film-be-set-whittier-2015/2014/12/12/. Accessed 1 Dec. 2016. 28 Forgey, Pat. “’Hunter Killer’ pulls out of Alaska as Senate votes to kill film subsidy,” Anchorage Daily News, 13 April 2015. https://www.adn.com/politics/article/hunter-killer-pulls-out-alaska-senators-pull-out-film-taxcredits-program/2015/04/14/. 28 Sep. 2016. 29 “Whittier Alaska: Gateway to the Prince William Sound.” City of Whittier. www.whittieralaska.gov. Accessed 15 Oct. 2016. 30 Sheehy, Erin, “Gold Rush Whittier” in City by City, ed. Keith Gleesen (New York : n + 1/FARRAR, 2015), 58. 31 Ireson, Ally, “Introduction,” in City Levels, ed. Nick Barley and Ally Ireson (Basel; Boston;Berlin:Birkhauser, 2000), 8. 32 “Whittier Comprehensive Plan Update 2005,” City of Whittier, 2005. 33 Kinney, Jen. “Whittier’s Shotgun Cove Road project slowly moves forward,” Turnagain Times, 6 March 2014. http://www.turnagaintimes.com/currentissue/2014-03-06/whittiers-shotgun-cove-road-project.html. Accessed 15 Oct. 2016. 34 Lee, Jeannette. “Tunnel Opened Whittier to the Future,” Anchorage Daily News, 11 June 2007, Newsbank. Accessed 28 Sep. 2016. 35 “Profile: Babs Reynolds, Who Fled Abusive Ex-Husband for Safety in Whittier, Alaska,” NPR, Washington, D.C.: NPR, 2004. ProQuest, 190160255. Accessed 28 Sep. 2016. 36 Sheehy, Erin, “Gold Rush Whittier” in City by City, ed. Keith Gleesen (New York : n + 1/FARRAR, 2015), 60. 37 “The Strangest Town in Alaska,” Tumblr, http://the-strangest-town-in-alaska.tumblr.com. Accessed 28 Nov. 2016. 38 Sheehy, Erin. “Gold Rush Whittier” in City by City, ed. Keith Gleesen (New York : n + 1/FARRAR, 2015), 58. 39 Sheehy, Erin. “Gold Rush Whittier” in City by City, ed. Keith Gleesen (New York : n + 1/FARRAR, 2015), 60. 40 “Whittier Comprehensive Plan Update,” City of Whittier, 2012, http://www.whittieralaska.gov/docs/WhittierComprehensive-Plan-Update-2012.pdf, 53. 41 Sheehy, Erin. “Town Hall,” The California Sunday Magazine, https://stories.californiasunday.com/2015-0104/begich-towers-whittier-alaska/. 42 Gr33nerPastures, “Alaska, Marijuana and the Right to Privacy,” Daily Kos, May 17, 2011. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/5/17/976940/43 Sheehy, Erin. “Whittier Alaska,” Reed Young – Projects, http://www.reedyoung.com/project/whittier-alaska/ 44 Murphy, Kim. “Alaskans Find New Road Paved with Uncertainty,” Los Angeles Times, June 7, 2000. http://articles.latimes.com/2000/jun/07/news/mn-38380. 45 BTG Productions, The Strangest Town in Alaska, video, 14 minutes, 2011, https://vimeo.com/20704849. 46 Aquarean, “Whittier, Alaska,” Reddit, September 19, 2016. https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkTales/comments/53fegq/whittier_alaska/. 47 “Whittier Comprehensive Plan Update,” City of Whittier, 2012, http://www.whittieralaska.gov/docs/WhittierComprehensive-Plan-Update-2012.pdf, 20. Accessed 1 Dec. 2016. 48 Sheehy, Erin. “Town Hall,” The California Sunday Magazine, https://stories.californiasunday.com/2015-0104/begich-towers-whittier-alaska/. Accessed 28 Sep. 2016. 49 “Profile: Babs Reynolds, Who Fled Abusive Ex-Husband for Safety in Whittier, Alaska,” NPR, Washington, D.C.: NPR, 2004. ProQuest, 190160255. Accessed 28 Sep. 2016. 24
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