The recent designation of the old John B. Allen School as a city landmark could make it fiscally easier for the Phinney Neighborhood Association to purchase it from the Seattle School District.

The Phinney Association has leased the school from the district since 1981 and plans to purchase it for an undisclosed amount. The non-profit is almost ready to make an offer, said Ed Medeiros, executive director of the Phinney group.

The district plans to sell several of its surplus school facilities that won't be needed in the future to house students. Property manager for Seattle schools, Ron English, has said the Allen site is worth between $2 and $10 million, depending on the development potential of the property.

But on Feb. 6 the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board voted to preserve the interior and exterior of the two buildings that comprise the old school as an historic landmark, preventing demolition. This reduces the value of the land, as far as future redevelopment, and likely lessens the cost for the Phinney Neighborhood Association, said Medeiros.

English said the district is still evaluating the fair market value of the property.

For the next step in the landmark designation process, the district has been asked to negotiate a "controls and incentives" contract with the landmarks board, which would places certain restrictions on aspects of the buildings. English said the district has not yet decided if it will participate and is neither for nor against the designation.

"We're trying to figure out what our next step is," he said.

Landmark designations can be appealed to the City Council or Hearing Examiner.

Beth Chave, a coordinator for the preservation board, said the city has a "good working relationship with the school district."

"The district has not appealed any controls on landmarks to my knowledge, but it has often asked for extensions on consideration of controls," said Chave.

As the potential future property owner, Medeiros said the Phinney Association plans to participate in the controls process with the city landmarks board.

Designating the school and taking long-term control over it for community use has been the intention of the Phinney neighborhood group for several years. The district was approached three years ago with the groups' intent to buy the school and of plans to seek landmark status.

"It's always been our plan to landmark the facility even as renters," said Medeiros. "We've been trying for a long time."

Early lobbying of the City Council has paid off and now the group has $2.5 million of pledged monies from city budget funds to help with the purchase.

The neighborhood association is almost set to launch its fundraising campaign for the rest of the capital and is also counting on House and Senate bills currently moving through the Legislature this session.

"The Community Schools Act of 2008" would make available through a competitive grant process, funds to convert empty school buildings into community facilities.

The two Allen buildings were chosen for preservation in part because they "reflect changing ideas about school design," according to the nomination report.

The wooden building was constructed in 1904 and sits at the southwest corner of the site. The "fireproof" brick building was finished in 1918 and is one of six similar schools designed by school district architect Edgar Blair.

"Most notably, the architectural style of the two buildings, built 13 years apart, shifted from Colonial Revival to American Renaissance."

The wooden building was one of the first "model schools," designed by the School Board as a cheaper way to handle escalating construction needs brought on by increasing student enrollment in the early 1900s. It's also one of only 10 remaining from the wood-frame model school period.

The interior and exterior are nearly unchanged except for a few minor alterations and it remains one of the best representatives of its type in the city, according to the historical report.

The 1918 building is also in very good condition and remains "virtually unaltered," retaining its "unusual molded and gauged exterior brickwork." Referred to as a "border" school, constructed along the lot line of the existing school site, this approach was typically used when classroom expansion required major additions to existing wood-frame model schools.

The nomination was actually completed last spring, but hearings were delayed about six months because the board asked that the 1950s-era air-raid siren tower located at the northwest corner of the site be included in the designation.

The 45-foot tall, five- horsepower, 5,542-pound steel siren is one of many installed in Seattle in 1953 to warn citizens of incoming Soviet missiles or atomic bombs during the Cold War era. The city repaired the siren in 2006 to its original appearance.

Medeiros said he was confident the designation would be approved based on the school district's own evaluation of the buildings done in the 1980s, which found Allen to have serious landmark potential.

Also, in the past 26 years that the Phinney Neighborhood Association has maintained the building and developed a variety of social, cultural and educational community programs, it's become a prominent part of the neighborhood, said Medeiros.

"(It's) been important to the community all this time," he said.

Rebekah Schilperoort can be reached at 783-1244 or rebekahs@robinsonnews.com.