Paul Schell

Paul E. S. Schell (born Paul Ervin Schlachtenhaufen; October 8, 1937 – July 27, 2014), served as the 50th mayor of Seattle, Washington. Schell died at the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, Washington following heart surgery.

The oldest of six children of Lutheran minister Ervin Schlachtenhaufen and nurse Gertrude Reiff Schlachtenhaufen, Paul Schell grew up in the small farm town of Pomeroy, Iowa and graduated from Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, Iowa. He attended Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, where he played linebacker on the school football team. He also worked as a short-order cook and a fireman. Schell transferred to the University of Iowa. After graduation he went on to law school at Columbia University in New York. There he met his future wife, Pam, a registered nurse. They married on the day he graduated from law school — a double celebration scheduled so his father would have to pay for only one plane ticket.

In New York, Schell took a position at the Dewey Ballantine law firm, where he specialized in corporate finance. During his time there, “Schlachtenhaufen” became “Schell,” a truncation he described as "practical, not political," since the longer name wouldn’t fit on computer punch cards used at the time. He worked as a summer law clerk in Portland.

In 1967, Paul and Pam Schell moved to Seattle so he could take a job with the Perkins Coie law firm, practicing business and securities law. Their daughter Jamie joined the family in January 1971.

After a few years with the Perkins firm, Schell left to help form a new law firm: Hillis, Schell, Phillips, Cairncross, Clark and Martin.

He also engaged in civic activism. He joined other urban activists with Allied Arts of Seattle in the 1971 campaign to save the Pike Place Market from a proposed redevelopment. He left legal practice for civic affairs in 1973, when Mayor Wes Uhlman appointed him director of the Seattle Department of Community Development. During his term with DCD Schell oversaw the Market's preservation and rebuilding. As President of Allied Arts he led the successful effort to establish "One Percent for Art" in 1973 — with Seattle thus becoming one of the first cities to adopt an approach that has since become the national standard. A member of the Democratic Party, he first ran for mayor in 1977, but lost to Charles Royer.

In 1979 he founded Cornerstone Development Company, serving as president 1979-87. Among projects located in Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland, Cornerstone developed Waterfront Place, a 6-block mixed-use project located on Seattle’s central waterfront and incorporating six restored buildings, the 22-story Watermark Tower and the Alexis Hotel. In 1989, Schell developed the highly successful Inn at Langley, and later the Boatyard Inn, on Whidbey Island, and played a key role in establishing the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts.

In 1989 Schell won election as Commissioner for the Port of Seattle, becoming commission president in 1995. He accepted appointment as Dean of the University of Washington College of Architecture and Urban Planning, serving 1993-96. During that time he established the UW's Office of Sustainability and enhanced the Rome Studies Program, and also supported the initiation of the Real Estate program and the Center for Environment, Education, and Design Studies.

Schell succeeded in election to serve a four-year term as mayor commencing January 1, 1998. During Schell's mayoral term, the City of Seattle built its new City Hall, the Seattle Justice Center, and several libraries including the downtown library (via a $196 million Libraries for All bond campaign); invested $200 million in new parks and added six new community centers; rebuilt the Opera House and Seattle Symphony Hall, developed QWest Field, passed 26 new neighborhood plans with resulting improvements via a $198 million levy for parks and the zoo, He also championed a $72 million effort that mingled public and private dollars to renovate the Seattle Center Opera House and community centers, and initiated development of the Olympic Sculpture Park and transactions that resulted in Vulcan's development of South Lake Union. Mayor Schell also participated in the design charrette for the new Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Traffic Control Tower, commissioned in 2004.

The Schells' engagement in Seattle cultural life also included major support to the rise of The Intiman Theatre.

Also during his term the infamous WTO Meeting of 1999 took place, resulting in the departure of Seattle police chief Norm Stamper from his position, in what Stamper said was a previously planned retirement. A particularly violent Mardi Gras celebration in 2001 left 20-year-old Kris Kime fatally injured; Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske ordered officers not to intervene. Arguably, the WTO meeting and the Mardi Gras violence played a role in Schell's loss to Greg Nickels, also a Democrat, in the 2001 mayoral primary election, as did Boeing's move of its headquarters to Chicago. It was the first time in over 65 years a Seattle mayor had failed to survive a primary election. During the campaign, Schell was assaulted by a political opponent, a fringe mayoral candidate named James Garrett (a.k.a. Omari Tahir-Garrett). Garrett struck Schell in the face with a bullhorn he had been using to heckle the mayor, breaking bones under his right eye. Garrett was later convicted of second-degree assault and sentenced to 21 months in prison.

His mayoral predecessor Charles Royer assessed Schell's term in a January 2002 interview in The Seattle Times; "Paul is smart. Maybe the smartest mayor we've ever had. ... [I]n his one term, Paul Schell got more done than any first-term mayor has a right to expect. The former developer not only got the new City Hall complex started, he led an impressive effort to build a new and important downtown library, rebuild the branches and renovate and build the community centers. He led the effort to fund a record $200 million in new parks, rebuilt the aging Opera House, and in a stunning victory that future generations will celebrate, preserved the 90,000 acres of the pristine Cedar River watershed."

At the time of Schell's death, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray issued a statement with an appreciation of Schell's range of community service: "Schell will be remembered as one of the great city builders of the Pacific Northwest. As a citizen activist, lawyer, director of community development, port commissioner, dean of architecture and mayor he directly shaped the civic infrastructure of Seattle for more than 40 years.

"Schell’s greatest professional accomplishment has been the infrastructure that he built and influenced. The first Libraries for All campaign was a brainchild of Schell’s, establishing and building a new downtown library and rebuilding branches throughout the city. He led the effort to fund Seattle’s first parks levy, rebuild the opera house and was instrumental in building the Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle’s City Hall and Justice Center.

"During his time as mayor, Schell helped develop Seattle’s 37 neighborhood plans, laying the foundation for the strong neighborhood system that is seen today. Schell was not only committed to the infrastructure, but also to the people of Seattle. He worked tirelessly to increase service for Seattle’s homeless and immigrant communities, bringing them much-needed services."