After closing and being sold for $13 million to accommodate new apartments, Sunset Bowl's presence had its last chance at staying in Ballard as its most recent owners put it up for nomination in front of the City of Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board.

The landmark board voted unanimously last week to reject Avalon Bay's nomination.

Hitting on points such as the buildings type of structure, the history of the investors, architects and developers, the growing popularity of the sport and notable works of the architects, David Peterson, architectural historian researcher of Nicholson Kovalchi Architect, presented such historical items and facts to possibly assist in justifying the buildings historical worth.

"What I'd like to conclude is that I don't think Sunset Bowl is remarking architectural work for Alfred Croonquist and Decker Christenson & Kitchin (original architects)," said Peterson. "Addressing the point of landmark nomination I don't think it meets the criteria of being a particularly important work of art. In conclusion I'd like to also suggest that it does not have the integrity of the original structure due to the many renovations that have occurred."

Seeing only the age and nostalgic value of the building, board members all concurred that there were not other qualifying attributes.

"The building is very unremarkable architecture, " said Tom Veith of the board. "There is nothing distinct about it at all."

However a concern Veith also had of Sunset was that the nomination came forward after the interior had been demolished and the original owners auctioned off items.

Veith said he found it a little disturbing that when everyone learned that the building would be sold for land value only, the interior was destroyed before the landmark nomination. By doing this it took away some of the value of the original building.

Doubting that the building was considering a historic nomination, Veith brought to the table his concern about taking characteristics out of a building being a mistake in analyzing projects. He only hopes that projects being considered in the future will not be taken down before they are looked at.

Seeing many new owners of older buildings nominate property to cover all grounds before starting construction is not a rarity for the board said Beth Chave of the Landmark's Preservation Board, Harvard-Belmont District.

Allison Espiritu may be reached at 783-1244 or allisone@robinsonnews.com.