In the family of public buildings, they're like your slightly kick-off kilter uncle: been around forever. Done and seen everything, made friends far and wide. Made the front page a time or two, mostly just worked away in the background. Now graying and shedding some shingles, wondering whether there’s enough time, space or energy for a second — or maybe eighth — act.
Tim Wynn, who managed the castlelike, hilltop Bellingham Armory — now largely hidden by the South Hill neighborhood that grew up around it — remembers the first day he set foot inside the structure after taking a job as facilities director for Western Washington University, which inherited the armory from the National Guard and owned it until last year.