DAN TEMKIN
Owner

Dan was born and raised in Jersey City, NJ. At the age of 22, he moved to the West Coast and never left (well, at least not for too long). Dan has enjoyed a long and successful career as a commercial real estate investor and developer. He was excited to combine his expertise in this arena with his love for cool buildings to create block 41. When he’s not busy at work, he might be found road biking, kite boarding in some warm, sunny place or leading an architectural tour in downtown Seattle. Dan would not be excited at the prospect of living in outer space but says he might consider it if he knew there was authentic Italian food up there.

HELI SUOKKO
General Manager

Heli was born and raised in Finland. In her early 20’s she moved to Seattle “for a year” and is still here. For many years, Heli was in the travel industry running her own business but found her passion more recently in the events world. She enjoys a good adventure in the outdoors and trying new things, which most recently includes mountain biking. If she was up in outer space, she couldn’t live without her kids and a good lip balm.

JORDAN ROSE SCHWARTZ
General Manager

Jordan was born and raised in Bozeman, Montana. Traveling around the world provided her with the culture and perspective she needed but at 36, she decided to move to the city and here she is. Jordan seems to enjoy learning, with an elementary ed teaching and art degree, 2 years of nursing and a paralegal certificate. Over the last 10 years, she has worked heavily in event, project and facilities management. Jordan loves to draw, play the guitar and sing, run, ride and hang with horses and eat cake.

TRISTAN ROBERSON
AV Manager

Tristan was born in Great Falls, Montana and from a young age, raised in Seattle. He is a theatrical lighting, scenery and projection designer and he produces corporate events around the world. Tristan has always wanted to learn how to fly, so when he has the time, he is going to take seaplane flying lessons. He wouldn’t be able to live without burritos, it just wouldn’t be worth it and he would miss skiing the most if he went to live in space.

CARL MONSON
Bookkeeper

Carl was born in Memphis but says he has never really grown up, that is so childish. His background is in import business management and accounting and at some point, he would love to find more time for photography and astronomy……if he ever slows down. If he was in space, he would miss Earth food that you don’t squeeze from a tube. He would miss his cat as well but he is way too dangerous for zero gravity. Meow.

MCKENZI FISH
Social Media Coordinator

We were lucky to find McKenzi right as she was graduating from The Art Institute of Seattle with a degree in business as well as fashion marketing and management. We are VERY glad she didn’t move back to Tri-Cities. As if working as a merchandise coordinator and a social media coordinator isn’t enough, she also founded and runs her own non-profit, Forever Fighters! The next time a pie eating contest rolls into town, she would win if the pie had an Oreo crust. YUM! She would enter said contest wearing bell bottom jeans, the fashion trend that she is hoping will resurface in a major way-even though it already kind of has. They look great with high heels!

ELAINE RINGO
Event Manager

Elaine is a proud born and raised Ballard girl. She has enjoyed working in many aspects of the event world for the the last 15 years, including catering, event planning, rental management and now venue management at Block 41. At some point in life, she would like to take up basket weaving on the beaches of Costa Rica and if she could develop an app, it would be a reminder of what you have in your spice cabinet, as when you are out shopping, you can never remember what you already own! If Elaine were to live in space, she couldn’t live without her son, who is her sun, moon and stars.

GREG ROBERTS
Guest Relations Coordinator

Greg was born and raised in Saint Louis, Missouri. He enjoyed being a banquet server for years and now, he is enjoying life as a gentleman of leisure. He doesn’t have time for technology, he will leave that to his grandboys and if he was in space, he couldn’t live without A WOMAN and would miss his mother the most.

Block 41 is one of downtown Seattle’s newest and most unique private event venues.  Located in the heart of Belltown, the impeccably renovated 1927 former ice warehouse offers three discrete indoor spaces on two levels, plus a landscaped outdoor courtyard. Block 41 combines the best of old and new – massive old growth timber, exposed brick walls, and vintage car decking merge gracefully with blackened steel, leather column wraps, and state-of-the-art building systems. 

Block 41 first came to life in 1927 as a garage for the Kennedy Wagon Company which relocated from a building on nearby Battery Street. Soon after being completed, however, the building was taken over by the Ice Delivery Company. 

The ice distribution business was managed by a kindly sensitive ice man named Albert L. Ewing. “Bert”, as he was known, believed in paying it forward. In a meeting of the Northwest Association of Ice Industries in 1920, he boasted about his company’s profit sharing plan and how it helped with employee loyalty. Bert also was a poet who wrote heartfelt poems about his wife, Anna, known as “Tot”, and about his love of Seattle and the Northwest.  Some of his poems were recently compiled into a book by Bert’s grandson, Peter Cameron.  This collection of poems is aptly named “Musings of an Iceman”. Bert also was a dedicated gardener and outdoorsman. He was a longtime president of the Seattle Cactus Society and held a patent for an outdoor camping stove. 

Block 41 has chosen to honor the spirit of this special Seattle ice man by dedicating our event spaces to his memory.  You can rent the Musings Gallery, the Ewing Theater or the Bert and Tot Ballroom.  Bert’s family members are happy about that and we think Bert would be too. 

JIM GRAHAM
Lead Architect

Block 41’s lead architect Jim Graham of the firm Graham Baba credits a trifecta of influences for shaping his design vision. As an architecture student, studying abroad in both Paris and Copenhagen allowed him to soak up the best of elegant old and edgy new architecture. And oh yes, his father was an architect. 

Read More About Jim Graham

STEPHEN HIRT
Metal + Glass Master

Seattle metal and glass master Stephen Hirt whose pieces can be found in museums, hospitals, churches and public parks was commissioned to create the courtyard gate and entry chandelier for Block 41. Hirt creates metal and glass art pieces in his studio for himself and for select clients.

Read More About Stephen Hirt

MEGAN BYE
Functional Sculptor
Custom Lighting & Furniture Maker

Bye works collaboratively with architects, designers and patrons, to design and fabricate custom functional sculptural installations. Bye’s backgrounds in conservation, sculpture and furniture blend to create pieces tailored to the needs of their permanent location.  Bye was commissioned to create custom leather corsets for the Block 41 wooden pillars and the leather detail work on the mobile bars and lecterns.

Read More About Meg Bye

SUSAN TILLACK
Architect

Structural beauty in all its forms has always been compelling to Susan Tillack, Block 41’s managing architect for the Seattle architecture firm Graham Baba. With Block 41, she helped transform the structural beauty of a 1927 former ice warehouse into a contemporary event venue. 

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TOM STURGE
Lighting Designer

Block 41 lighting designer Tom Sturge realized as a stage-struck kid watching the Broadway debut of “Pippin” that here was magic to do. “It was all done with lighting,” Sturge recalls all these years later.  At that moment Sturge knew he had found what he wanted to do for his life’s work.

Read More About Tom Sturge