A random assortment from Seattle

[Prince George]

Well, since our time here in Seattle is rapidly coming to a close, we're going to have to get motivated to document some of the things that might be of interest to people. And in that spirit, these first photos go out to Aidan; I'll leave some spaces for him to add his notes I give you the Seattle Transit Tunnel. It was built 20 years ago as a bus tunnel, but over the last few years was repurposed to also be the downtown route for their new light rail. The chatty transit worker that we met there tells us that it is the only one in the country that combined the two kinds of transit, all the others are either one or the other.

[Prince George]

Next moving on to the obligatory skyline photos, these were all taken from the ferry across the Puget Sound.


(Bigger copy of that here)

That tower on the left was showing some interesting colour effects, just from the quality of light that reflects off the glass. It'd be interesting to see if more could be made of that by having a more "textured" exterior. Instead of having just a flat glass surface, what kinds of patterns could you acheive by having the windows angled relative to each other.


After the shiny black Columbia Center, the second tallest building is the Washington Mutual Tower. It seems that its postmodern pastiche style was a result of the negative reaction to the stark Columbia Center, and the new building ordinances that were introduced in response to them.


This building caught our eye. Also in the pastiche-y style, the elements like the stepped pyramid upper levels and the splash of colour across the top were nice additions. This wasn't its best angle, from the street on the other side the shape showed a better scale at the street level (the Google street view gives some idea of what I mean).


Of course, there's been a spate of condos, apartments and hotels getting built during this boom cycle, and there's quite a cluster of mid- to high-rise examples particularly north of the core in Belltown

... and directly by the downtown


It's entirely likely that there would be much much more built in this part of town, if not for the fact that 50+ years ago they built a two-level Viaduct directly by waterfront, producing a big barrier between the water and the city. That sounds like madness now, but back then these were active busy maritime business areas and hardly thought of as the potential civic treasures that they could be now. The viaduct needs to go -- it's no longer safe in an earthquake -- but the question of what to actually put in its place is still a hot issue. Whatever happens, if they get it right they not only reclaim some of this space that's used by the road, they also win back the buildings that line it, which are a store of fine older buildings on streets that are much quieter than they ought to be.

[Shuz]

I'm intrigued that they adopted new planning ordinances in objection to the Columbia Centre's image. Personally, I love, love, love that building!

[Howie]

Awesome pictures, and I love the density of the city. Thanks for sharing.

[Prince George]

And to finish this batch off, a couple of interesting buildings. Seattle had two periods of significant buildings: the first from the early 60s through 70-ish, when hosting the World's Fair had them embracing high modernity; the second since the mid 90s when they put up a couple of buildings in very contemporary styles.

Starting with what is probably the pride of the second group, the OMA designed Seattle Public Library central building. Designed in the late 90s and opening in 2003, it is certainly a very striking structure, designed from a functional viewpoint; internally it's organised like a stack of books, then covered with the glass to form the angled exterior. It draws criticism for its rather monotonous and impersonal exterior, and for failing to engage with the street around it; although that wasn't entirely the fault of OMA, whose original design (I believe) had included facilities for the homeless.



There's a photo tour and discussion of the library here, and here's a talk from the lead architect on the project about this and a couple of other projects, including a fascinating one in Louisville, Kentucky - Museum Plaza (warning: it's kinda long)


And from the earlier period, the unexpected inverted pyramid base of the Rainier Bank Tower. Designed by Seattle architect Minoru Yamasaki who also designed the World Trade Center, it's a funny combination of being really stark and rather playfull. It certainly feels rather improbable to stand underneath that curving pedestal and seeing the building hover over you.

[Vee]

Thanks for the photos and the fascinating insights on Seattle. I especially liked the history of the two-level Viaduct and the impact this had on the older buildings by the waterfront and the potential benefits you mention of reclaiming the area.

The two significant periods of city building activity, interrupted by what must have been a period of relative stagnation, reminded me of a certain period in Adelaide's history when the cranes all but disappeared from the city skyline.

[Howie]

And from the earlier period, the unexpected inverted pyramid base of the Rainier Bank Tower. Designed by Seattle architect Minoru Yamasaki who also designed the World Trade Center, it's a funny combination of being really stark and rather playfull. It certainly feels rather improbable to stand underneath that curving pedestal and seeing the building hover over you.

Oo wow that looks like a certain building on Hong Kong island. I'll try to grab a pic later.

[Omicron]

Thank you, Sire. Any and all photo threads are appreciated.

[Prince George]

Well, today we were in town again to see the Macy's Parade and the weather was truly splendid. The sky was largely clear and, being late in the year, the sun was low all day giving a wonderful light quality. And anyone who remembers Murder, she wrote knows what happens when someone has both opportunity and motive.

Starting with the second best view in Seattle, from the observation deck at the Space Needle (#1 is from Kerry Park, after sunset - that's money, that is). Here's a stitched-panorama of Downtown / Belltown / South Lake Union (at the far left). Belltown has been going through a huge development phase in the last decade, now SLU is exploding as Paul Allen's development company (Vulcan - this is nerd town, after all) starts acting on all the properties that they own in the area. Click through for the full-size image.



Joining Paul Allen in SLU is Bill Gates, whose Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is building their headquarters just across the road from the Space Needle. The green-roof is on top of a 5-level carpark, 4-levels below ground.


Another green roof not far away, this one on a condo complex. As the building suggests, the company that owns this aren't the most exciting landlords in town (we stayed in one of their properties when we arrived), but that roof garden is a nice touch.


This building is just a plain glass rectangle, but when the light is right, it has this wonderful watery quality. I wonder if it was deliberate?


Looking towards the baseball and football fields - Qwest and Safeco Fields. They're both just south of downtown and, let me tell ya, the area around them is wretched.


Across Lake Washington, maybe 10 miles away, is the neighbbouring sattelite city of Bellevue. Once just office parks and sprawling residences, it's tried to create a downtown. They've got some buildings now but still "there's no 'there' there".


Looking into the downtown core. Honestly, Shuz, I'm not sure why you get so excited about the Columbia Center


Random shots around Belltown



And, when all's said and done, it's hard to build a city that's really ugly when the background is snow capped mountains

[monotonehell]

Those are some tall mountains. Thanks for the recent photos.

[Prince George]

I'm intrigued that they adopted new planning ordinances in objection to the Columbia Centre's image. Personally, I love, love, love that building!

I can't say for certain, but I think that part of the reason was that there were many very plain towers in the city already. If you zoom into the downtown part of that panorama, you can see quite a few plain flat rectangle buildings, many of them 40-50 storeys tall. The city was just tired of so many plain buildings. Columbia isn't a rectagle, but the exterior is very flat and rather severe.

Also, I imagine that almost all the images that you've seen of it were sparkling against a brilliant blue sky in bright sunshine. You get those conditions from July-September, but this is Cloud City. It's grey and gloomy for most of 9 months of the year, and there's measurable rainfall on 200 days. Under those conditions, the buildings that are slick and stylish in summer can look pretty depressing. Imagine in this photo that the sky is lead-grey, there's no sun, and it's been raining constantly for a week:


And the height of the building had taken them by surprise. After all of the bonuses for public amenities that were claimed by the developers, the full height that the old regulations allowed them was 310m, a full 25 metres taller than it was built, and that because the FAA wouldn't allow it. Many of its tall neighbours have been built since, so at the time it must have been quite striking over the rest of the city.

So they changed the regulations to try to get the kind of buildings that they wanted: the starting height was dramatically lowered, and they gave bonuses for "interesting profiles, and ... public amenities to create a 24 hour downtown" (from Wikipedia).

And yesterday I realised that there were more highly reflective glassy black buildings than I had noticed before. These buildings were all on the one street, and all of them would predate the Columbia Center. Perhaps people were getting tired of shiny black buildings.




This is known locally as "the Darth Vader building". It's older than I suspected, built in 1979:

[Prince George]

And what those changed regulations gave them was a series of smaller scaled buildings in a more decorative style. All of them say "80s corporate postmodern", that period when the big architecture firms started adding back more ornamented and playful designs, and before the rise of the high-tech slickness that took over in the 90s. There are some good examples of that type. I've already mentioned the Washington Mutual tower, but it really is rather pretty so lets have a couple more. This is twice the base height that the regulations allow thanks to the bonuses that it received: the street front on the other side is good, the developer donated $2.5m to build affordable housing, and it included the ultimate super bonus - it forms an entrance to one of the transit tunnel stations.

(click through for full size)

Peeking over the Seattle Tower (of which, more anon)


I only know that this is the "US Bank Center" because of the sign, I'd never heard about it before, but it seemed to be everywhere I looked. It's not quite as accomplished as the WaMu tower, but it still added a little extra colour and shape in the skyline, and the street-level was better than average.


(click through for full size)
Apologies for the crooked panoramic shot, but I was crossing the street while I took them. Hasn't the software come a long way, once upon a time there was no way it would work out how to compose two such wonky images.