Anyone who’s walked in downtown Seattle, or in pretty much any big city for that matter, has likely experienced the scene above: a driver comes up to a light as it’s changing to red and stops halfway across the crosswalk, and then proceeds to sit there sheepishly as pedestrians are forced to walk around the […]
There sits the space-age office building, next to an empty lot covered with mature trees — including what looks to be about a 50-foot big leaf maple — next to an Eritrean restaurant. This is urban form on the transitional edge, at 20th and Jackson in the Central District. Go two blocks west and you’ll […]
“Already, in the architecture and layout of the new community, one sees the knowledge and discipline that the machine has provided turned to more vital conquests, more human consummations. Already, in imagination and plan, we have transcended the sinister limitations of the existing metropolitan environment. We have much to unbuild, and and much more to […]
18th and Jackson is less than a mile from some of the most expensive real estate in Pacific Northwest, so the curious thing isn’t why redevelopment is happening now, but rather, what the heck took so long? The photo above is looking NW across the site of the development known as “Legacy at Pratt Park,” […]
Did you hear about the new First Hill Streetcar? Didn’t think so. Sound Transit is making real plans, but not many seem to have noticed. It will run from the International District up Jackson to 12th, north to Boren, then all the way to John on Broadway. Apparently an extension north on Broadway to Aloha […]
The 1 Hotel and Residences, currently under construction at 2nd and Pine: “…luxury eco-friendly …daring to be the best of everything but never at the sacrifice of the greater environment at large.” So it’s good that the building has some green features. But it also caters to a clientele likely to have some honkin carbon […]
It’s not that we’re here to make the argument that Seattle is a hugeass city. Heavens no. Rather, this is a blog about the concept of hugeass cities, and Seattle as interpreted through the hugeass city lens. In the context of the megacities of the world, Seattle could never be fairly described as hugeass. But […]
Predictable PI column whining about Critical Mass. The writer is a cyclist himself – analogous to conservatives showcasing an African American who doesn’t like affirmative action. But even cyclists often succumb to carhead. The writer would seem to gauge the moral value of any action by whether it causes delays in car travel. Oh, and […]
Driving through SoDo to Georgetown today I was struck by the vastness of the industrial landscape. Lowrise industrial buildings and parking lots full of trucks seem to stretch for miles in all directions. And so I couldn’t help wondering about all the concern over converting a relatively small area of industrial uses on the south […]
