[Illustrations of “green matrix” and “the human scale” in Mumford’s The City in History, published in 1961] He had a pretty good one, Mr. Mumford did. Here, from The City in History, is his reaction to the sprawling, car-dependent development that was already well under way 50 years ago: “By building up sub-centers, based on pedestrian […]
Seattle architecture is uninspired. But don’t take it from me. The jurors at the last annual meeting of the Seattle Chapter of the American Institute of Architects said so. Yet other culturally similar cities get the goods. What gives? Below is a sampling of housing designed by San Francisco architecture firm David Baker + Partners. […]
Cars are like wombs. Inside, you’re safe and warm, practically in the fetal position as the seat envelops you firmly yet comfortably. As you travel, the white noise and the swaying and jiggling closely mimic the experience of a fetus in the womb. This is why a car ride will put a baby to sleep […]
Well on it’s way to 440 feet, this is 1521 2nd Ave: 38-stories, 143 luxury condo units, designed by Weber Thompson, developed by (can you guess?) Opus. It will be the tallest residential tower in Seattle, and is targeting LEED Silver certification in order to qualify for a height bonus under the City’s new downtown […]
This is the six-story, 117-unit mixed-use project in the works for the vacant lot on the NE corner of 14th and East Union on Capitol Hill. Designed by the Runberg Architecture Group, and overall, I like what I see. Or perhaps I should also say I like what I don’t see, namely, a heavy brick […]
Hell yes, this is coming to Federal Way, WA, a bedroom community of about 86,000 people located between Seattle and Tacoma. Part of the City’s downtown redevelopment strategy, the project consists of four towers from 16 to 24 stories on a 4-acre site, with a whopping total of 900 residential units, along with 60,000 square […]
This is an exciting moment in American Political History. We have recently entered the final year of the hated GW Bush’s reign, and we are in the midst of the “primary” fight to succeed him. Today, the Saturday before the ’08 Super Tuesday” primary – which somehow drifted from March to February – We got […]
[ Photo: Dan Bertolet ] This was the mother of all street walls, on Airport Way in Georgetown: about 50 feet straight up, and only 5 or 6 feet back from the curb. The sense of enclosure you’d feel along this street was like nothing else in Seattle. Though some speculate otherwise, the demolition of […]
[ Photo: Dan Bertolet ] [ Photo: Dan Bertolet ] Do I detect a pattern here? Both projects were designed and built by Pb Elemental. Now don’t get me wrong — for the most part I love this firm’s work. But I couldn’t help noticing how many of their projects have this mirrored dual symmetry […]
[ Photo: Dan Bertolet ] This is the front door of Philadelphia Cheese Steak at 23rd and Union, in 2003. The sign on the door says “Closed for Troy’s funeral,” referring to the owner who was shot dead in his car a few blocks away. Today the subsequent owner was shot and killed, and a […]
No need to post a photo. If you live in Seattle, chances are you can throw a rock and hit one from your front door. Over in West Seattle, architect and design review board member David Foster has been grumbling about micro-permitting, received this response from Richard Conlin, and even SLOG piled on. No doubt […]
UPDATE: See comment #1 for a clarification on the building shown below from the developer. In short, it is not live-work, but “live above work,” consisting of five separate mixed-use buildings. [ Photo: Dan Bertolet ] This is a recently constructed live-work unit development at 25th and E. Union in the Central District. There are […]
[ Photo: Dan Bertolet ] Seattle’s first LEED certified townhouses, designed by OPA, built by Cascade Built. Located in the Central Area, at 712 26th S (one block west of MLK Way, two blocks south of Jackson), currently priced at $450k. They claim these townhouses will be 30-50% more energy efficient than a typical home. […]
This is the open space on the roof of the the City’s Medgar Evers swimming pool, on 23rd Ave between Jefferson and Cherry, in the Central District. I have yet to see a more pathetic open space, anywhere. It was designed by firm of the late Seattle architect John M. Morse, who had previously worked […]
(Note to self: If you ever want to murder someone, use a car to do it.) The driver who killed a pedestrian in a crosswalk in November 2006 in West Seattle was convicted of assault, with a maximum sentence of 1 year in prison and a $5000 fine. An appeal is expected, because the city […]
Reality today, in Ballard, on NW 46th St, between 14th and 15th Ave NW: [ Photo: kurt schlosser; flickr.com ] And below, an illustration from the children’s book The Little House, by Virginia Lee Burton, published in 1942: Read all about the Ballard holdout here. The project is filed under Seattle MUP #2500969. I couldn’t […]
This is MGM Mirage’s $7.5 billion CityCenter, currently under construction on the Las Vegas strip, touted as the most expensive privately funded project in U.S. history. But mark this: the glowing, other-worldly mega-gambling mecca you see above is actually targeting LEED certification, in exchange for rebates on state sales and property taxes. This thing is […]
