(Sad that it has come to this — posting a Dilbert. Shux, my bad.) The trust thing: Capitalism requires it to operate, but it cannot create it, and in fact, when allowed to run amok, will devour trust until it chokes to death on it. Social trust is built upon cultural institutions that lie outside […]
What it is: Long on data, short on analysis. The list below is a sampling of HAC-relevant media that has come bouncing across my personal echo chamber in the last day or two. Who has time to take it all in, much less interpret what it means? (And one bonus tangent: Every item below came […]
[ Governor Gregoire speaking at the tunnel legislation signing ceremony today at the Seattle Aquarium ] Mayoral candidate Michael McGinn said that yesterday, in reference to the plan to replace the Alaskan Way viaduct with a deep bore tunnel. Today Governor Gregoire is scheduled to sign the bill that authorizes the tunnel. The conventional wisdom […]
I’ve ridden my bike under this thing more than 800 times and somehow have remained lethargically ambivalent about it. Sure is big and fancy all glistening in light and shadow. When it was completed back in 2001, some folks — most notably Peter Steinbrueck — were not so equivocal. The main gripe was that it […]
It was pretty much just biggerer and biggerer up until the early 1970s when everything changed. Since then, the plot has thickened, as it were. A few highlights: Buh-bye industry. Hello more and more driving. We got better at home energy efficiency but we also chose bigger homes and filled them more stuff that uses […]
When Obama chose Republican Ray LaHood to lead the U.S. Department of Transportation last December, transit advocates were nonplussed. But they must be serving up the hard stuff in the White House, cause here’s what LaHood had to say last week: “In the past, population and economic growth have always led to large increases in […]
[ Lowrise apartments on 10th Ave, just north of Broadway on Capitol Hill ] About a year ago the good people of the City of Seattle became exceedingly alarmed about the assault of the awful townhouse. Piling on, I put forth a theory on the root causes of the suckiness, and also pointed out that […]
Not too shabby, this Brix condo building on Broadway. Clean, well-proportioned, legible design; no extraneous decoration, and not afraid to let one style run the entire height and length of the facade; big but not monstrous; scaled down on the back side of the block with ground-related entries.  Even the retail tenants — Broadway institutions […]
As the latest downcycle of our fanastically cruel economic system continues to shred the design community, my motivation has hit the wall. Your turn. What’s on your mind? An open thread. Or something.Â
A: This. No this. No this. No this. OK, I give up. If you’d be interested in hearing some far more cogent and nuanced perspectives on that question, you may want to take your lunch this Friday May 1 in the Bertha Landes Knight Room at Seattle City Hall. There from 12 to 1:30pm you’ll […]
Just most of them. Whoa. Did somebody just hack this blog? As I was saying, check out this excellent essay on transit, car-dependence, and compact, walkable communities. It was written for conservatives by a conservative (just guessing) who is assistant editor at this conservative online publication that is part of this this conservative institute. (Yes, […]
First, the 411: AIA Seattle’s annual What Makes It Green? awards event is this Tuesday, April 28th, 5 – 7pm at the Farestart Restaurant at 7th and Virginia. It will be a unique opportunity to view examples of the latest and best green design efforts in the region. Second, the gratuitious rant: Can we please, […]
On Wednesday the City of Seattle announced some excellent new proposals to promote energy efficiency in buildings, see related stories here, here, and here (too bad the DJC is a pay site). It’s all good stuff, but what I find particularly compelling is the proposal to require commercial and multifamily buildings to track and report […]
1. Worldchanging: Here are 10 big, difficult, world-changing concepts we can get behind… 10. BUILD NO NEW HIGHWAYS: It’s time to stop building highways, and stop developing the disconnected, suburban sprawl they support… 2. Mayoral candidate Michael McGinn: Today Michael announced his opposition to the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement plan emerging in the Legislature. “This […]
She was born in spring, but I was born too lateBlame it on a simple twist of fate* At the corner of Terry and Stewart, the 37-story Aspira is destined to be the last of the bubble-era downtown high-rise residential projects to come on line, right on the heels of Escala. It’s been a good […]
Happy global warming scenarios like the methane “time bomb“ have the tendency to push my imagination toward delusional futuristic realms in which hastily built nuclear reactors sprout up in urban neighborhoods as a last resort. But that’s just me. And James Lovelock. Of course that’s no nuclear power plant cooling tower in the photo above […]
In the photo above, from left to right, along the north side of Denny Way just west of Aurora Ave: Taylor 28, Hyatt Place Hotel/Apartments*, and Marselle Condos. In Seattle, the combined effects of zoning and construction-type economics has led to the prevalence of a mixed-use residential building form affectionately known as the “bread loaf” (see for […]
Sadly, no. But ooh, I do love a good bar chart, and so couldn’t stop myself from doing my part to keep this one bouncing around the echo chamber — all the more so because I found it on that other blog with “ass” in the name. As reported back in 2003 by the Institute […]
