Seattle: An Architectural Tour
A quick trip up the coast to the Emerald City gave me a chance to explore the great Pacific Northwest and the architectural wonders of Seattle. Here's what you should do to enjoy the best of what Seattle has to offer in a weekend-especially if you're an architect.
As an architect, or someone who simply appreciates beautiful buildings, here are the places you must visit during your time in Seattle.
St. Ignatius Chapel
This was our first stop on the architectural tour of the city, and from the outside, it isn't much. Looking like nothing more than a random compilation of large 3D shapes sacked on top of a typical building form, the chapel will not take your breath away until you step inside. The interior plays with massing and manipulates light to create beautiful moments throughout the building. It's all so simple yet so elegant, and all those crazy forms on top of the building are combined on in the interior to manifest a dynamic structural form that molds and reshapes the rigidity of the base form into a vastly more unique and eclectic floor plan.
Seattle Freeway Park
From the Chapel, we walked to the Freeway Park, where we were surprised to see such an immaculate piece of landscape architecture located so abruptly within the context of the city. Situated over a freeway, this park is comprised of a bunch of massive pillars essentially that create a system of positive and negative spaces for the user of the space to interact with. Frankly, I'm shocked that no one has filed complaints against the park or gotten seriously injured because there are really no safety measures taken, but the fact that it was so perilous made it that much more enjoyable.
Seattle Public Library
This is without a doubt one of the most incredible buildings in all of America. It's the gem of the city. A building based around a diagram that forms itself in ways otherwise perceived as structurally impossible, the Seattle Public Library is a dynamic representation of the potential of architecture. It's a truly awesome buildings, with so many awe-inspiring areas. Designed by OMA, this building is an absolute must, even for those who don't care for architecture. I'll stop writing now and just let the photos do the rest of the talking.
Olympic Sculpture Park
Not quite architecture, but a beautiful example of landscaping on the waterfront, serving as a great place to sit down with a coffee, examine beautiful sculptures, and watch the boats cruise through the Puget Sound while trains steam down the coast and runners do their best to keep up alongside. This would also be a great place to have a nice picnic after visiting the sites and sounds during the morning.
Beautiful lines, great sculptures, and classic views make this park one of my favorites in Seattle.
Museum of Pop Culture
Designed by starchitect Frank Gehry, this building is emblematic of the fantastic style seen throughout all of Gehry's work. It's colorful and playful yet imposing and structural. The forms are simply superb and the more you walk around this museum, the more you come to appreciate the rhyme and reason behind what otherwise seems like nothing more than a crumpled piece of paper directly turned into a building.
Crumpled paper turned into a building? Make fun of it all you want, this is the type of building you will remember-Frank Gehry Style
Space Needle
This is the icon of the city. Built for the World Expo back in the day, the Space Needle is the postcard image of Seattle. It frankly isn't that tall-just over 605 feet, or 1/8 the height of the Burj Khalifa, but nevertheless, it offers great views over downtown, the Puget Sound, and on clear days like the one we were lucky enough to have, the beautiful Mt. Rainier way off in the distance. The line to get up was quick, so the entire experience set us back $20 and 30 minutes, which is no big deal at all.
View from the bottom of the needle. It was under renovation during my visit while they add modern glass walls around the observation deck.
Amazon Spheres
These are just ridiculous. Like, this is the type of architecture that you design and almost laugh at because it is just so outlandish and absurd, which is what makes it so effing awesome. I mean, who in their right mind would design a building in the shape of massive glass balls. I guess Jeff Bezos would so there;s your answer to that question. Bezos' Balls-I mean Spheres-are a structural gem located smack in the middle of the high-rises in the financial district of the city. While commoners like us are not allowed to go inside the office space which houses beautiful greenery and energetic spaces, the views from the outside are more than enough. And if you want to learn more about the design and engineering behind it, there is a mini-museum you can visit for free.
Redefining a building
So that's what you do if you're an architect. If you're not, and you really don't care about that stuff, here's the other things you should do in Seattle:
Where to go when you want sushi at 1 AM: Momiji Seattle
I don't know if I've ever been to a sushi place with as many options as Momiji had, and all of which were fantastic. We were starving and craving some raw fish as one normally does, so we made our way here and it did not disappoint. Some sake, beer and rolls later, we were more than satisfied with our meal.
Where to go when you want to sample every type of jam known to man: None other than the world-famous Pike Place Market
It's one of those places that if you didn't visit then you didn't actually visit the city. Paris has the Eiffel Tower, Sydney has the Opera House, New York has Central Park, and Seattle has Pike Place Market. It's known for its fish tossing and seafood in general, but we found ourselves lost in all the jam samples. Everything from chocolate jam to spicy jam to truffle jam, you name it! We also thoroughly enjoyed sampling olive oil and balsamic, just for good measure, along with some fruits and vegetables.
A staple of the city without a doubt
Also, we ate lunch at Lowell's, which was located inside Pike Place Market and offered great views over the waterfront. Food was alright, I had a seafood plate and it was rather bland but a few hot sauces later and I thoroughly enjoyed it, along with my clam chowder. A bit pricey, but not surprisingly given it's prime location in the market and on the waterfront.
Where to grab a doughnut and do some work: Top Pot Doughnuts
The Oreo doughnut was way too good, and a nice latte to go along with that made me way too happy. I ended up sitting here with a couple of friends and doing work for the better part of three hours, and I highly recommend going here for a mid-afternoon sweet treat, especially after seeing Bezos' Balls right around the corner.
Where to have some great beer and Brats: Rhein House
Located in the trendy, party district of Capital Hill, Rhein House offers a great selection of beer to go along with even better Bratwursts (not bratty children in case you read that wrong). There's also bar games scattered throughout the joint, with the highlight being massive bocce ball courts dominating the center of it all.
Bocce ball anyone? This is quite the fun spot for all ages-drunk 45 year old architecture professors battling rambunctious 12 year old's in Bocce was entertaining to say the least!
Where to go to see the plane you flew in on getting built: Boeing Factory
It's the largest building in the world by total square mileage (you can fit Disneyland in here and have an additional 12 acres to spare). It's an architectural gem that houses the construction of the world's most advanced planes (sorry Airbus, this is an American writing over here). Getting to see the meticulous construction of a 747 and 787, along with the new 777x was super exciting for me, and for the rest of the sold out tour. Just one tip-don't miss the tour because you go to the bathroom for so long. It sucks. And you can't sneak into other tours. These guys are like the damn secret service. I'm not kidding-no phones were allowed either so no pics to share with you guys.
Where to spend too much money on awesome food in between museum visits: Collections Cafe
This place has some of the most unique tables of any restaurant I have ever eaten at. Each table is like a mini gallery, with a glass top in the center housing unique collections of cars, planes, typewriters, etc. It's a very modern, bright, and airy restaurant located in between the Museum of Pop Culture, Space Needle and Glass Garden, making for a great place to stop in and have some solid food-just be prepared for a pricey bill at the end.
Definitely a beautiful restaurant with a prime location, so the pricing is understandable
So there you have it-Seattle. It really is one of America's underappreciated cities, but it is growing, and growing fast. The lucrative Asian market is expanding and the city is becoming much more accessible to Asians looking for somewhere new to develop outside of San Francisco and Los Angeles. But for now, it remains America's greatest small-big city, and after visiting for a weekend, it isn't hard to see why.