"I don't go downtown anymore."
A nifty little book has just come out that might change some minds.
In a time when the construction cranes dominate the skyline, the Seattle Architectural Foundation has just published, "Seattle Architecture: A Walking Guide to Downtown."
Coincidence? Maybe not.
To put a Seattle twist on an old song: "You should know what you got before it's gone."
Written by Maureen Elenga, "Seattle Architecture" is the first book published by SAF, a non-profit headquartered in Rainier Square dedicated to, as the book forward says, "connecting people to the profound influence of design and inspiring them to engage in shaping their communities."
The 294-page, full color volume is a compendium, sorted by neighborhood, of old and new buildings of interest. Downtown, in the SAF sense, is defined by the International District to the south and the Seattle Center to the north. Each of the nine-featured neighborhoods receives a several page introduction, incorporating history and local color.
Roger Sales' "Seeing Seattle" (1994) is the best book about walking the city's neighborhoods. Clark Humphrey's recent "Vanishing Seattle" conjures the old days, before the Banana Republic invaded the Coliseum Theatre and a working stiff could still find decent shelter within the city.
But I'm not aware of any book that captures such a complete snapshot of post-Frederick's downtown Seattle, a surreal juxtaposition of soaring steel and glass against gravity-respecting brick, ivy and terra cotta.
Chapter 3 is typical. It incorporates the "Financial/Civic District," defined as Seneca between Third and Sixth Avenues south to Yesler. Within that zone 23 buildings are featured, both old and new, from the King County Courthouse to the ivy garbed Rainier Club, the Columbia Center to the almost unthinkably lost, but now saved First United Methodist Church - an architectural rebuke to many of the sunlight-blocking towers around it.
One of those would be the 76-story Columbia Center, of course, tallest building in the state. "Developed for maximum revenue, nine corner offices are available on each floor below the 43rd floor," Elenga writes.
Each featured building gets a four-color photo, date of construction, architect and a summarizing write-up. We learn that the YWCA Building, 1913, Edouard Frere Champney architect, once offered "Turkish baths, a tearoom, pool and vocational school," and that "Part of the capital for the new building was raised through a concession of services provided at the 1909Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition."
The Seattle Center is treated as a separate zone. It's hard to think of the Center as part of downtown, which for me always ended at Stewart, but never mind. "Seattle Architecture" reminds us of the plentiful artwork on the Center grounds, from Paul Horiuchi's Mural Ampitheatre to Doris Chase's Moon Gates and Gerard Tsutakawa's Fountain of Seseragi.
Belltown figures prominently. Those who have ever wondered, "What's up with the Catholic Seaman's Club?" (1937, J. Lister Holmes architect, we find it "was originally built as the northwest regional distribution office for Paramount Pictures, one of approximately film-related buildings in Belltown...Since 1956, the building has housed a clubhouse and small chapel for seamen, and several small businesses." We also learn that the Battery Street Tunnel cut into the basement of the building.
Once upon a time Belltown, with its numerous union halls and headquarters, served as neighborhood central for the labor movement. The site of the current, very upscale El Gaucho Restaurant, 2505 First Ave. is the former headquarters of the Sailors' Union of the Pacific.
That's Seattle, where so many people's ships have come in and so few sailors are shipping out.
"Seattle Architecture: A Walking Guide to Downtown," sells for $20, a decent price for what you get: slick paper stock, four color pictures on almost every page, a lot of editorial legwork and concise writing.
Maureen Elenga, author of "Seattle Architecture: A Walking Guide to Downtown" will share highlights from her book, just published by the Seattle Architecture Foundation, March 20, 7 p.m. at University Book Store.
Elenga's guidebook is the only known architectural book to focus entirely on downtown. The University Book Store is at 4326 University Way N.E.[[In-content Ad]]