The largest design event in the region will include Queen Anne in several ways later this month.
Last year, the Seattle Design Festival drew more than 13,000 people to a range of events designed to bring together community members, designers, experts, and city officials to better understand the role design plays in every day life.
The series of events and exhibitions, which runs Sept. 10 to 23, span the city, but include some uniquely neighborhood features.
Among the projects included in a free gallery exhibition at the Center for Architecture & Design (1010 Western Ave.) is the Uptown Flats project, currently under construction at 300 1st Ave. W. Architects at Weber Thompson have created a virtual reality headset tour “inside the model” of the design for the apartment building, as part of the 19th annual model exhibit.
The exhibitors reception is set for Sept. 22 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Center, while the exhibit itself is on view Tuesday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m. during the festival.
Also happening during the festival is walking tour of Queen Anne on Sept. 17. Starting at 10 a.m. at the former West Queen Anne Elementary School (1405 5th Ave. W.), the two-hour excursion will take participants past homes, apartments, and repurposed buildings, while also showing off the neighborhood’s iconic views.
Stacy Segal, executive director of the Seattle Architecture Foundation, said the tour fits in well with this year’s festival theme of “Design Change.”
“We feel that the Queen Anne neighborhood definitely embodies that theme and all the changes that have happened over the years,” she said.
The tour also examines the wider topics surrounding how some neighborhoods are more resilient than others.
“It really looks at why some urban neighborhoods decay and other survive and thrive,” she said. “We tell that story through the architecture.”
“I think people love the view,” she said. “[And] it’s interesting to them to hear that this is the only neighborhood named for an architectural style, a home style, and that there’s very few Queen Anne homes that still remain.”
Tickets for the tour are $15 ($10 for Seattle Architecture Foundation members) and can be purchased online.
Also a part of this year’s festival is the annual “PARK(ing) Day on Sept. 16 and 17, when Seattleites across the city convert on-street parking spaces into temporary mini-parks, as a way to make people rethink how public spaces can be used on a daily basis. Usually a one-day affair, this year it has been expanded as “PARK(ing) Day Plus+ because of what the city calls “overwhelming success” of the event in past years.
For more information on the Seattle Design Festival, visit www.designinpublic.org. More more information on PARK(ing) Day, visit www.seattle.gov/transportation/seattleparkingday.htm.