Features

'Blandmarks,' not 'Landmarks:' Why Seattle architecture falls short

‘Blandmarks,’ not ‘Landmarks:’ Why Seattle architecture falls short

SEATTLE CAN AND MUST DO BETTER WITH ITS ARCHITECTURE

I’m not an architect. I’m not an urban planner. I’m not a developer. I am just a guy who has chosen to live most of his life in Seattle, and I’m disappointed. I fell in love with the Emerald City while visiting in the early 1990s, so much so that I moved my family from…

100 Years of Seattle Modernism

100 Years of Seattle Modernism

UNIQUE STRUCTURES REVEAL SEATTLE’S PENCHANT FOR DESIGN

Modernism is a 20th-century style roughly defined by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as encompassing “individual design movements that expressed modern ideals in different ways. Technical innovation, experimentation, and rethinking the way humans lived in and used the designed environment, whether buildings or landscapes.” Frank Lloyd Wright launched his firm in Chicago in 1893,…

Editor's Note: George Suyama's Quiet Serenity

Editor’s Note: George Suyama’s Quiet Serenity

George Suyama has left an indelible mark on Seattle Architecture

Richard Nguyen was walking along Seattle’s Magnolia Bluff when he came across a home that caught his eye. Its low-slung, crisp, understated exterior “stood out against all the other houses on the bluff,” he recalls. Later, while perusing a book about noted Seattle architect George Suyama, he saw the exact same house. “The photos of…

The Magicians of Memory

The Magicians of Memory

Could Alzheimer's be cured here? Maybe, right now, that's not the point

For Joel Loiacono, it’s personal. His mother died of Alzheimer’s disease. His father-in-law and several aunts and uncles battled dementia. As regional director for Eastern Washington and North Idaho of the Washington state chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, Loiacono has spent the past 26 years working to reduce risk, promote early detection, and offer resources…

Advancing Health Equity

Advancing Health Equity

How to overcome barriers to equitable care

Being a patient is a vulnerable reality. Whether you are not feeling well, are injured, or having a routine checkup, it is natural to feel trepidation as you encounter a rush of medical information and feel pushed to make health decisions quickly during a short appointment time. Developing a trusting, therapeutic alliance to encourage recuperation…

Seattle Police Chief Diaz: A different kind of cop

Seattle Police Chief Diaz: A different kind of cop

Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz is the right person in the right place at the right time as the department rebuilds after years of unrest

Name a job in the Seattle Police Department, and Adrian Diaz has probably done it. Major Bruce Harrell officially named Adrian Diaz as chief of police last fall after he had served as interim chief since the summer of 2020, replacing Carmen Best. Diaz had been deputy chief for only a month when he found…

Reclaiming Seattle's Central District

Reclaiming Seattle’s Central District

Ambitious moves aim to bring the Black population back to an historic neighborhood

When Ms. Helen’s Soul Bistro owner Jessi Henton brings her family’s Southern cooking back to Seattle’s Central District this fall, she’ll be dishing up liver and onions, gumbo, catfish, black-eyed peas, and all the other dishes that her mama Helen was known for. To Henton, the restaurant will stand for good home cooking, community, and…

Editor's Note: Spirit of the Sonics

Editor’s Note: Spirit of the Sonics

Basketball-crazy Seattle awaits the NBA’s return

  Back in the ’90s, I rented an apartment near Seattle Center. My buddy — a longtime SuperSonics season ticket-holder — took me to dozens of games at the old KeyArena in exchange for a convenient parking spot at my complex (which, sadly, like many things from that time period, is now gone). Those early-to-mid…

Publisher's Note: ACAB?! Not so fast

Publisher’s Note: ACAB?! Not so fast

The truth is often more complicated than it appears

It’s powerful how simple slogans, mottos, and memes capture the zeitgeist of a particular moment. They express a necessary and biting emotion to provoke the establishment and cause us all to think a little, or a lot, about what’s broken.  But an oddly circular thing can happen. An acute series of tragic instances of police brutality…

Pride in Place: Why Seattle Architecture Shines

Pride in Place: Why Seattle Architecture Shines

Seattle's Past Influences its Modern-Day and Future Architecture

George Suyama has had an outsized influence on much of what we know as modern-day Seattle, but he never planned on a career in architecture. Suyama, a Seattle native who has been practicing architecture in the region for more than six decades, founded his award-winning firm, George Suyama Architects (now Suyama Peterson Deguchi), in 1971….

Screen Gem - Nate Burleson

Screen Gem – Nate Burleson

FORMER O’DEA STAR AND NFL RECEIVER RISES TO THE TOP OF HIS NEW PROFESSION

Nate Burleson was right. It is awfully early. Just after 5 a.m., in fact, and while the lights in Times Square remain on that’s because the lights in Times Square never turn off and as I approach the Broadway address for the studio where we’re meeting, a man in a suit steps forward. “Who are…

An Intervention: Seattle architects weigh in on the city's style

An Intervention: Seattle architects weigh in on the city’s style

How buildings can bring famously guarded Seattleites together

The elevator door opens. You step aboard and join a few others on the 30-second ride down to the ground floor. If you’re a Seattleite, you know instinctively to stare ahead, up, down — anywhere but into the eyes of a stranger. When the noiseless descent ends, you escape the forced close quarters to get…

'Blandmarks,' not 'Landmarks:' Why Seattle architecture falls short

‘Blandmarks,’ not ‘Landmarks:’ Why Seattle architecture falls short

SEATTLE CAN AND MUST DO BETTER WITH ITS ARCHITECTURE

I’m not an architect. I’m not an urban planner. I’m not a developer. I am just a guy who has chosen to live most of his life in Seattle, and I’m disappointed. I fell in love with the Emerald City while visiting in the early 1990s, so much so that I moved my family from…

Join The Must List

Sign up and get Seattle's best events delivered to your inbox every week.

Follow Us