Features
‘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
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
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
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
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 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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…
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