Seattle

Seattle is great. The weather has been phenomenal. Very gusty but by far the coolest its been my entire trip.

I ended up doing a ton of walking today. For a few reasons, 1 being that I was tracking  the Alaskan Way Viaduct and looking at the spatial implications on the waterfront, and the other is that fact that the transit here is not so good. Nonetheless I had an interesting day and a good walk.

I guess the first thing I have to say is that topography plays a huge role in this city. Starting at Pike Place market I think its interesting that its not on the waterfront. My impression of Pike Place's location was that it was waterfront and directly related to the fishing industry. It is instead on the hillside interfaced towards the CBD, instead of interfaced a good 40 or 50 ft down to the waterfront.

I guess thats the interesting thing about Seattle is the amount of Topography in the CBD. It is quite substantial, to the degree that San Francisco is but with the hills pulled farther towards the water. This means a few things. One is that there is no mediation towards the water. Essentially there is a one block zone before you hit the waterfront. The other perception that I had about Seattle was that the Alaskan Viaduct was at the level of the city, when it in fact is about level with the bottom of the city. The main issue is the road noise.

So, bottom line is that a successful project here has to mediate between topographic change as well as (in the case of waterfronts) the rail lines and sometimes the elevated road lines that exist. Thats where I think the Olympic Sculpture park has been wildly successful. It is able to take care of all the issues of Road, River, And Rail in an elegant way that mediates all levels and scales.

I could talk more about my experiences on my waterfront walk but all I will say for now is how unfortunate it is in creating a tourist safe haven. For me the waterfront has to be populated and vibrant, and that is what will drive tourists, nor this dreary fisherman's wharf ideal.

The most interesting part of my day was the visit to the South Union Lake Project. This project is interesting because of its time scaled nature, multi-product, and transit components. Its got the movers and the corporations investing in it, but I wonder how much it will slow down due to the recession.

More tomorrow, as I finish out Seattle and return to Chicago for a rest day.

Transit thinking out 20 years.