Seattle: Europe, Japan, and Koolhaas, all under one grey sky
As this Blog is somewhat devoted to understanding the occurrence of cities historic growth or decline and consider what leading factors have contributed to these changes, I found the form of Seattle’s population trends somewhat unique. Like many cities in the US, Seattle hit its peak around 1960 with 557,087 people only to fall in 1980 to 493,846. It wasn’t until the most recent census that the city realized its greatest density with 608,660 residence and suggesting further growth in sight.
The element which struck me about Seattle was that it happened to boast one of the most varied cityscapes for a place its size. Aided by geographical constrains of rolling hills sloping down towards the Puget Sound, the city takes multiple forms and generates distinct urban neighborhoods in a relatively small area. Good urban planning and preservation has undoubtedly contributed to the city’s ability to achieve this, but economic transition through Microsoft and other tech companies’ development have made new growth possible.
On the first day of my visit, I parked towards the east side of the university, and walked down the pike street commercial corridor. Before walking over route 5 I was miandered through a neighborhood which overlooked Seattle’s CBD and took on a quiet Western European type attitude, fully equiped with a moped.
What is now one of the largest tourist attractions of the city was at one point facing the bull dozier as the city’s population was migrating out to the ‘burbs. In an attempt to bring people back into the city Pike Place Market was slated for demolition to be turned into a series of high rise condominiums, office buildings complete with a nine story parking garage directly connected to the interstate system. As preservation movement to save the market and open it back up to its historical purpose of an area for commerce, architectural professor Victor Steinbrueck, over saw grass-root efforts to protect the site. Decades later, this move proved to help bring an estimated $86.8 million in gross revenues year, employ’s an average of 1,900 persons and brings in $7.2 million in taxes per year. While motivated out of a preservationist desire, coupled with entrepreneurial visionaries the market has proved to be a vital tourist attraction and economic generator for the city.
