Architecture The Brutal Beauty of Concrete
posted by January 8 at 13:09 PM
onUnder construction is the 25-story Seattle Sheraton Union Street Tower.
When completed in spring it will make the Sheraton the largest hotel in Washington, with a total of 1283 rooms and 18,000 square feet. But these are just dull facts. What’s remarkable about this tower, which owes its design to the big and global Seattle-based firm Callison Architecture, is the amount of concrete used in its make up.
Callison Architecture calls it the “modern aesthetic,” which may well be the case, but what’s certain in our day and age is that corporate structures of this kind, and expense, $130 million, almost never allow concrete to dominate the design. The north face of the Seattle Sheraton Union Street Tower is entirely composed of pre-cast concrete. The south face has the usual aluminum and glass style that deliberately resembles One Convention Place, which stands just north of the hotel and was also designed by Callison. As far as I can tell, not since Freeway Park has concrete played such a large role in a work of big architecture. Just look at it—so dense, so brutal, so raw.
The greatest of all manmade stuffs is concrete. It is the very substance of a city. It is unforgiving and never stops getting harder. When we speak of reality, we rightly speak of it as being concrete.
At the delicate age of fourteen, I hit the real real-hard: The handle of my tennis racket got caught in the spokes of my bike, the front wheel jammed, my body flew over the handle bars, and my forehead crashed into the side of the street—it was a messy matter of blood, skull bone, and concrete. The pain was terrific—cranial thunder, screaming stars, brain bolts—but to this day I treasure the experience: a head-on collision with the no nonsense of concrete, the ur-stuff of civilization. I almost lost my eye to it.
Comments
wow. this story explains so much!
One note of correction - pretty sure it's all cast in place concrete, not pre-cast.
yeah, it's definitely not precast. in situ slipforming. might be one of callison's better projects.
charles-if you love concrete so much, you should check into the phaeno zentrum by hadid, sverre fehn's nordic pavilion, and the crematorium in berlin by axel schultes. projects like the freeway park have done much to damage the reputation of concrete as a finish. it is rather unfortunate.
18,000 sq. ft / 1283 rooms =
9.9 sq. ft./room.
Perhaps this can fill our low-income housing deficit.
Actually, 18,000 sq. ft / 1283 rooms =
14.03 sq. ft./room. Unless you were adjusting for hallways, ice machines, and all that nonsense. 14 square feet is what, 2 feet wide by 7 feet long? Maybe they're making it like those Tokyo hotels where all you get is enough room to lie down.
Yeah, the world (or, ok, the Slog) makes a little more sense now. :-D
I actually love your architectural (
In modern Hebrew slang, the equivalent of the American English "what, are you nuts?" is "Nafalta al ha-rosh?" "Did you fall on your head?"
Chuck,
Concrete is not the story here. It's how the expansion of the Sheraton does even more violence to the steetscape and the pedestrian experience. Giant, flat walls that come crashing to the sidewalk--and yes, they are hard, and soul-less.
How can the Stranger advocate for alternatives to the car when that building is so awful for the pedestrian?
outside of the area around pike market, what building in the highrise area downtown has soul?
westlake center? century square? us bank center? the westin?
and there's a lot more than 18,000 sf in that there soul-less shell.
@ $130 mil, that works out to a whopping $7200 /sf.
typical hotel room is upwards of 180sf. plus suites, hallways, storage, ballrooms, etc.
We need to learn from Portland and Vancouver about building that are friendly to the pedestrian. Street level is the place to mingle and celebrate the city's vitality.
Celebrating slabs of concrete for their "hardness" and brutal honesty and all that other pretentious Dadist crap is non-democratic.
C'mon Stranger! Lose the berets and advocate for the people! Feet first, remember?
Concrete is fascinating, and beauitful in the hands of talented craftsman.
I recommend Ruben Gallo's wonderful book, "Mexican Modernity," for its excellent chapter about concrete and the way that material was used to express Mexico's poltical culture in the 20th century.
Also, fans of great concrete should visit Portland's Weiden + Kennedy building (12th & Everett, in The Pearl) which was a rehab by Allied (Brad Cloepfil's firm) and features beautiful, huge concrete tiles, poured (I'm told) by the same people who used to pour most of Donald Judd's concrete work.
Charles, That was beautiful. Usually your work goes over my alleged mind, but I really enjoyed your poem on the building, and more importantly, concrete.
Thank you.
Darlings, the 1283 number equals the total number of rooms in BOTH towers when the new tower is configured. If I remember correctly, the existing tower has something in the neighborhood of 830 guest rooms.
and I believe the 18,000 square feet is referencing the meeting space.
Callison is so overrated! THE most annoying group of people working in Seattle. Elitist assholes.
let's see how much you like it after it is painted.
"It is unforgiving and never stops getting harder." A skyscraper or every man's dream.
"so dense, so brutal, so raw"
...and so ugly!
Concrete... is a great support for statues.
the sheraton has always been a dump - and makes a lot of money for someone
crappy and over priced food too
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