Slog - Comments on Looking Down on the Olympic Sculpture Park

Comment by jesse

jesse — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 15:59:50 -0800

I like the contrast of the waves with the perpindicular sand colored box.

The real eyesore is the burgeoning 1980's era houston office building lumbering in the backround.

Comment by tomasyalba

tomasyalba — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:03:53 -0800

And the burgeoning 1980's houston office building was created by...Martin Selig. Plus ca change.

Comment by w7ngman

w7ngman — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:09:57 -0800

Yay! Apartments!

Comment by jseattle

jseattle — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:11:24 -0800

Sucks to live at corner of Bay and Western!

Comment by Lake

Lake — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:15:08 -0800

I second YAY, APARMTMENTS!

I sorta like the rendering. Check out the roof thing that opens for the tree/courtyard

Comment by hooray

hooray — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:16:47 -0800

hooray for the new building! that old one is an eyesore.

Comment by jesse

jesse — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:22:06 -0800

waves + 80's office tower = http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/usa/nevada/las-vegas/hotel/the-

Comment by Dr_Awesome

Dr_Awesome — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:22:54 -0800

On a Sunday afternoon, when the city is pretty empty, that parking garage is also empty. Go check it out: A creepy, spooky urban space that, when empty and silent, is almost tangibly evil. There's a strange loft-style office packed up above the garage floor, way in the back. It's accessed by a rickety wooden stairway, and has several dead, dark windows overlooking the interior of the garage.

Remember when The Stranger did a whole issue on scary urban spaces a couple Hallowe'ens back? That garage shoulda been in that issue. I'm sure some person or another had to come to a misfortunate end in there once.

Comment by lostboy

lostboy — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:25:58 -0800

When I started reading, I thought the office building in the back was what Dominic was writing about. (Jesse @1 nailed the description.) Hopefully the new building will completely block it from view. The design may be a bit trendy, but it'd be a huge improvement just the same.

And let me join the chorus: YAY, APARTMENTS!

Comment by tiptoe tommy

tiptoe tommy — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:26:04 -0800

"Rendering" always reminds me of slaughterhouses. I am sure I could think of some clever thing to say, but I would rather go drink beer.

Comment by NapoleonXIV

NapoleonXIV — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:31:03 -0800

I find the sculpture park to be a creepy urban space, empty, silent, and tangibly evil.

Bring back the Shakey's!

Comment by Greg

Greg — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:31:21 -0800

Yay for apartments, boo to Martin Selig.

Comment by Dominic Holden

Dominic Holden — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:41:24 -0800

Dr. Awesome @ 8 is dead on about the creepy parking garage. I tacked a photo of the inside to the bottom of the post.

Comment by joykiller

joykiller — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:35:48 -0800

I feel like I've seen that apartment building before....

Oh, and everyone cheering for the new apartments? You'll never be able to afford them.

Comment by Zander

Zander — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:44:48 -0800

This is the third time Martin has made this proposal. I expect Belltowners will reject it again.
It might be nice for the lucky few who get to live in these units but, it will be a sore thumb breaking up the viewlines of the waterfront.
Mr. Selig should try drawing inside the lines of the zoning codes.

Comment by Will in Seattle

Will in Seattle — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:48:34 -0800

@14 is correct. on both counts.

Comment by holz

holz — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 19:15:34 -0800

the concrete box isn't the eyesore, that abortion staight out of [houston] is the problem.

the new apartments look awful, especially compared to their [ruffcorn mott's] tower going up @ 5th and madison.

however i'm intrigued by selig's third + battery project (also by ruffcorn mott)

seems selig's got a go-to architect.

doesn't the idx tower have jamie carpenter art on the canopy?

Comment by Robinev

Robinev — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 19:52:16 -0800

I'm not going to call the ex-Airborne Express HQ imaginative or anything else, but I do think it fits well into the urban context where it's placed. Just to the north of it is a brick-faced office building that went up a few years after Air-Ex that creates a clever negative space by mirroring the curve of Air-Ex with its balconies.

An in many ways, the building's roundness with that odd jog reinforces Wave's curves.

It's not a great-looking building, but it's always been a good-looking building and now -- decades after it was built -- contributes visual interest to Wave. Part of that interest arises from the contrast between the sterile, clean, and unnatural curve of the building with undulating, rusted, and somehow more natural curves of Wave.

Comment by Issur

Issur — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 11:43:48 -0800

Martin Selig and Sam Israel are two Jews who have done more for Seattle real estate and downtown planning that anyone else. As a Jew I love the Columbia Center tower. It's sleek and modern and rises high above the pathetic "Old Seattle buildings".

If it wasn't for the Jewish landowners in downtown Seattle, this town would be even more backwards. I miss Manhattan and anytime they can tear down old Seattle buildings and put up more apartments, that's progress towards a dense, sustainable city.

Comment by stranger to seattle

stranger to seattle — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 11:52:46 -0800

so what does the ugly one story building look like from the outside?

Comment by slurk

slurk — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 12:26:22 -0800

Stranger to Seattle, it's in the photo at the beginning of the post... the white building right behind the sculpture.

Comment by genevieve

genevieve — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 14:18:55 -0800

The flat parking garage is ugly but easily ignored. What attracts the eye in the photo is the contract of the Wave sculpture and the round building behind the garage. The proposed apartment building, though? Impossible to ignore and way uglier of a backdrop for the Sculpture Park.

But it's apartments, not condos, so I guess I'll add a half-hearted yay, or at least a "well, at least it's not condos" to the fray. Even though I agree the apts will be out of price range for the unwealthy.

Comment by NoName McGee

NoName McGee — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:17:28 -0800

I used to have a monthly parking permit in that garage. I lovingly referred to it as "The Rape Barn." I danced a jig on my final day of parking in there. I can't believe I survived.

Comment by catalina vel-duray

catalina vel-duray — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:49:51 -0800

There's a parking garage that's right behind the Frye Hotel down in Pioneer Square that is Ooodles more creepy than that.

Although I will give this garage points for the stuff that's oozing down down the post on the left side. Do you suppose that's blood from a body that was left there?

Comment by Dr_Awesome

Dr_Awesome — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 22:44:24 -0800

Catalina: Is that the garage that is where one parks when staying at the Best Western Pioneer Square?

Comment by catalina vel-duray

catalina vel-duray — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 22:55:31 -0800

Why, I don't know, Doctor. I only know it from my former employer (the pointless internet enterprise) that's where we had employee parking, even though it was a good six blocks away.

That was during the time that the Frye had its little defenestration problem, which has since been resolved.

Comment by stranger in seattle

stranger in seattle — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 22:56:22 -0800

Oh, that concrete rectangle is a building? I thought it was a retaining wall or a backdrop for the sculpture garden or something.

Comment by Dr_Awesome

Dr_Awesome — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 06:02:22 -0800

There is a really cool feature though: Just to the left in the first picture, down on Western Avenue (I think) there's a break in the massive concrete retaining wall which leads to a concrete stairway. Tight and claustrophobic, surrounded by very tall walls, the stairway twists its way up to a tiny, inscrutably landscaped plaza between the garage and the round building.

The walls surrounding the stairway are so tall one can't see anything, just a narrow slit of sky. It's almost like a tunnel. Spooky as hell.

Why is it there? Who goes from the garage or the building down to that empty stretch of Western?