Slog - Comments on Designs So Nice, They’re Building Them Twice http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi You know what would look perfect across the street from the two matching Westin towers on 5th and Virginia? Two more matching towers. And up on 2nd and Virginia? More twin towers. And over on 6th and Bell… twin towers, and just down the block on Sixth and Lenora, still more. And over on Denny and Stewart, yup, you guessed it. Twin towers are the new black monoliths. They are all nice, tall buildings--we need the density--but considering that new zoning regulations are conducive to parallel high rises, they could get monotonous. The Heron and Pagoda Towers At 550 feet,... Copyright 2008 Thu, 14 Feb 2008 15:22:30 -0800 Fri, 15 Feb 2008 08:10:27 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by michael strangeways twins are hot, man...everyone has a twins fantasy...

]]> michael strangeways http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c938958 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c938958 Boom Thu, 14 Feb 2008 15:38:55 -0800 Comment by max solomon too thick. need to be thinner.

and why does everything in seattle have to be so furiously modulated? smooth surfaces can be nice.

]]> max solomon http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c938992 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c938992 Boom Thu, 14 Feb 2008 15:55:46 -0800 Comment by dpa more excellent work, mr. holden!

]]> dpa http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c938994 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c938994 Boom Thu, 14 Feb 2008 15:56:52 -0800 Comment by Giffy @1, not those of us with siblings.

]]> Giffy http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939005 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939005 Boom Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:02:52 -0800 Comment by nbc Doesn't the Seattle skyline have enough of this BS?

]]> nbc http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939009 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939009 Boom Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:03:35 -0800 Comment by nbc erm ... this BS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brothers_(Olympic_Mountains)

]]> nbc http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939017 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939017 Boom Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:06:35 -0800 Comment by Judith are there really enough people moving to seattle (either from the suburbs or from outside wa) who can afford the prices of these snazzy new towers? i have a feeling that in about 5 years, there's going to be a crap ton of overpriced empty glass-condo inventory.

]]> Judith http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939032 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939032 Boom Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:17:15 -0800 Comment by geekboy Great post, thanks for continuing to feed my inner skyscraper geek.

]]> geekboy http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939042 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939042 Boom Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:23:14 -0800 Comment by catalina vel-duray The Westin towers aren't twins. One tower is shorter, and ten years older. The older one used to have a Trader Vics, but they closed it for an "upscale" sushi restaurant that is now closed. I still haven't gotten over it.

I just thought you should know that.

]]> catalina vel-duray http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939057 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939057 Boom Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:35:03 -0800 Comment by michael strangeways Giffy, I'd have to agree with you...In theory, doing it with sexy twins SOUNDS hot; in reality, it's kind of oooky.

]]> michael strangeways http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939058 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939058 Boom Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:35:31 -0800 Comment by Will in Seattle More condos, no inexpensive residential rental apartments ...

Sad, very sad.

]]> Will in Seattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939093 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939093 Boom Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:02:08 -0800 Comment by Fnarf I remember when the Westin (was it called the Olympic then?) was a single tower, and I'm still not used to seeing two there.

I agree with Max @2. The problem with these has nothing to do with trivialities like design and style; it has to do with how they relate to the street; and the number one problem with how they relate to the street is that they TAKE UP TOO MUCH BLOCK. The city should stop futzing around with stupid design rules that do nothing and RESTRICT THE FOOTPRINTS. Go as high as you want, but don't take up the whole block -- forbid it. Our blocks are too big as it is -- bigger than most other cities -- and the masses should change as you move along the block.

The Heron and Pagoda towers are freaking hideous. They should have forced them to develop them as three separate parcels, or better yet five or six, with different architects and different developers. The towers' identical ugliness doesn't bother me half as much as that gigantic mass at the base that craps on Fifth Avenue and all the people who might ever walk there.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939104 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939104 Boom Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:11:33 -0800 Comment by pretentious density, yes.
affordable apartments, YES.
overpriced CONDOS to generate more treacly bullshit in the saturday real estate section ("mere steps from the theatre! host a wine-and-cheese party in the entertainment lounge!")? turning downtown into a sunless clausterphobic wind tunnel? pushing the last shards of working-class reality into the periphery?
it makes me feel nostalgic, bitter,
pissed off, and really fucking poor.
and it makes these projects look incredibly ugly.
seattle in 10 years: a retirement community of affluent caucasians, wondering where their fabulous city went.

]]> pretentious http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939128 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939128 Boom Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:30:49 -0800 Comment by Jubilation T. Cornball 1200 Stewart looks like a two-fer on Sharper Image room air de-ionizers. All the others, save one, are "meh."

The only standout-- Heron & Pagoda's central court is amazing. That's a fantastic looking space.

]]> Jubilation T. Cornball http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939180 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939180 Boom Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:31:18 -0800 Comment by Slip Mahoney #12 FNARF -

The original tower of the Seattle Westin was The Washington Plaza Hotel. It was built in the 1960s after the parcel owner made room by demolishing the gorgeous old Orpheum Theater:

http://cinematreasures.org/theater/2458/


]]> Slip Mahoney http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939211 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939211 Boom Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:05:43 -0800 Comment by Fnarf Washington Plaza, of course. That was it.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939212 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939212 Boom Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:08:25 -0800 Comment by Fnarf Jubilation @14 -- what are you seeing? It doesn't look fantastic to me, unless the Convention Center or Pacific Place counts as fantastic. Which they don't. It looks hideous to me.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939218 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939218 Boom Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:11:22 -0800 Comment by Henry Miller Lite @12: fnarf nails the issue regarding block size. Most of the blocks in the regrade are 360 feet long, compared to the 200 foot blocks in Portland's Pearl District that urban designers nationwide drool over.

When one of these superblocks is redeveloped, we get a once in lifetime -- literally -- chance to break these blocks up, ideally with new ROW's across the middle. Of course, it ain't gonna happen in a culture where property rights rule.

The scale of development on the street matters more than how many towers above. Full-block projects destroy the diversity of architectural style, building age, affordability, use, and occupants. And this is why people tend to like development like this, but loathe development like what's happening on the 500 block of East Pine.

]]> Henry Miller Lite http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939303 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939303 Boom Thu, 14 Feb 2008 21:23:48 -0800 Comment by catalina vel-duray Oh Poo! Slip beat me to answering your question. But just to add to the triviality, Fnarf, The Olympic Hotel (now the Fairmont Olympic) was a Western International Hotel in those days, as was the Washington Plaza, so perhaps that's why you're confused.

(Western International was the former name of Westin, which used to be a Seattle-based company, based out of the Westin Building, which now has absolutely no relation to the hotel)

Prior to the construction of the Westin Building, they were headquartered out of a grim building where the W hotel now stands, with executive offices on the top floor of the Olympic.

Never underestimate my ability to bore you.


]]> catalina vel-duray http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939305 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939305 Boom Thu, 14 Feb 2008 21:26:43 -0800 Comment by Jubilation T. Cornball @17: Haha, I got to write "at 17"...I'm a lesbian.

Um, Fnarf, all I can say is vive la différence.

]]> Jubilation T. Cornball http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939311 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939311 Boom Thu, 14 Feb 2008 21:33:48 -0800 Comment by Fnarf Catalina, you never bore, and if you do, I can bore right back. Don't MAKE me get out my city directories and post block-by-block narratives again.

The history of Seattle hotels is a lot more interesting than most of what goes on around here.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939370 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939370 Boom Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:34:55 -0800 Comment by Shaniqua Why do so many white folk want to live downtown?

Y'all is crazy.

]]> Shaniqua http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939423 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/designs_so_nice_theyre_building_them_twi#c939423 Boom Fri, 15 Feb 2008 08:10:27 -0800