Comments on A Foster for Seattle

Oooh! A starchitect!
Hog heaven!

Though I admit that Foster is definitely a cut above the rest and is doing some interesting work on a new city in (I think it is) Abu Dhabi. And the Bridge is great -- just wonder how much is Foster and how much the engineer.

damn, i just got a Frank Lloyd Boner.

A civic core. Down there. Right.

I have nothing to say about this building, but what in the hell is wrong with that picture?

#3: It's a picture FROM THE FUTURE!!!

Seattle came close to having its very own plaza at Westlake Center, but the kibosh was put on that when business interests and an election re-opened Pine Street to automobile traffic. The re-opening was a citywide initiative that suburbanites favored and downtown residents opposed strongly. Then Nordstrom got involved threatening that they wouldn't rehab the old F&N location unless the street was re-opened. The city feared that without Nordstrom's renewal project underway, the rest of downtown would go to hell in a hand basket - lots of new, upscale vendors wanted to inhabit Nordstrom's old location.

I wonder what would happen if downtown residents imposed their wishes on Southcenter, say, or Lake City. That was years ago now and our once-upon-a-time plaza has a greasy road running through it with walk signals to get from one side of it to the other.

Downtown is usually crowded these days by noon as is Westlake Center, but it has lost most of its charm and almost all of its soul to (as far as I can tell) tourists and Christmas shoppers who couldn't care less about a nice, breezy, late summer evening stroll through what used to be the center of our downtown.

@4 not bad considering it's red-shifted.

It kinda looks like a lipstick tube.

Bauhaus, that was beautiful. your writing made my day.

I thought the Seattle Center was supposed to be our "civic core."

Good thing we're turning it into our civic front lawn, er, excuse me, "open space."

Woah! I remember when I fought that bastard Dr. Breen at the top of that building.

Ah memories!

That building is saying "I will crush you, little skyscrapers next to me. I will dominate you, I will make you bow down before me."

I look forward to seeing more renderings of the new buildings!

@5, Great point. I gave up shopping at Nordstom then and have never made a purchase there since.

I'm looking forward to the eventual conversion of then entire line of light rail stations into upsized TOD developments.

Gold LEED - nice.

right fucking on for seattle. norman foster's anonymous minions do good work.

Not that I was a fan of re-opening Pine St., but Westlake Plaza was a big gray turd even before that.

@5, great point. Just to pile on, let's also not forget that this vote was used as the rationale for taxpayers taking out a $73 million loan for the Nordstrom Garage (which, needless to say, wasn't exactly something City Hall broadcast to voters before the election).

To be fair, though, as I understand it, the initial decision to make Westlake an upscale mall rather than a downtown open space was actually made during the Royer Administration.

Joe M. is correct. Westlake was always a turd, at least after they tore down the interesting buildings there to build the mall. The "plaza" was a bit of a joke even on a good day.

Not impressed. It looks like the horribly out-of-place Benaroya buildings (Met Park East, West, etc.).

Norman Foster is the godhead.

Doesn't his building in Vancouver count as a tower? Kinda sorta?

I kissed a boy in 30 St. Mary Axe.

The proposed building (as seen in this pic) is bland. I hope the design changes. ...Pedestrian malls lead to blight. I've lived in cities that installed them, only to watch all of the retail stores and small businesses flee to the suburbs. Those cities have since re-opened the streets, and life is returning.

Looks like the Citigroup Center mated with a shampoo bottle. Can't we do better?

That better not be what the building looks like because thats FUGLY!!

Charles: Can you get a wider angle image? Very familiar with the magic that Foster has performed in Europe. Context is so crucial -- and is so often overlooked by Americans interested only in the flashy covershot. While perhaps not the most elegant nod to Smith Tower, do we really want something that would steal any of that beauty's thunder? Unlike the typical "starchitect" creation, this building isn't all "look at me, me, me". It respects our past and our future (LEED Gold - WOW) and plays well with others. And isn't that so very Seattle. Bravo Lord Foster!

I am pretty sure they are actually going for LEED Platinum.

The tower looks pretty darn meh for now, but I love the idea for the plaza. The green aspect is awesome.