The 50,000 square feet of park space includes a turf lawn, restored fountain, seating space, and the true star of the show: a new playground featuring a 25-foot jellyfish climbing structure.
The arts have been key to Seattle bouncing back from the pandemic, helping to fill vacant storefronts, but finding affordable spaces to house art and the artists who make it remains a challenge. Artists are hoping a longshot bid to repurpose the abandoned El Rey Apartments could provide an anchor.
For more than 20 years, Paragon has stood as a striking piece of public art along the Duwamish River. But the City of Seattle is moving forward with dismantling it, citing deterioration. Artist Don Fels details how things got to this point.
BelRed combines a nascent South Lake Union, SoDo, and the International District. Spring District Station has a South Lake Union feel with tech offices emerging from a large light industrial presence. Both have some hidden gems.
Some of the best images, illustrations and photo essays of 2023 in The Urbanist.
The term âurban artâ describes visual art forms that are created by and representative of city dwellers. While you may see pieces in galleries, urban art installations are primarily integrated into the landscape. Theyâre on buildings and street features. Thereâs increasing recognition of how vital urban art installations
In time for Earth Day, a beautiful new game that lets players unwind while unwinding civilization. Terra Nil shows up on the App Store as âa reverse city builder.â Admittedly, Iâm a little protective of my city builder games. Like, it would be weird to suggest a particular video
Some of the infrastructure in Ballard is so large that itâs virtually invisible. From rusting ship hulls in the canal to the marina complexes around the bridge, it is easy to overlook the evidence of industrial Seattle.  The block-long Magnum Storage building is among those too big to notice
The Oscar nominations are out. Most of the attention is on the Best Picture nominees, but who really has time for that? Those ten movies clock in at a combined 23.8 hours of film, or average 2:10 each. The plodding, bloated elephant in the room may be Avatar
Though it has miles of roads, thousands of homes, an airport, and plenty of shopping, the City of Greenfield does not actually exist. It has been constructed in the computer game Minecraft by hundreds of people who have painstakingly laid millions of individual cubes to construct each of thousands of
Tollefson Plaza in downtown Tacoma confounds me. Itâs an attractive space next to a bustling university campus and an art museum. It is adjacent to a pedestrian urban trail, near the cityâs convention center, and it is flanked by well-served multi-modal transit stops. But itâs nearly always
An we come upon the last day of the year, a perfect opportunity to look through The Urbanistâs media archive for a retrospective of the year in snippets. Thereâs the topics we covered from the legislature through the budget. But a smart eye can also catch the empty
Last month, Mayor Harrell unveiled his definitive anti-graffiti plan, with a focus on both graffiti removal and allowing artists to create legally. The mayorâs office estimates the price tag at around $944,000, though a close reading of their proposed budget shows it will likely be more. This increase
The holiday is a Chicago kind of event It is Black Friday in America. For those of us avoiding the mall like itâs our racist uncle, thereâs one true salve: Christmas movies. Christmas gets DEDICATED CHANNELS of movies devoted to every facet of the holiday season. Thereâs
Just like in every household during the holidays, there are many Big Media indulgences as we trash one calendar and hang a new one. The Urbanist is no different, and we will be hosting a few year enders and looks forward over the next few weeks. Few media traditions, however,
There is a concept in television called a bottle episode. Itâs where a show puts one or a few characters into a single location and films them in virtually real time for the entire episode. Think about Seinfeld waiting â5 or 10 minutesâ for a table before the movie.
It is nighttime in Seattle, a lot more of it than just a few weeks ago. As a city that experiences quite a bit of darkness, thereâs remarkably few great photos of life around town after dark. Just like the limited number of places to get a sandwich in
Villains come in all shapes and sizes, but for the last 30 years theyâve probably been played by Ralph Fiennes. From roles in âSchindlerâs Listâ to Wallace and Gromit, Fiennes is the epitome film baddie exuding terrifyingly smooth viciousness and barely coiled imbalance set behind one of the
Organized by what you already have on hand. Itâs been weeks since we began celebrating Halloween. The Danny Elfman music, the pumpkin spice, and the rejection of sun all promptly started after Labor Day. But with all this business about smoke and city budgets, we never really got around
Move aside pickleball, itâs time to give another rapidly growing sport in the Puget Sound the limelight. âCricket has seen an exponential growth in our region,â longtime Bellevue resident Yatin Aras said during an interview with The Urbanist. âThe number of cricket teams has grown from six when I
Come out to celebrate the future Garfield Super Block on October 23rd, 12-4pm, at Garfield Park. If you visit Garfield High School in Seattleâs Central District today, nearby youâll see a large playfield flanked by a walking path that extends out to Cherry Street where it terminates in
On Monday, the Seattle City Council unanimously passed an ordinance to energize Downtown Seattle and South Lake Union (SLU) with new street-level uses. This effort hopes to help Downtown and South Lake Union recover from the pandemic-induced recession by filling vacancies and promoting active streets. The legislation also offers an
This story in London highlights one microcosm of how far historic preservation rules can go. For a while, an artsy organization got away with making changes to a historic building, but then they got bolder and things went awry.
When Joe Biden became president, he ushered in a completely new era of doing things. And with that, a federal bureaucracy that is more engaging and fun, at least through social media. Sit back and relax to this very different kind of transportation vibes video from the United States Department
Amtrak is celebrating the companyâs 50 anniversary with a look back on past liveries and special commemorative ones that will be painted on trains this year. The company also talks about other new liveries.
Walking past Seattleâs well-adorned dumpsters, itâs easy to spot a sticker or two with artfully-lettered phrases such as âF*ck Tech Bros!â and âSeattle Sucks,â small acts of design rebellion fighting against waves of privatization and displacement. However, itâs hard to see the same visual representation acknowledging
Seattle Parks and Recreation and the Freeway Park Association began their open house and survey this week for the planned Freeway Park improvements. This open house follows up and reflects the results of a previous public outreach phase from this past October. The park consists of a half dozen or
Living In Seattle, I am flooded with calls and texts from loved ones across the continent inquiring if we are OK. It is a warm feeling amongst the darkness how we mobilize and show up for each other. âIâm off to do a grocery run for my friend because
For twenty years local nonprofit Northwest Film Forum (NWFF) has provoked dialogue about architecture and placemaking through its annual ByDesign Festival, curated by Design in Public. Promoted as a âcross-cultural exploration of people, structures, and ideas at the intersection of design and the moving image,â over the years the festival
The name âElectric Coffinâ may not immediately inspire whimsy, levity, and brightness, but those are exactly the sentiments the art collective Electric Coffin is hoping to seed across Seattle through their exhibit, DISCOVER + DISRUPTÂ at the Center for Architecture and Design on Western Avenue, currently on view through August 31st.
One of the gifts of living in a large city is the presence of well-endowed cultural institutions. Sitting next to our theater companies, the opera house, and the symphonyâperhaps a little higherâis the Seattle Art Museum. True to its elevated position among the cityâs institutions, SAM has
While we are a big proponent of lidding I-5 to cut off the sights and sounds of freeway traffic (or even removing it) and creating new public land out of a thin air, itâs a big idea that will take sustained effort to realize. Fortunately, there also are a
Giddy. Thatâs how I felt when a coworker shared the news that Seattle had released The CAP Report: 30 Ideas for the Creation, Activation, & Preservation of Cultural Space. Here it wasâââwhat seemed to me to be the culmination of something Iâd been watching for some time:
In her own words, artist Laura Haddad, describes the inspiration, function, and process in designing her artwork âCloud,â which is featured at Sound Tranistâs Angle Lake Station.
Sound Transit has released updated designs for Mountlake Terrace Station, the penultimate station on the Lynnwood Link extension slated to open in 2023, marking the 60% design milestone. Earlier this month, Sound Transit released updated designs for two stations in Shoreline on the same line. The 60% design milestone is
Local queer, Latinx artist Myra Lara held a very well attended art opening at Hybrid_Space last week. Not Even Barely Legal: (Desperately) Creative Infill Development included a mix of architectural sketches, comics, and is grounded in activism. Myra Lara is a thoughtful, talented artist who is foucsed on education
Local artist Myra Rara will showcase her thought-provoking work on contemporary urban issues facing Seattle this Thursday at the Capitol Hill Art Walk: Hybrid_Space presents Myra Raraâs Not Even Barely Legal: (Desperately) Creative Infill Development as a part of the Capitol Hill Art Walk. Stop by from 6-9pm
Philip Wohlstetter has been stirring the pot in Seattle for quite some time. In the 1980s Wohlstetter helped launch Invisible Seattle, an artist-led effort to redefine Seattle through projects such as the eponymous collaborative novel formed by interviewing people on the streets. Now Wohlstetter is turning his efforts to ââ, a
Update: This story has been corrected to reflect that the City of Seattle does not require private developers to spend 1% of their budgets on art. The program applies to public projects, such as parks, libraries, community centers, and bridges; it stipulates 1% of eligible city capital improvement project funds
Let there be light! Nathan Watkinsâ âSunlight Over First Hillâ mural theme has been selected amongst four other competing proposals to wrap some 70 support columns under I-5. The columns dot an area stretching from Cherry Street to James Street below the freeway. The First Hill Improvement Association announced Watkins
I-5 is known for its colorful overpass columns in certain parts of Seattle, but the First Hill Improvement Association (FHIA) wants to bring a little more color close to home. Overpass columns will be painted with some unique designs between Cherry Street and James Street. FHIA has sought the expertise
On Tuesday, Sound Transit held an open house at the Northwest African American Museum in the Central District to go over the finalized designs of the forthcoming East Link Judkins Park Station. Sound Transit plans to locate it middle of I-90, replacing the current freeway bus station. The main thrust
The Seattle Art Museum showcases the installation of Blue Sun at the Olympic Sculpture Park.
AIGA Seattle is hosting their housing for homelessness installation in Occidental Park today as part of the Seattle Design Festival. In this video, they talk about how design can be an experience allowing people to understand the issues, have empathy, and come up with solutions.
You may have seen some of the snazzy rain-activated artwork on Seattle streets. This video shows the process of installing them at a Third Avenue bus stop.
Anthony Howe is a local sculptor living on Orcas Island. Originally from Salt Lake City and then a student-turned-professional artist on the East Coast for many years, he eventually moved west. Howeâs contemporary works have been focused on kinetic wind with large sculpture installations featuring movement. In 2015, he
Eventually, there will be yet another shiny new building. But at the corner of Boren and Olive, for now, there is a flock of goldfinches furiously wrapping (or unwrapping) a unique, unoccupied building in bright red ribbon. Public art tells stories and presents ideasâbut stories arenât static and