By the end of the 20th century, the King Street Station, which first opened to the public in 1906, had fallen into disrepair. With commute ridership on the rise, the renovation project sought to restore the building’s historic character and upgrade facilities to meet current and future transit needs.
The Bezos Center for Innovation is a ground breaking exhibition dedicated to the theme of innovation, featuring multimedia, interactive and hands-on experiences as well as artifacts, images and oral histories that explore Seattle’s culture of innovation. Located within The Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI), the mission behind the Bezos Center is to educate visitors about Seattle’s creative history and ignite the innovator within. The 5,000 square foot exhibit is layered with rich narratives whose interactive nature facilitates discovery and enables visitors to become fully immersed in the creative process. The exhibition begins with the question, “What is innovation?
Tags: Seattle, U.S.A., Washington Comments Off on Bezos Center for Innovation at the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) in Seattle, Washington by OLSON KUNDIG ARCHITECTS
SEATTLE – Construction of the new $6.6 million Wagner Education Center at The Center for Wooden Boats (CWB) is scheduled to begin this winter. Designed by award-winning Seattle architect Tom Kundig of Olson Kundig Architects, the building harkens back to historic Northwest boatbuilding facilities while at the same time serves as a modern front door for the growing museum, Lake Union Park and the surrounding South Lake Union neighborhood. Kundig’s interest in creating shape-shifting structures will be evident in the Wagner Education Center, where large windows flank interior spaces and movable exterior panels shift up or down to allow for the control of natural light and open or close the building.
At a moment when libraries are perceived to be under threat from a shrinking public realm on one side and digitization on the other, the Seattle Central Library creates a civic space for the circulation of knowledge in all media, and an innovative organizing system for an ever-growing physical collection – the Books Spiral.
Status: Commissioned: 1999; Completed: 2004 Site: City block located at 1000 Fourth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104
Program: Total 38,300m2, including 33,700m2 reading room, book spiral, mixing chamber, meeting platform, living room, staff floor, children’s collection, auditorium, and 4,600m2 of parking
While society is becoming more complex, two social dynamics could have an enormous incidence in the way that public space will perform in the future. People have a growing concern about environmental matters while an increasing access to information in real time ( and to the mobile media technologies that make it possible) are defying the classical conception of public space, redefining our expectations and confronting it to evolving demands for a wide range of new social experiences.
Project: Seattle Center HUB (Hybrid Urban Bioscape)
Location: Seattle Center, Seattle, USA
Photo credit: Aetrangere
Project Description: New main Public Space for Seattle Center
Type: Open International Ideas Competition
Client: Seattle Center Foundation
Program: Public space, parking, open air performance area, football stadium, sustainable facilities, office, exhibition space, retail, green area, restaurant, café
Site Area: 36 500 sqm
Project Area: 10 000 sqm
Scope: Architectural, Urban and Landscape Concept Design
Project Year: 2012
Project Leader: Mario Caceres
Team: Mario Caceres, Architect and Urban Planner, Christian Canonico, Architect and Engineer
Located on a secluded, wooded site about 25 miles north of Seattle, a 1950’s Northwest Contemporary house has been completely renovated while retaining the spirit of the original house. With extensive new windows and glazed roof monitors, the renovated house appears to be a glass pavilion in the forest.
This back yard patio situated on a small urban lot in Seattle provided an opportunity to explore how a very simple and contained architecture can animate a space and continually surprise and engage its owners.
The challenge was the client’s interest in adding a large amount of program (grill patio, hot tub, changing room, dining table, bar, stool, reading area, and security gates) while maintaining as much open area as possible. The solution began with a calculation of the allowable building area in the back yard which was then transferred directly into two vertical planes. Through a series of hinges and pivots, the individual bits of program are housed in these two vertical walls. Sun/shadow studies derived where the specific locations for the various programs would be within the composition of the wall.
Alchemy Collections is a retail design project for a high-end home furnishing and décor store located in downtown Seattle. The Owners describe their brand as representing “a fusion between East and West, and a blend between the classical and contemporary.” They were looking for architecture that would represent this vision in their new flagship store.
The civic scale of Fire Station 30 marks the transition between the commercial activity of Rainier Avenue and the residential Mt. Baker neighborhood. The scale and material presence of the two‐story building make it an anchor along historic Mt. Baker Boulevard. The highly transparent street façade allows passers‐by to view activity within. At night, the illuminated building becomes a beacon of the Seattle Fire Department’s presence within and commitment to its community.
The Opportunity Center for Employment and Education (OCEE) is a breakthrough project that brings employment and social services agencies together in a central location on a community college campus. This one-stop worksource center provides improved service delivery in the heart of Seattle’s north end. The purpose of the facility is to welcome people, giving visitors and users new to campus a clear sense of access. The building is programmatically open, airy and easy to find on the campus. Simple, clear signage facilitates wayfinding, helping users to navigate through the building.
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