Arquicomics

Hi! Anne here, stumbled upon this cool site that has comics that are architecture related. I was mesmerized… Enjoy.

http://arquicomics.tumblr.com/

The front entrance..

It could be in Paris!

Good Shepherd Center

Address: 4649 Sunnyside Avenue North
Date Built: 1906
Original Architect/Builder: C. Alfred Breitung.
Description: Fine example of the Italianate style embellished with Corinthian capitals and elaborate stone work.
Original Owners: Sisters of the Good Shepherd.
Historic Seattle's Role:

The Good Shepherd Center / Photo: Historic Seattle Archives
After providing over 60 years of service to young women seeking shelter, education, and training, declining numbers of residents forced the Home of the Good Shepherd to close in 1973. After the Wallingford community defeated a proposal to turn the 11-acre site into a shopping center, the City of Seattle bought the property in 1975 with Forward Thrust and Federal Revenue Sharing funds and then transferred the buildings to Historic Seattle for use as a multi-purpose community center. The project is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and gained Offical City of Seattle Landmark status on September 10, 1984 (Ord. # 111882).

Current and Future Uses:

The property is owned and operated by Historic Seattle and the center currently houses nonprofit organizations and schools including the Meridian School, Neo Art School, the Wallingford Senior Center, the Alliance Française, and Seattle Tilth.
Historic Seattle added six live/work units for artists in early 2002. Ranging in size from 580 to 650 sq. feet, the artist studios are located in a space once used for the school's dance classes and costume storage. The artist residents are a diverse group and bring much creativity and enthusiasm to the Good Shepherd Center community.
Current and Future Uses:

The Good Shepherd Center / Photo: Marissa Natkin
Historic Seattle also completed a small performance and rehearsal space with a seating capacityof 100-150 in the former fourth floor chapel. Accessible by elevator, this beautiful, two-story space features wooden floors, columns, and stained glass.
Historic Seattle partnered with NonSequitur, a music production non-profit, who not only stages twelve of their own performances per month, but serves as booking agent for other community events and performances in the Chapel.
Learn more about meeting room rental, tenant leasing information and other frequently asked questions regarding the Good Shepherd Center.
On July 22nd, 2007 Historic Seattle held a celebration honoring the 100th anniversary of Good Shepherd Center. Learn more about the centennial celebration and download a pdf of the commemorative program (pdf).

Seattle's Waterfront

I finally got around to reading this article by Mark Hinshaw in Crosscut and I think you should too. Could our fair city be a Well Done city? Dream with me.~Rebecca

"If we had a Spring this year, I must have missed it when I was out of town. As we finally ended the long dreary winter just last week, we now find ourselves fully in the season of courtship and mating. And we are being wooed. Wooed by words. Wooed by luscious images and sweet promises of a better, more luxuriant future.

Last night (May 19) architect James Corner and his Field Operations team, the lead designers for Seattle's central waterfront park, presented us with a proposal filled with verve, variety, and vitality. As a somewhat hesitant bride we were seduced. In a nice way. To press the metaphor a bit more, in bridespeak we were given “some things old, some things new, some things borrowed, some things blue.”

Corner made the pitch by giving his bride not one ring but two. It's not just about the waterfront; it's about the whole city. Let’s use our legacy of parks and parkways, lakes and bays and streams and canals to create a great green ring, building upon all the glorious spaces and places that surround us. In this view, Elliott Bay becomes an inner ring, encompassing the beaches of Alki, the downtown, the bluffs of Magnolia, and the sound to the sea and the world beyond. In Corner’s words, he proposes to re-center us — around the bay.

Spokes radiating out from the inner ring touch back into the depth of the city. Using “29 streets and 8 districts” the urban waterfront is transformed from the idea of building an esplanade into an idea of building a community. Each district’s connection and relationship with the waterfront is expressed differently. (As it should be.) No big singular gestures, but rather — in the Seattle style — a host of quirky, fractured parts that add up to a whole. A whole, perhaps not coherent, but rich with idiosyncratic energy.
Corner is respectful of the old: our heritage as a city born out of mudflats and re-graded hills. But he also delights us with new thoughts about stair-stepped shorelines and carved-away piers. He prods our imaginations with two compelling themes: “Tidelines” and “Folds.” Corner is the skillful dressmaker with sumptuous green fabrics, strategically-placed tucks, and peplums and pleats that drape down to the water’s edge.

The "borrowed" part is his clever use of what we already love: The Olympic Sculpture Park. His approach uses similar zig and zags, sloping planes, and jutting angles to create soaring rooftop meadows that are both edgy and pastoral. Cover the ferry terminal with green, slice piers 48 and 62/63 into angular parks. Provide kayak launches. Market canopies. Alaskan Way lined with trees. Two beaches at the south end. A “Belltown Balcony” at the north end.

As I was taking all this in, Corner suddenly tossed in the notion of building thermal pools (aka hot tubs) on a pier. And he was not joking. But then I am reminded that New York City recently created little relaxation tubs out of former dumpsters. New or just plain strange, this neo-natatorium might just work.

As Corner claims, we do indeed have the opportunity to reshape our waterfront into a truly green place — in all the dimensions that “green” implies, working with water and energy, creating habitat, and nurturing our economy and our culture in the process. Bringing this stage of the wooing to a gentle close, he revealed his intention to “stoke our desire.” And that he did."

Mark Hinshaw, FAIA, is an architect and urban planner at a Seattle architecture firm. He was an architecture critic for "The Seattle Times" and is the author of many articles and books, including "Citistate Seattle" (1999). He can be reached at editor@crosscut.com.

Do you want to live in Firehouse #38? I do.

http://www.ravennablog.com/2011/04/15/fate-of-old-fire-station-to-be-decided-by-city-council-public-comment-period-begins/
Hi all, Anne here. Royal asked me today if I wanted to live in this firehouse on 55th.. I yelled a resounding YES!  Wouldn't it be so fab? This one was given historic landmark status in 2005, and is one of the most charming structures in North Seattle.
Oh, I had a vision of the  Urban Arcadia Builders office being here and us living in the back... a girl can dream. The only downside is looking at the graveyard across the street.

Gorgeous Garage, UW Campus

Who says garages have to be ugly? Not me. This is one of my favorite structures on the UW campus.--R

5 Questions for Tom Maul, Architect

Describe your perfect client:
Knows what they want programmatically and lets us do our stuff formally and volumetrically.

What is your passion?
Being experimental. Being in relationship. But not necessarily experimental relationships.

Where are you from?
Joyzee (Translation—New Jersey)

What was your favorite job?
Catering. There’s something very architectural about cooking and planning for an event.

Tell us something no one knows about you:
hmmmm…

See Tom Maul's work HERE.

Photo: Top row and bottom right--Tom Maul's house. Bottom left: Tom Maul.  Bottom center: Tom Maul Jr. and Michael Drumheller.

Pyramids and Triangles

A pyramid is a series of triangles combined together. Though the most famous pyramids are found in Egypt and Mexico, many examples of pyramids can be found in architectural structures around the world. Check out the sites below to learn more. I especially like the one that outlines simple science projects to do with kids in order to teach them about triangulation.  Enjoy.  Rebecca.

I want to know more about pyramid construction.

Why are pyramids so strong?  Kid science experiments

Triangulation

Little Houses. Wedgwood and Bryant Neighborhoods, Seattle.

"What happens if we eliminate the formal rooms, design our everyday
living spaces for both formal and informal purposes, and use the
dollars we save to really personalize the spaces we live in every day?
It puts forth a message that it's time for a different kind of house—one
that values quality over quantity of space, is built for the long term,
and is filled with the crafted details that make a house a home."

Simply stated, Ms. Susanka proposes that we move away from
our obsession with square footage and refocus on livability.
We couldn't agree more.  Well Done Small House.

Sarah Susanka.  The Not So Big House.