Old streets in cities were sometimes at odd angles. This resulted in someone squeezing a building in to the available space. New Year is most famous with the Flatiron Building which appeared here. Oakland also had a building which I covered here. Vancouver has a similar building. I guess, if your city is of a certain vintage, you may well have something similar.
I have taken a lot of photos of Seattle since we moved here. The city has a lot of development which shows itself clearly in both the downtown area and the South Lake Union area. The downtown core is not massively different but the spread out from the center is noticeable, as is the change in stadiums. My first visit to Seattle was in 1992. Things were very different then. I recently took a look at some photos I scanned from that trip including a view from the top of the Space Needle. I also have some shots from the mid 2000s in the mix.
The following shots are combinations of shots from 92 and current shots along with some taken from one of our trips here in around 2005 when I had a work visit that we extended to include some time in the city. The city already had some big towers in 92 but there has been a lot of development since then. South Lake Union is a different story. During my first visit, there was not a lot going on in the area. Now things are heavily in the area with Amazon having led the investment but the Gates Foundation also having a big site. Things have really changed a lot!
This one is for some of the Brits who read this blog. The pictures are a bit sketchy as they were taken from a moving car (I was not driving)! I was in Dallas for work and noticed this building from a distance. I figured I would try and get some pictures as we drove by. The building is apparently a modern construction but, to my mind, it appears to be a direct reproduction of the original Crystal Palace. Obviously not a reproduction after it burnt down but it does look just like it. Anyone from Texas – Gary, I am looking at you – that knows anything about this building?
Ineos is a name I hadn’t heard until recently. They took over the Sky cycling team and that was the first time I became aware of them. I guess that sporting achievements are something that their management are quite focused on because, while waiting to catch the ferry at Portsmouth, I got a look at the building in these photos. It is their America’s Cup challenger facility. The building looks pretty impressive and I hope that the boat that they come up with is similarly so. It would be good to see the cup make its way to the UK after all this time.
The cherry blossoms were the reason for us visiting the campus of the University of Washington as I covered in a previous post. Since we were there and it was a lovely day, we also figured a bit more of the campus was worth a look. We strolled around for a while and checked out the different styles of building that make up the university.
There is a wide variety of building types. The oldest buildings are generally pretty nice looking. Some of the most recent ones are also architecturally interesting. There was some Art Deco to see and then there is a bleaker phase. UW is a bit like other campuses I have seen. There is a phase of concrete and plain brick. This style was very much of its time but sadly, I don’t find it has stood the test of time too well. The concrete particularly is harsh with the style having been to avoid making any effort to finish the surface. They just poured at different times and the joins are left to see. It probably seemed like a good idea at the time but I don’t care for it. I’m sure in architecture classes they still discuss its merits but it’s not for me.
We spent a long weekend in Victoria BC recently. A block from our hotel was an old building undergoing a complete rebuild. This is something that I have seen done a lot in London and I like the idea. Rather than flatten the building, the exterior structure is retained. The interior is completely removed and a new building is created within. This allows the city to maintain the look and feel of the old buildings with the authentic finishes while providing a modern building interior that will continue to be useful for current needs. The structure to hold up the exterior while work is underway is impressive on its own. I look forward to seeing what the finished building is like on some future visit.
There are a number of high towers in Tokyo. I saw one as I was walking to Shinjuku that seemed rather out of keeping. Most have either a futuristic look or just look like a radio tower. This one was a very large, square, concrete structure. It looked like the sort of thing you might expect to see in Soviet era Moscow rather than Tokyo. A strange looking building.
I briefly saw Tokyo Station last time I was in Japan. This time I wanted to take a better look. While the station has been significantly redeveloped over the years, the west frontage that looks towards the Imperial Palace has retained the brick structure designed and built over 100 years ago (although some rebuilding was necessary over the years). I think it is an interesting looking building and an interesting contrast with the high-rise developments around it or even the old buildings that can still be found in the city.
I got there in mid-morning and my brain was obviously not firing on all cylinders. The front was in shade with the sun quite high in the sky and I thought for some reason I had left it too late. I ended up taking a bunch of pictures of the building, none of which I was terribly happy with given the shadow on the front and the bright overall conditions. I did shoot some of the details around the hallways and overhangs which were fine.
It was only later when I returned from the Palace grounds that I realized which way the building was facing and that the sun had now come around to the front of the station, not retreated. Consequently, things were a lot more brightly illuminated. Let’s not kid ourselves. Midday sun is not the greatest thing for shooting but, for getting snapshots for the trip, this was a significant improvement. With such a wide and low structure, a panorama was obviously going to be tried!
When we visited the Pacific Bonsai Museum, the parking lot was by a large office building that seemed pretty strange. It was settled in a valley between two ridges with multiple levels with much greenery attached. I was curious about it when we arrived and decided to look further when we came back. It appeared that you could almost see through the building on some levels. When we got closer, it was clear that the building wasn’t in use – at least on the level we were.
When we got home, Nancy did a little more research on it. It used to be the headquarters of the Weyerhaeuser company. It was considered quite a cutting edge place when it was built but the company has moved downtown and I am not sure whether anyone is using it now. It does appear to be maintained and there are security patrols but not much seems to be going on. We debated whether it would be a nice place to work or a bit far from stuff and isolated.
I have stayed in the same hotel in Addison TX a couple of times recently for work trips. The view from my window has been of a building site that has been progressively developing on each visit. On one morning, I was just getting ready to check out when I could see the crew getting ready to lift a concrete panel into place. The crane they were using was a substantial beast. The crew were scattering to different locations to carry out their roles and then they started lifting the panel. They had several lift lines which could be controlled individually to allow the, to rotate the panel as required. Sadly I had to go before they finished. I should be back before too long, though, so I shall see how progress is going.
