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Submitted by Thad Curtz on Tue, 06/03/2008 - 5:47pm.
I've been working away on the Friends of the Waterfront website, adding stuff about how the owners of the million dollar condos Triway wants to build would be excused from paying property taxes for ten years, etc. But personally, I'm most interested in thinking about exactly what images politicians, and people on the Planning Commission and the rest of us use in deciding what the city will look like for years and years. I'm pretty much done with commenting on Triway's images for the website. Now I'm starting to make my own versions, roughing out what the city might look like instead of having high rises down there. It's interesting — maybe we should have a virtual redevelopment contest... above-ground Moxlie Creek in Photoshop, etc. Here's a start
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Nice job, Thad
Submitted by stevenl on Tue, 06/03/2008 - 9:02pm.Except for the absence of old WWII ships out in Budd Inlet forming an ugly wall of metal, that is close to way I recall that view looking when I was a kid.
Before all those trees got so high behind the Temple of Justice, Olympians would gather on the bluff to watch civic fireworks. It was a great spot! Big sky and the long view north.
The graphic you are sharing is close to what I imagine the original designers of the Capitol Campus had in mind.
It would be interesting to see an image with both the lack of high-rises and the lake being returned to an estuary.
Actually...
Submitted by Burr on Thu, 06/05/2008 - 5:09pm.There are some good reference materials on the history of the design and development of the capital campus. The architects, Wilder & White as well as the famous Olmstead Brothers (offspring of Frderick Law Olstead), planned the isthmus to be completely covered with buildings but with a very defined one-block-wide view corridor about where the Cap Cntr bldg is now.
Why did they design it this way? These designers were urban planners and they understood the importance of having an urban edge around open public spaces. This explains why Sylvester Park works so well, and why the enormous communist block-style open greens opposite the Capitol Building to the east of Capitol Way do not.
It's also about human scale. Turning something on the edge of a city into something that is State or National park in scale doesn't make sense to the eye and doesn't feel right to the user. (I get this feeling sometime when I am in Heritage Park). The scale of parks (and views) have to fit with the man made if we want to truly beautify our city.
In 2000, the Percival Landing Housing Study done by Michael Pyatok made the following observation:
"At present there is no 'urban edge' between the public parks and boardwalks of the Olympia waterfront and the rest of the downtown. Instead there is an amorphous mix of parking lots and one story buildings. There is no definition to the edge of the parks and waterfront, and no definition to the edge of the city. Nothing ties the two together. It is well known that the success of urban open spaces depends on activity at their edges, but at present there is not much activity and no edge."
Got a source for your assertion of the Wilder and White design?
Submitted by Laurian on Thu, 06/05/2008 - 5:42pm.Source...
Submitted by Burr on Thu, 06/05/2008 - 7:12pm.Sir, you have a duel
Submitted by Laurian on Fri, 06/06/2008 - 5:15am.Actually, I am a 'mam'...
Submitted by Burr on Fri, 06/06/2008 - 11:00am.I apologise for the title of my last post
Submitted by Laurian on Fri, 06/06/2008 - 5:00pm.and the gender mistake. As a much younger man I had a male friend named Burr so I assumed incorrectly.
The title of my post should have been: I accept your challenge. Duel is the wrong metaphor. I ran out of coffee this morning.
And I know your not Janette because your far too articulate to be my least favorite ex-council member.
First Blood?
Submitted by Burr on Wed, 06/11/2008 - 8:57am.Well Done
Submitted by Laurian on Wed, 06/11/2008 - 9:15pm.but I feel inconclusive. As a theatrical set designer, scenic carpenter, lighting designer as well as a reader and decipherer of a heck of a lot of blue prints, I know that designers fill in non-essential details without much thought. Their motivation is to fill out the drawings to 'make them look right' and are not necessarily a serious proposal. Think lichen trees lining streets on architectural models.
I readily admit this reply is speculative and not the well researched missive that your work demands but I have been tied up with work and a seriously ill Mother.
Again. Bravo. You scored a flesh wound. Now it is my turn to draw a bead. :)
PS. So your the one who checked out Johnson's book from TRL. Damn, you are good.
Yes...
Submitted by Burr on Thu, 06/12/2008 - 2:13pm.I agree that it is not entirely conclusive, and I tried to make that point when I wrote that the isthmus was beyond the scope of the design project these architects were hired to tackle, and then again when I suggested that perhaps the designers didn't give much thought to the isthmus at all.
But I do think it is fair to conclude that, if the Olmsteads were specifically drawing in park space to provide view corridors on the isthmus, they assumed that it would be predominantly build-out.
All that said, I would be interested to know if there has been any work done out there that addresses these designers' specific thoughts about what should be built (or not built) on the isthmus. They must have expressed some opinion at some point.
PS I actually bought the book from Amazon. Someone else is researching, too.
That's just what Jeannette Hawkins said!
Submitted by OlyDowntowner on Thu, 06/05/2008 - 6:07pm.Hmmm.
Submitted by Guglielmo on Thu, 06/05/2008 - 6:17pm.Well, then why not get rid of the amorphous mix. Then buildings around that would constitue the much needed "urban edge."
Nice Work Thad
Submitted by Robert Whitlock on Tue, 06/03/2008 - 11:23pm.nice
Submitted by enpen on Wed, 06/04/2008 - 6:47am.Seeing that made me breathe more deeply. People would come here just to come here, like a baseball diamond in the middle of a corn field.
"In principle, I am an anarchist. Kurt Vonnegut once said he was an agnostic who respects Jesus Christ. I am an anarchist who loves democracy." - Kenzaburo Oe
If we build it...
Submitted by Meta Hogan on Wed, 06/04/2008 - 9:39am.[...]
Submitted by enpen on Wed, 06/04/2008 - 2:04pm.And it'd be nice if we had several strategically placed parking structures hooked into our transit system so that they could walk around a bit once they got here.
"In principle, I am an anarchist. Kurt Vonnegut once said he was an agnostic who respects Jesus Christ. I am an anarchist who loves democracy." - Kenzaburo Oe
Great work!
Submitted by chad360 on Thu, 06/05/2008 - 10:20am.