seattle pics

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Candles and Flowers in the Falling Snow

On a clear New Year's Eve, on a safe street not all that far from a bus stop, busy grocery store, and just a few hundred yards from a medical center, 31 year old Sierra Club worker Shannon Harps was followed and suddenly attacked by a crazy man with a knife outside her very nice condo building. The man has since been arrested, linked by strong evidence to the crime including DNA evidence, and has confessed to the murder. He is a known mentally disturbed and violent criminal, was just recently out on parole, had a history of violent behavior, convicted of shooting a man randomly at a bus stop years ago. The community is staggered by this crime and appalled that such a dangerous man was free on the streets and unsupervised enough to do great harm.

In the last couple years I've walked past this corner frequently, sometimes camera in hand or heading to the store or to an appointment. When I walked past this assembled memorial of flowers and candles, all I could think of was what I had heard in news reports of her productive, positive life, how her hair, seen in news photos, was just like mine, and how she should have had so much good life ahead of her. I won't see the places where she lived her life, full of friends, travel, and meaningful work. I will only have seen this place where someone took it from her a month ago. The hearts of all Seattlites go out to her family and friends, her neighbors, and her Capitol Hill community. Other photos are here and here.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Conservatory in the Snow

Volunteer Park boasts a lovely conservatory with beautiful and rare plants from around the world. It's lovely glass structure was built in 1912. For some close views, see my More Seattle Stuff Page.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Founders

I hope you will indulge me for the long text today, but I thought it might interest you. I'm a big history buff and have spent a lot of time poking about in cemeteries. I'm usually researching my own family history, and sometimes I come across historic names familiar to me more from street signs or parks. This is the scene I came across yesterday in the snow. Members of the Denny and Boren families left Cherry Hill, Knox County, Illinois in April of 1851 to stake claims in Oregon Territory. They were convinced along the trail that going north to Puget Sound would offer better opportunities. They arrived in Portland in August where Arthur Denny and his wife Mary Boren stayed on to recover from illness and give birth to a daughter in September. Brother David Denny went north with John Low and Lee Terry, and they were guided by the founder of Tumwater, WA to locate at Alki Point in current day West Seattle. The Duwamish people living at Alki helped David start building a cabin, and he was joined by Arthur and Mary in November. Terry and Low had already staked claims for Alki, so the Denny's and others of their party sought other claims, eventually settling across Elliott Bay in what is now known as Pioneer Square in Seattle. Arthur and Mary Denny and some of their extended family rest in Lakeview Cemetery atop Capitol Hill, overlooking what became of their families' pioneer venture so long ago.

Monday, January 28, 2008

The Tacoma

Residents around Puget Sound love their ferries, know them by name, class, and their histories. It's the largest ferry system in the world. Winter is the season when Washington State Ferries are routinely pulled from service for scheduled maintenance. At the end of November, however, the Coast Guard had grave concerns about the 1927 vintage Steel Electric ferries (the oldest in the fleet) because one of them, the Quinault, was found to have substantial corrosive pitting to its hull, and that made it likely that sister ships Nisqually, Klickitat, and Illahee shared the same problem. The WSF decided to pull them from service just as Thanksgiving holiday travel was at its peak. This month the Chelan has just been pulled for its scheduled maintenance. This has left no dry dock space for the Winachee and the Spokane, also due for regular maintenance in January and February. With so many ferry routes affected and no back up ferries available, passengers and ferry staff alike are feeling very challenged by the situation. The governor advocated retiring rather than continuing repair of the Steel Electrics and asked legislature to fund $100 million US to build three new ferries.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Putting a Spin on the Light

Hope you're having a great Sunday! We've been driving around the city today with sunny skies above. The huge and spare edifice of St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral can be spotted from nearly everywhere as it peers from the edge of Capitol Hill down on I-5 and Lake Union below. One of the few, if subtle details that gives some light and life to this unadorned concrete box (a result of financial difficulties in 1929) is its tall arched stained glass windows. You can see a view of them from the inside that I took a couple years ago by clicking here.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Asian Art Museum

I thought you might like to see the art deco era exterior of Seattle's Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park. It was designed by Carl F. Gould, the head of the University of Washington's school of architecture and opened in 1933 as the Seattle Art Museum.The building was privately funded by Art Institute of Seattle president Richard Fuller and presented as a gift to the city. When the Seattle Art Museum moved to new digs on 1st Avenue downtown in 1991, SAM rededicated this building as its Asian Art Museum. One year ago this month SAM dedicated its third campus, the Olympic Sculpture Park. All three sites are wildly popular. For a photo of the shadows cast by the interesting metalwork you see on the glass panels of the entryway, click on my More Seattle Stuff site.

Friday, January 25, 2008

Filling the Silence at the Heart of Things

This week I had occasion to go to Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill. It is a large and beautiful treasure which includes a formidable old world glass plant conservatory, the Asian Art Museum, lovely grounds for strolling, and a large round tower. As I was looking at the view, a woman climbed into the "Black Sun" sculpture by Isamu Noguchi (or as Soundgarden titled this inspiration on their song "Black Hole Sun") to see what the view of the reservoir and Space Needle might look like. Don't let the sunshine fool you; the reservoir she's peering into was partially frozen and gulls were walking and sliding on the ice!