Thornton Creek

Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.

Seattle is crisscrossed by creeks and watersheds. This is a photo of Thornton Creek near the entrance to Matthews Beach Park in the Wedgewood neighborhood. A family with three small children and a photographer were on the bridge snapping away on this idyllic autumn day. The creek meanders through this hilly neighborhood past homes whose backyards run along the creek bed, sometimes incorporating the creek through them with small foot bridges and overhanging decks. One home to the left of this shot actually had a tower of sandbags atop the concrete wall separating their yard from the creek side, perhaps a sign of high water from the rains last week.

Slow Down Fast

Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.

Cooperatively created by neighbors in lieu of a raised traffic circle, this painted ladybug in a busy Wallingford neighborhood intersection catches people's attention in a big way, and that hopefully slows their speed. A neighbor told me it was an idea his former housemate suggested after seeing something similar in Portland. The neighbors organized and formed a plan, got Seattle Department of Transportation review, permits, and funding to create their whimsical reminder to slow down. They get together for a fun block party each year to refresh the paint. Fun coincidences happen when you are creating a blog entry: Bruce Cockburn's "Slow Down Fast" was streaming while I worked on this, suggesting the perfect title :-).

Need Housing?

Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.

. . .that's what the banner on the apartment house reads. It predates the homeless encampment on the parking lot of University Christian Church. The church is being fined by the city for hosting the encampment, named "Nickelsville" (a la depression era "Hoovervilles") for mayor Greg Nickels, whose support for sweeps of homeless campers from parks, underpasses, and vacant lots last year and this prompted protest and an attempted but thwarted large encampment on city and county lands last month before relocating here. Several of the city's christian congregations have hosted a well organized rotating "tent city" in their parking lots over the past number of years and been similarly threatened with fines for doing so under former mayor Schell and current mayor Nickels. Many congregations have opened their indoor spaces to serve as evening shelters, but not all can. One wonders if the tents were those of a youth group, cancer walk or scouting event if the city would take notice or impose fines for camping on private property. According to reports, the city is suggesting that the church shelter all 80 campers inside their building rather than host an exposed encampment, but offers no financial assistance to do so.

A Googie Roofline in White Center

Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.

One more find of a cheerful, creative Seattle roofline for you. This scalloped portico's shape extends through to become the interior ceiling of this White Center neighborhood commercial building in West Seattle. Playing with geometry and repeats seems to have been a very popular commercial design feature in the 1950s and 1960s. Construction didn't seem to to be of superior quality, though, so if not well-maintained, they might rapidly deteriorate.

Googie Portico Detail

Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.

Like a rolling sea, 50s and 60s architectural details took curves and angles and worked them into almost everything. Of course, so did the deco period, but in a different, less "space age" way. This portico is at Seattle Center. Tomorrow, another related photo. Happy Friday everyone!

Googie Design Roofline

Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.

The 60's leaves its mark. The repeating design element of this roofline caught my eye in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. I'm calling this Googie, but I'm not sure if these geometric designs influenced by patterns in science and space age preoccupations might have another name. With a figure walking in the opposite direction of yesterday's shot, I thought I'd kick off a series of shots related to each other in some way or another.

Troy Laundry South Elevation

Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.

The Troy Laundry facility was the largest in the pacific northwest in 1948. Designed by prolific Seattle architect Victor Voorhees and built in 1927, it is now has landmark status. Thirteen years ago the Seattle Times whose old plant was next door, asked for permission to raze the adjoining laundry to expand and modernize its newspaper plant. The request was denied, appealed, and denied again. So, the Times moved a big part of its operation to Bothel in 2001 and uses part of this building to store newspaper vending machines. The rest lies vacant. This southern wall shows off some of the patterned masonry facade and white terracotta architectural elements. Click here for some other views.