{"id":47,"date":"2018-08-09T06:01:31","date_gmt":"2018-08-09T13:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/layeringplace.wordpress.com\/2018\/08\/09\/how-setting-makes-a-place-in-seattle\/"},"modified":"2018-08-09T06:01:31","modified_gmt":"2018-08-09T13:01:31","slug":"how-setting-makes-a-place-in-seattle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainingplace.com\/index.php\/2018\/08\/09\/how-setting-makes-a-place-in-seattle\/","title":{"rendered":"How Setting Makes a Place in Seattle"},"content":{"rendered":"
A view of Mount Rainier looking across Lake Washington (Photo by Chuck Wolfe, all rights reserved).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Driving to Lisbon, Miguel, a Portuguese consultant, was talking about what it really means to be a \u201csmart city\u201d when he took a minute to start explaining his music collection. After Miguel plugged his iPhone into a Mercedes radio console and demonstrated the style of his favorite fado singer, Seattle quickly\u200a\u2014\u200aand inadvertently\u200a\u2014\u200astole the show. As a modern, upbeat song by fado singer Marizia<\/a> began, he immediately asked, \u201cDo you like Pearl Jam?\u201d<\/p>\n

Talking over \u201cAlive,\u201d<\/a> I told Miguel how Pearl Jam\u2019s members often comment on local environmental issues, such as guitarist Stone Gossard\u2019s reflection<\/a> about the importance of Seattle\u2019s treasured views.<\/p>\n

A few days later, another urbanist consultant and writer, Vitor, introduced a panel presentation in the Portuguese city of Guarda. He told the audience that \u201cdifferent cities are known for different things,\u201d as he displayed the famous and dramatic sit-com view of Seattle from Frasier<\/em><\/a>. Then, he said, \u201cSeattle is known for Nirvana.\u201d<\/p>\n

In these early December days in Portugal, two Seattle icons merged: grunge and, equally well-known and inspiring, Seattle\u2019s setting and views.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting the rank simplicity of these particular overseas encounters. No one mentioned today\u2019s city of progressive politics, housing affordability debates, nor the impact of Amazon. Which raises a question: What is most important to a city\u2019s identity from the outside, looking in?<\/p>\n

The Seattle stories continue. In Brisbane last October, an Australian student accurately predicted the reasons behind the downfall of the 2017 Seahawks. Some weeks ago, in Cairns, Australia (where I was serving as a Fulbright Specialist), my environmental health colleagues referenced several Gates Foundation efforts and grants relating to tropical regions.<\/p>\n

Invariably, whether or not people in other countries know where I come from, something about Seattle\u200a\u2014\u200aand its identity\u200a\u2014\u200aenters the conversation. From grunge to the taste of Starbucks coffee, or the innovation litany from Boeing to Microsoft to Amazon, it usually does not take long to discuss something personally familiar\u200a\u2014\u200awhether whimsical or stubbornly emblematic\u200a\u2014\u200aabout my hometown.<\/p>\n

But, the narrative often seems stale and stereotypical, lacking an authentic, sense-based perspective of sight, emotion and memory. Such discussions deserve more than clich\u00e9, and should center on an unimpeachable, objective Seattle attribute for all of the world to see\u200a\u2014\u200aand perhaps hold out as a feature that every city should have.<\/p>\n

The focus? More than the dock from Sleepless in Seattle<\/em>. Rather than the novelty of the first automatic car wash\u200a\u2014\u200aor powdered milk\u200a\u2014\u200aas touted in Seattle Magazine\u2019s 2016 \u201c50 Things that Seattle Gave the World<\/a>,\u201d it is important to return to Stone Gossard\u2019s reflection, and Vitor\u2019s use of the Frasier<\/em> view. Seattle\u2019s \u201clook and feel\u201d is key.<\/p>\n

What, and how, we see defines the structure and context of urban identity. Think of cities and their symbols, from Sydney\u2019s harbor to the canals of Venice, the memories they define, and the commerce and tourism they drive. For those who have never seen Mount Rainer, Lake Washington or Puget Sound, the importance of an incomparable natural palette is lost, along with the perspectives of Seattle-area residents who have written about the importance of what we see as defining the essence of a place.<\/p>\n

In particular, two local authors have characterized Seattle based on view, water and an omnipresent green. In a 1998 Architectural Digest essay, \u201cSeattle\u2019s Son,\u201d David Guterson recounted his childhood perceptions of Seattle, framed by many different Mount Rainier views. Jonathan Raban often references<\/a> his arrival from England in 1990, his long-term fascination with most \u201cwatery\u201d city he had ever seen, and his observations that Seattle\u200a\u2014\u200aeven as it has further developed\u200a\u2014\u200abenefits from a natural fabric of interspersed green. Raban\u2019s salient point<\/a>: Seattle has exported so much to the world, and, so, it\u2019s sometimes now hard to distinguish Seattle from other places, given omnipresent Starbucks logos, Microsoft devices or Boeing jets. Not to mention cities such as London and Melbourne with Ferris wheels on the water.<\/p>\n

But Seattle\u2019s signature location and setting\u200a\u2014\u200ahowever rearranged by the regrades of the past, Freeway Park, or a pending James Corner-led waterfront remake\u200a\u2014\u200aremains for all to see.<\/p>\n

Seattle views are more than brief, elite glances from a balcony. Understanding Seattle\u2019s geography also requires movement to vary perspective, often from a public transportation system that spans both land and water. Buses, cars, bicycles and, soon, light rail combine with floating bridges and ferries, to provide an integrated approach to regional travel. A Seattle commuter sees a special and authentic environmental mix, with vistas of water, mountains and skylines.<\/p>\n

Cross the I-90 bridge and look south to see the aesthetic treasure of Lake Washington and Mount Rainier, mixing with a naturally occurring green that lives on even with the rapid urban growth of recent years. Look north when it\u2019s clear and see the lake and the Cascades, or Seattle and Bellevue on either side. It is no wonder that the early 20th century Olmsted park system design inevitably tracked John Charles Olmsted\u2019s careful research<\/a> around vistas and water views.<\/p>\n

A stunning view cuts across class and space and time, evoking the history and landscape of all those who have been here, including the first peoples to live around Puget Sound. A classic view becomes embedded in memory as the symbol of city\u2019s impact on those who see and remember its essence. Despite Seattle\u2019s growth and change, its setting remains an incomparable asset from vantage points across the city, and an exemplary resource for those who look from across the world.<\/p>\n

\n

Originally published at <\/em>crosscut.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A view of Mount Rainier looking across Lake Washington (Photo by Chuck Wolfe, all rights reserved). Driving to Lisbon, Miguel, a Portuguese consultant, was talking about what it really means to be a \u201csmart city\u201d when he took a minute to start explaining his music collection. After Miguel plugged his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc03Hh-L","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainingplace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainingplace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainingplace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainingplace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainingplace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sustainingplace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainingplace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainingplace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainingplace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}