This illustrated edition captures the city’s architecture and constructions built between 1890-1930. Over 300+ photographs document historical structures establishing a visual profile and economic time capsule of Seattle’s early economic legacy. The edition portrays the most influential downtown constructions including the Smith and Seattle Towers, Washington Mutual Triangle, Coliseum Theatre and the Interurban, Arctic, Dexter Horton, and Pioneer Buildings. Photographs from multiple perspectives accentuate distinctive architectural traits and detailing. Contemporary Seattle is undergoing a dynamic resurgence of architectural construction consisting primarily of skyscrapers. Each completed monolith provides an intriguing and often imposing contrast to the modestly scaled structures from a distant era. Historical preservation has enabled Seattle to assume a distinctive and prominent in West Coast architecture. Seattle’s integration of traditional and contemporary design reinforces its image as a desirable urban living environment. Few American cities can still document the precise stages of their evolution by the remaining strata of their architecture. Seattle is an exemplary example showcasing that capability. Historically Seattle was deeply traumatized by a devastating June 6th, 1889 fire that decimated the entire downtown commercial district. The entire composition of wood framed structures was destroyed. The catastrophe ironically rejuvenated the downtown, resulting in a fervent reconstruction program consisting exclusively of stone and brick structures. Most remain standing today. Wood framed building construction was prohibited. The nationwide financial Panic of 1893 compounded the calamity causing a massive slowdown in construction. The Klondike gold rush of 1896 spurred regional economic activity, particularly in providing goods and services to the Alaskan bound miners. During the first two decades of the 20th century, Seattle accommodated a massive incoming immigration. The influx resulted in the creation of outlying tightly concentrated neighborhoods. The downtown core swelled minus coordinated zoned planning. Steep hillsides were lowered to enable fresh constructions and greenbelt territories. Parklands, bridges and public works projects proliferated creating a diverse blend of ambiance and chaos. In 1914, the 38-story Smith Tower was constructed and named after firearm and typewriter magnate Lyman Cornelius Smith. The skyscraper was Seattle’s first and among the tallest outside of New York City at the time of its completion. It remained the tallest building west of the Mississippi until 1931 and was only eclipsed within Seattle upon the construction of the iconic Space Needle in 1962. “Seattle Early and Modernism Architecture” showcases the unique charm of urban Seattle that was and still remains.

Winner of Historic Seattle's Preservation Education and Publications Award Seattle Architecture: A Walking Guide to Downtown opens with an historical overview and timeline featuring the people and events that have shaped the Seattle that we know today. The guidebook is divided into nine tours beginning where Seattle did, at Pioneer Square, and ending at Seattle Center, the location of the futuristic-themed 1962 Century 21 World's Fair. The front flap folds out, providing a map of the areas covered in the book. Each tour is accompanied by an introduction and area map with points of interest identified by numbers that correspond to individual entries. Architect names and dates of completion are provided at the beginning of each entry, and an icon indicates when a building is on a local or national landmarks register.

Gordon Walker has designed an extraordinary number of architectural projects, several of them at a very large scale, encompasing the entire American coastal west. His work includes commercial and mid-rise residential buildings in California, Oregon, and the Puget Sound region. He has designed over thirty residences in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and the San Juan Islands. --From back cover.

Cities like Seattle are inevitably changing. In the process important connections to our past are lost. Seattle's First Hill certainly reflects this dynamic transformation. First Hill developed on a promontory east of downtown and became the location of important churches, clubs, hotels, schools, and residences for civic leaders and entrepreneurs from the 1890s until World War I. From Sixth Avenue to Broadway and from Pike Street to Yesler Way, streets were filled with stylish residences, boarding houses, and fraternal and ethnic community halls welcoming newcomers to the Northwest from America and abroad. Some buildings survive and others made way for a denser neighborhood of institutional and commercial buildings, apartment houses for every income level, and the center of Seattle's healthcare industry. Tradition and Change on Seattle's First Hill: Propriety, Profanity, Pills, and Preservation traces First Hill's origins, explains how and why changes occurred, and points to the potential that exists for future development that respects its surviving historic buildings. Editor Lawrence Kreisman, Historic Seattle's Program Director, taps the knowledge and talents of local and regional historians and authors Paul Dorpat, Jacqueline Williams, Dotty DeCoster, Dennis Alan Andersen, Luci J. Baker Johnson, and Brooke Best for a publication whose chapters make visible the historical, cultural, and social dimensions of First Hill. The book is a marvelous starting point for urban understanding and exploration. We hope it will encourage longtime and newly settled residents, office workers, shoppers, concert and lecture attendees, and visitors to think about what makes this place special and worthy of preservation. First Hill architecture and culture are waiting to be discovered.

“The Architecture of Seattle’s Historic Prostitution Trade” is a photographic examination of 48 documented and probable buildings employed in Seattle’s historical sex commerce. The edition illuminates the historical background, building detailing and known anecdotes behind each structure. The principal Seattle red-light neighborhoods include the Pioneer Square and the Ballard districts. The infamous LaSalle Hotel in Pike Place Market and the former Lester Apartment complex located on Beacon Hill round out the compilation. The 500-unit Lester building was once considered the largest operating brothel in the world. Seattle’s wide-open frontier environment in the late 19th century stimulated a proliferation of vice related services including gambling houses, saloons and houses of prostitution. Statutes were loosely enforced, law enforcement corruption rampant and the tax revenues levied against brothels and sex workers essential to maintaining a financially destitute municipality. Many historians have noted that the prostitution industry saved the expanding settlement and literally paved the sidewalks of the commercial district. The timber industry, Klondike Gold Rush (1896-1899) and the city’s seaport location swelled the region’s influx of males seeking entertainment, social diversions and female companionship. The book profiles some of the most colorful and influential personalities including theatre impresario John Considine and notable Madams Mary Ann Boyer (nicknamed Madame Damnable), Lou Graham and Nellie Curtis. The author elaborates on the documented history, owners, architects, tenants and historical uses of each building. His text cites distinctive architectural details on the composition, façade components and alterations over the decades following the initial construction. Each building is photographed from multiple angles offering a multi-faceted glimpse of a historic era.

National Trust guides are the most in-depth guides to the historyand architecture of U.S. cities ever published. From famouslandmarks to little-known places, this fascinating guide takes youon an exciting journey through Seattle's cultural, historical, andarchitectural treasures. Walking tours and nearby trips in and around Seattle * Easy-to-follow maps for each area of the city * 200 vintage and contemporary photographs * Listings of national, state, and city landmarks * Index of museums, calendar of annual events, and more.

The first edition of Shaping Seattle Architecture, published in 1994, introduced readers to Seattle’s architects by showcasing the work of those who were instrumental in creating the region’s built environment. Twenty years later, the second edition updates and expands the original with new information and illustrations that provide an even richer exploration of Seattle architecture. The book begins with a revised introduction that brings the story of Seattle architecture into the twenty-first century and situates developments in Seattle building design within local and global contexts. The book’s fifty-four essays present richly illustrated profiles that describe the architects' careers, provide an overview of their major works, and explore their significance. Shaping Seattle Architecture celebrates a wide range of people who helped form the region's built environment. It provides updated information about many of the architects and firms profiled in the first edition. Four individuals newly included in this second edition are Edwin J. Ivey, a leading residential designer; Fred Bassetti, an important contributor to Northwest regional modernism; L. Jane Hastings, one of the region’s foremost women in architecture; and Richard Haag, founder of the landscape architecture program at the University of Washington and designer of Gas Works Park and the Bloedel Reserve. The book also includes essays on the buildings of the Coast Salish people, who inhabited Puget Sound prior to Euro-American settlement; the role that architects played in speculative housing developments before and after World War II; and the vernacular architecture built by nonprofessionals that makes up a portion of the fabric of the city. Shaping Seattle Architecture concludes with a substantial reference section, updated to reflect the last twenty years of research and publications. A locations appendix offers a geographic guide to surviving works. The research section directs interested readers to further resources, and the appendix “Additional Significant Seattle Architects” provides thumbnail sketches of nearly 250 important figures not included in the main text.