A response to an article in the Capitol Hill Times trumpeting the “new” construction.

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As I walk to my favorite coffee shop for another installment of legal, addictive stimulants and depressants, I pass an abandoned lot.  But, this is not your typical empty lot.  It lies at the north end of Broadway the commercial and life center of Capitol Hill.  This space holds incredible prominence and unlimited potential, the anchor to a burgeoning commercial and cultural avenue.  I’ve passed this site everyday, and each day I’ve pondered its potential, dreamt of its greatness, and got exited about the possibilities of this triangular plot of earth.  Suddenly, after years of dormancy, the site springs to life: pile drivers, excavators…this is it…here comes a building.  Finally, I will be able to use this amazing site.

Several days later, I find myself at that little coffee shop reading a collection of essays and urban theories.  My attention is pulled from the pages of my book to a conversation about the construction down the street.  I hear the catch phrases “prime real estate” and “that looks nice”.  Immediately my heart drops as I see the rendering of what could be the most influential building on Capitol Hill. 

Utter Disappointment…

The proposal is completely unimaginative, thoroughly devoid of innovative thought, and an insult to the culturally diverse neighborhood.  This is an assault on intelligence, creativity, and legacy.  The north end of Broadway is home to Cornish, a world renowned college of the arts; The Harvard Exit, one of the last places in Seattle to view independent film; Seattle Asian Art Museum; and a population that celebrates diversity and intellect.  Now, soon, this brilliant cultural star, Broadway’s north end, will be home to a pile of bricks posing as a new building.  In reality, nothing of the building will be new except the materials used to build it.

Buildings are curious; they are essentially large-scale public art.  They are invasive, intrusive, and their presence is inescapable.  The built environment is everywhere, an all-encompassing nightmare of homogeny, silently haunting the masses while lining the pockets of innovation’s greatest enemy, the developer. 

I am a modernist.  Not in the generic stylistic sense, my modernism is much broader, something markedly more powerful. I believe that modernism is an extension of our own human evolution.  The essence of modernity is the exploration of the new, the desire to create, to leave behind a solid and tangible account of everything we’ve discovered, created, and enjoyed.  Art and Architecture are those records.  Every classic (the Pyramids; the Coliseum; the great cathedrals, mansions, and houses) was, in its own time, modern.  These are records of discovery, the precedents of progress.  Each was, and is, appropriate to the time it was created; a time that each work would subsequently define.

If (A=P) and (M=P), then (M=A).

Appropriateness is the key to progress, and as discussed before, modernism equals progress, thus modernism is appropriate. My contention is that this building is Inappropriate for both the time and place it will occupy.  At what point in life does one decide that societal progress is a bad idea.  Today, on Capitol Hill, the architects, developers, and planners of this building have decided that for you.

It is time that the public demands more of their physical surroundings.  We are continually inundated with the mediocre sameness of trite corporate architecture.  Where is the vision?  Where is the desire of legacy?  Why do we stand idly by as our landscape, our public realm, is polluted with the banal and our streets are desecrated with edifices that lack permanence and are doomed to a lifeless ephemeral existence?

The most important question in life is…Why?  Be insatiably curious.  Elevate yourself to a greater level of consciousness.  Accept nothing on whimsy, demand accountability.  You deserve more.  You deserve to be challenged, exited, and intrigued.  Architects, developers, and landowners must be held accountable.  They are hindering your cultural education.  They are raping your ability to think for yourself.

This is YOUR everyday!  It is the street you walk down, the ten buildings you pass on the way to your next dose of caffeine, the office where you work, and the place you sleep.  Architecture is everywhere, creating an urban fabric, affecting us in ways we will never fully understand.  This fabric envelops us like a Kevlar straightjacket, suppressing our creative will to live.  It chokes out the visionaries and fortifies public reliance on sameness, on the proven.  This banal, lifeless existence has transformed itself and has become comfortable, expected, and even revered.

Paradoxically the straightjacket has become the security blanket…

This was an era defining opportunity, a once in a lifetime site.  Architecture was once described to me as “the will of an epoch in stone”.  This building could have been the will of a community.  This building should have reflected the innovation, diversity, and dedication to the arts abundant in the surrounding area.  It could have been memorable inspiring public admiration, instead it is doomed to be forgotten, another generic building that has let you down.  It is my plea that you recognize this as a tragedy, a terrible lost opportunity that misrepresents our community and leaves nothing for our future.

So take notice as this building is constructed, marvel in its lack of…well anything.  Ask why as you walk by this and any other building, then imagine the possibilities.  Imagine what could have been and what should be.  It is time to define our era.