Yule Heibel's Library tagged preservation →  View Popular, Search in Google

Wish I could attend this event:
QUOTE
Old is the New Green:
Starbucks Center
Presented in Partnership with the Cascadia Region Green Building Council Seattle Branch.

This iconic building was built in 1912 by Union Pacific from Yesler Mill timber to house the Sears and Roebuck & Co. store. At 2.1 million square feet the LEED-EB certified building is the largest multi-tenant building in Washington State and helped to breathe life back into Seattle's SODO neighborhood.

Kevin Daniels, President of Nitze-Stagen and Daniels Development, will speak to the challenges of being a trail blazer in sustainable preservation and what made this project such a success. Don't miss the chance to get an insider view at what makes Starbucks' global headquarters a leader in green preservation.
UNQUOTE

heritage sustainability preservation urban_renewal adaptability seattle architecture

Surprised to see that Victoria's Johnson Street Bridge made it into the "Journal of Commerce - Western Canada's Construction Newspaper" (Jan.25/10) ...for its heritage value (not its potential as a mega-replacement construction project)! Right on. (Would love to know the story behind JSB's entry into the the Journal of Commerce...)

From the article:

QUOTE
"The main opening span is 148 feet in length and when in the open position is balanced over a 45-foot fixed span. The Strauss Bascule Company Ltd. prepared the design for the bascule spans and the operating machinery.

The superstructure of the bridge was fabricated in Walkerville, Ontario and contains 100 tons of steel. "

UNQUOTE

johnson_street_bridge victoria journal_of_commerce heritage preservation

Hume looks at facadism - when it works, and when it doesn't.

thestar christopher_hume heritage preservation architecture facadism toronto

For future reference: Berger's article about a report by architectural firm RMJM, which identifies America's top 10 best-designed cities. His article focuses on the aspect of heritage preservation, which factors into RMJM's weighting and criteria, and he notes that Portland seems to beat out Seattle.

From there, Berger segues into whether or not (or to what extent) citizens are "pleased with their urban architecture," and observes that only LA residents are "less happy with their city" than Seattlites. (I'm not sure how he manages the leap from heritage preservation to 'being pleased" by contemporary/new architecture, but there you have it.)

Anyway, the really useful thing about this article is that Berger lists the 7 categories RMJM used to answer the question, "what makes a design-savvy city?", and also summarizes each aspect (with commentary of his own, in italics). All in all, the list makes a great framework for thinking about urban design.

urban_design urbanplanning seattle crosscut knute_berger heritage preservation designsavvy