Mark Hinshaw, FAIA, is an architect and urban planner. He was an architecture critic for The Seattle Times and is the author of many articles and books, including Citistate Seattle (1999).
Mayor McGinn officially cut the ribbon last week on Seattle's Downtown Historic Theater District. Is it just another tourism-driving label or will the district actually benefit from the sum of its parts?
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Regions such as Snohomish County that fell hard for developers' dreams of remote housing projects are paying a severe price in foreclosures and short sales. The cruel market correction confirms the economic value of denser, closer-in residential patterns.
The downtown Sheraton has finally done something about its forbidding blank walls, using big mirrors to "borrow" the attractive architecture of ACT across the street. Plus one great big flower pot. It doesn't really add up.
Bothell is the latest to get the bug, joining Bellingham, Bremerton, Kirkland, and Port Angeles in creating "collective living rooms" on the shoreline. Seattle remains an embarrassing laggard.
