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The Skyscraper Series
What Seattle builds at the top of its zoning envelope: where the next tallest building goes, what the suburbs should dare, and what got built when nobody held the line on materials.
- ☩ Seattle's Tallest Building Plan SKYLINE From the two places Seattle actually sees itself, I-5 at SeaTac and the crest of the Ship Canal Bridge, the skyline has a hole between Columbia Center and Rainier Square. The next tallest building in Seattle goes exactly there.
- ☩ Redmond's Tallest Building Plan SUBURBS Busan put a 101-story tower on the beach in Haeundae. Redmond headquarters Microsoft, just opened light rail, holds 640 acres of parkland on Lake Sammamish, and caps its downtown at 144 feet. Redmond's tallest building is the opening move in the doctrine of beautiful suburban architecture.
- ☩ Seattle Glass Tower Eyesores EYESORES Nine glass-and-metal-panel towers stand in Seattle's tallest residential zones, where the code allows 440 feet. Real people pay real rent to live behind facades that will look dated in fifteen years. The buildings, the owners, and the material standard the city forgot.