There are few cities I have visited where I leave feeling, "now this is a city I could live in." There are even fewer that have captured the appreciation of my wife and I such that we routinely return to Seattle in our minds as a place we might seriously consider moving to.
One of the ways in which Seattle impresses me is that it is a city that seems to truly understand and appreciate space. I can think of so many development projects in San Francisco that focus almost exclusively upon function to the complete neglect of form. Now I am sure die-hard San Franciscans could point to a number of buildings and projects in San Francisco that run counter to this argument, but in the last decade Seattle has attracted the world's leading architects and designers to help transform the city into a beacon of modernity.
Granted, the Experience Music Project was privately funded by Paul Allen, but San Francisco has no shortage of millionaires who could throw money at architects like Frank Gehry to design and build their little pet projects.
Sure, some could argue that a city has no business spending the money necessary to attract top tier architects to design things like libraries. Just put the books in a building and let the public check them out for crying out loud!
Anyone who feels that way should visit the Seattle Public Library, designed by Rem Koolhaus. Now I appreciate architecture, perhaps more then the average Joe, but Seattle's Public Library remains the only building in which I can state that I was sincerely and profoundly moved when I entered it. No doubt, if you are a Seattle resident you are filled with pride when you visit that space. And if you are visitor, well then, you are in state of awe and envy and leave asking yourself, "why doesn't my city have a library like that?"
And now Seattle just opened the latest gift to the public domain: Olympic Sculpture Park, which is not only an amazing space in an of itself, but serves as an outdoor museum for some of the world's most renown sculptors, like Alexander Calder, whose "Eagle" sculpture will be a center piece in the park.
Of course, Architecture alone is not enough of a reason for me to move to a city. But if this trend continues Seattle will only become more and more attractive to me as it attracts more and more businesses, intellectuals, wealth and prosperity to the region.
