Here are a couple more sketches from the 4th Annual West Coast Urban Sketchers Sketch Crawl. Saturday afternoon I ventured to the Theater District where I captured this view of Old City Hall, designed by E.A. Heatherton and built in 1893. The Italianate structure features a ten-story clocktower that establishes the focus for the composition.

The second view is of Tacoma’s version of the Spanish Steps that links Commerce Street and South Broadway. Adjacent to the stairway is the Tacoma Elks Lodge. Interestingly, after drawing these two views, I discovered that McMenamins—the Pacific Northwest enterprise of pubs, historic hotels, and concert venues— is currently rehabilitating the Elks Lodge and has a tentative agreement to lease and then purchase the Old City Hall, the intent being to form a hotel, restaurant, and entertainment complex in the heart of downtown Tacoma.

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I missed the last meeting of the Seattle UrbanSketchers group at Centennial Park and so I ventured there myself to draw this view of the Pier 86 Grain Terminal. The Port of Seattle built this grain terminal in 1970 to replace the Hanford Street Terminal and satisfy the need for a larger facility as grain exports from the Northwest grew. A completely automated process moves grain from trucks and railroad cars to storage silos and from there, two 48-inch conveyor belts load the grain onto cargo ships at a maximum rate of 3000 tons per hour. The facility sits along and over the pedestrian and bike paths of Centennial Park on Elliott Bay and frames a view of downtown Seattle beyond.

This is a similar view of the grain terminal from 2014.