Fremont Brewing: “We are a family-owned craft brewery founded in 2009 to brew artisan beers made with the best local ingredients we can find … Because Beer Matters!” This post is to celebrate the first day of their refreshingly good Summer Ale being available. Their urban beer garden is packed, especially because it’s sunny and 70°F on April 1st.
With a motto of: “Real Eastcoast on the Westcoast,” Roxy’s Diner is a New York style diner and deli in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle offering all-day breakfast, bagels, and hot pastrami sandwiches. Also on Roxy’s extensive menu is its famous Restraining Order—a shot of Jack Daniels or Jameson with a slap from your server. Just to the north is Norm’s Eatery and Ale House, which is a dog-friendly bar and restaurant.
At the heart of Amazon’s urban campus being erected near the Denny Triangle, just north of downtown Seattle, are these three steel-and-glass spheres. The large dome structures, which range from 80 to 95 feet in height and from 80 feet to 130 feet in diameter, contain five floors of experimental spaces for Amazon employees to “work and socialize in a more natural, parklike setting.”
As is typical with projects that veer from the norm, opinions vary as do the descriptors being bandied about—glass orbs, fly eyes, and bubbleators. While some see the spheres as a welcome departure from the geometry of Seattle’s high-rises, others are not as impressed with the audacious display, being more concerned with the public amenities (or lack thereof) being created. Only time will tell.
In his review of Brushy One String’s music for North Country Public Radio’s Tiny Desk Concert, Bob Boilen wrote that “Subtlety and nuance are more easily found in minimalism than excess.” I think Boilen’s observation can also apply to drawings as well. When drawing on location, we are tempted to include everything upon which we cast our eyes with every technique we have at our disposal. Something I think that is worth working toward is using restraint and suggesting more with less.
The University of Washington’s Suzzallo Library is a classic Collegiate Gothic structure designed by Seattle architects Carl F. Gould, Sr. and Charles H. Bebb in 1923; the most recognizable first phase was completed in 1926. It was named after Henry Suzzallo, a former president of the UW, and is recognized as “one of the coolest college libraries in the country.” Even after having drawn there a number of times, I still find views, particularly of the interior, that attract me with their spatial qualities and intricate detailing.
Union Station opened in 1911 to serve the Union Pacific Railroad and the Milwaukee Road, just across from the King Street Station, which opened five years earlier to serve the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railways. It was originally named the Oregon and Washington Station after the Oregon-Washington Railroad Company that built it. The Milwaukee Road pulled out of the northwest market in 1961 and Union Pacific ceased its passenger service to Union Station ten years later. After 30 years of vacant dormancy, Paul Allen helped fund a renovation that resulted in Union Station winning the 2000 National Historic Preservation Award. The station now serves as the headquarters of Sound Transit, the commuter rail agency serving the Puget Sound region. This grand hall, featuring a vaulted ceiling that rises 55 feet, can be rented out to the public for special events.
Alva Noë recently wrote an article on NPR.org about a new show Architectures of Life at the Berkeley Art Museum, curated by Lawrence Rinder. To quote from the piece:
“We forget that it is hard to see. To paraphrase Kant (loosely), seeing without understanding is blind, even if understanding without seeing is empty. A good drawing—for example of the working parts of an engine—is often much easier to interpret than an actual perceptual encounter with the engine itself. The engine, after all, is very complicated. What is important? What deserves notice? It’s hard to know. But the drawing, when it is successful, is more than a mere representation; it is, really, the exhibition of what something is, of how it works, of what it is for. A good drawing is an image that has been imbued with thought.”
I like how Noë stresses that drawings are more than mere reproductions of what we see or envision. To read the full article, please visit: <http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2016/02/26/468216993/life-and-art-unite-in-architectures-of-life>.
Many credit Fran Bigelow with helping to bring about the artisan chocolate renaissance in the U.S. Earlier this year, she opened her fourth retail store in the original Seattle Brewing and Malting Company building in the Georgetown neighborhood, built in the 1880s. The grand old structure now houses Fran’s production facilities as well as an elegant showroom of Fran’s signature chocolate truffles, bars, and caramels.
This second drawing shows how I blocked out the initial structure for the scene above.
I drew this view of the lounge space adjoining the Tavern on the Square restaurant when the Seattle Urban Sketchers met yesterday at McMenamin’s–Anderson School. McMenamin’s is a chain of brewpubs, hotels, and music venues, mostly in the Portland area but with other locations in Oregon and Washington; many are housed in historical properties. Their latest venue is the Anderson School complex in Bothell, north of Seattle. Originally built in 1913 as the Bothell Junior High School, it was renamed in 1956 to honor the school’s first principal, W.A. Anderson.
This view was sketched in the cozy space of The Shed while enjoying the warmth of a wood-burning fireplace and a glass of McMenamin’s Centinel IPA served by James the friendly bartender.
I had already drawn this exterior of Drunky’s Two Shoe BBQ joint in July of last year. So when a group of Seattle Urban Sketchers met there again last Friday, I drew this interior view while sitting at the bar enjoying a beer and a plate of beef brisket and potato salad.
