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Sunday/ a mini-architecture tour

There was a welcome break in the rain today, so I went down to Second Avenue to check out the completed Qualtrics Tower.
My visit turned into a mini-architecture tour, once I started walking.

The Alaskan Way Viaduct is gone, and its Seneca Street off-ramp as well. So now one can see all of the $392 million Qualtrics Tower from this below-Seneca Street vantage point. The Tower was designed by Connecticut-based architecture firm Pickard Chilton. The podium facing First Ave. is 19 stories tall with a landscaped rooftop deck. The main tower behind it rises 38 stories above street level, with its own rooftop terrace and amenities.
The red brick building is the early 1900’s Diller Hotel. It is one of downtown’s few remaining buildings from the 1890s, built after the Great Fire of 1889 as a luxury hotel. Today, the lobby of the erstwhile hotel is a bar with vintage decor, called the Diller Room.
The public passageway and street level space is made larger by V-shaped columns that support the upper floors. The columns also provide 85 ft (26 m) of space up to the overhang. The columns were manufactured in Canada: steel tubes in a rebar cage, all encased in precast concrete.
The 11-story Federal Office Building of Seattle on First Ave. opened in 1932. Its Art Deco detail is being restored. There is a banner on the side of the building, from none other than the now-infamous U.S. General Services Administration*.  It says ‘Preserving Seattle’s first federal office building for future generations’.
*It was the GSA that dragged its feet to acknowledge Biden as President-elect, and approve funds for the Biden transition team.
This could be a scene from a zombie apocalypse movie. (Oh wait, it’s actually the Covid-19 apocalypse). I am on the Marion Street Ferry Walkway, looking back along Columbia Street. Flanking Columbia St. at the top are the steel & glass F5 Tower (compl. 2017, 44 storeys), the Seattle Municipal Tower (compl. 1990, 62 floors) and the Columbia Center (compl. 1985, 76 storeys, still Seattle’s tallest skyscraper).
Here is Alaska Way South, seen from the Marion Street Ferry Walkway, with the entrance to the ferry terminal and the construction at Colman Dock on the left. It was two years ago in Feb. 2019, that the demolition of the 1953 Alaskan Way Viaduct (double-decker highway) started in earnest. The Viaduct has now been completely gone for a little more than a year.
Ivar’s Fish Bar is open for take-aways, but Ivar’s Acres of Clams flagship restaurant next door, is closed (due to the no indoor dining restrictions).
The Seattle Aquarium on Pier 59, on the Elliott Bay waterfront, opened in 1977 (now temporarily closed). I’m looking down towards the waterfront from Western Ave.
View of Elliott Bay from Victor Steinbrueck Park by Pike Place Market. On the left is the Tacoma, that had just left for Bainbridge Island, and on the right is the Kaleetan, coming in from Bremerton.
I did not get to see the sun set, as I had hoped. The park was empty. A construction fence keeps the public away from the rail that overlooks the Viaduct space below. (There are construction workers below).
Rainier Square Tower (left) is just about complete. At 850 ft (260 m) tall and 58 storeys, it is the city’s second tallest skyscraper. On the right is the 1977 Rainier Tower (41 storeys, designed by Minoru Yamasaki, who designed the World Trade Center in New York City, as well). The new 10-story building on the southwest corner is 400 University Street. It will open later this year.
The doors at the entrance to the Hotel Monaco on Fourth Ave. (constructed in 1969 as the Pacific Northwest Bell office building). The hotel is closed, for now.
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Tuesday/ open: Mukilteo’s new ferry terminal

The Mukilteo-Clinton crossing is 20 mins.

Washington State Ferries operates the largest ferry system in the United States. The system operates 21 ferries across Puget Sound and the greater Salish Sea (the body of water that crosses into British Columbia). The vessels ferry nearly 24 million people annually, to 20 different ports of call.

The new $187 million ferry terminal in Mukilteo opened today, without crowds or fanfare. The new facility replaces the old terminal and dock (constructed in 1957).

Just a few basics first. The dolphins (pillars) help position the ferry’s ‘bow’* in place against the wingwalls, so that the apron can be lowered to cover the gap between the end of the transfer span, and the loading deck of the ferry. (This simple terminal will have to load and unload pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles and cars in sequence). 
*Washington State ferries have double-ended hull designs: vehicles can be loaded on & off from both ends of the vessel. After loading, the direction of travel switches — so the ‘bow’ becomes the stern, as the ferry departs. [Graphic from wsdot.wa.gov]
This aerial view of the construction platform is from Feb. 2020. The new Mukilteo ferry terminal is just down the road from the old terminal (at the back; looks like the ferry was just departing for Clinton on Bainbridge Island). The new Mukilteo terminal will allow walk-on passengers & vehicles to board at the same time. [Photo taken by Steve Ringman / The Seattle Times]
Here is an artist’s view from an arriving vehicle that has just left the ferry. [Artwork from lmnarchitects.com]
And this is a rendering of the view of the terminal from the water. There is a new promenade to the left and to the right of the terminal, as well. [Artwork from lmnarchitects.com]
Meanwhile, here in the city of Seattle there is another big ferry terminal construction project in progress: the upgrades to the Colman Dock for the ferries to Bremerton and Bainbridge Island. It is only scheduled for completion in 2023, though.

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Sunday/ the St. Ingbert apartments

There were beautiful soft grays and pinks in the blue sky today at sunset.
I made my way down all along Harrison Street, towards the Interstate 5 overlook by Melrose Avenue.
The St. Ingbert apartments is right there by Harrison and Melrose.

The St. Ingbert apartment building was constructed in 1928 with Art Deco detail. The architect is not known. St. Ingbert is a reference to the hometown of the builder (Ludwig J. Hellenthal), a town named Sankt Ingbert in Saarland, Germany. Sankt Ingbert is very close to the French border.
Look for the Space Needle in the distance, and the blue spires of Saint Spiridon Orthodox Cathedral to its right, just above Interstate 5.
Art Deco detail at an entrance to the St. Ingbert apartments. I should have taken a closer picture of the very cool lettering on the glass, at the very bottom of the picture. I will do that when I walk by there again.
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Thursday/ and .. what is that thing?

I drove down to the Beacon Hill branch of the Seattle Public Library today, to return a very overdue book.
(For some reason the Capitol Hill branch of the Seattle Public Library near me, does not accept books in its book depository).

Let’s see .. a thin column that punches through the overhang of the roof, and has a — what is that, on top? A sail boat? A flying fish? An abstraction? No. The elements do not come together, and the whole design of the building and its façade just does not appeal to me. (The construction of the $5.3 million Beacon Hill library was completed in 2004. It was designed by Carlson Architects, a firm that went under during the Great Recession of 2008).
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Friday/ scenes along Denny Way

It was sunny and 54°F (12 °C) today. I walked down to Denny Way, to check on the construction across from the Denny Substation.

Hey! Giant round mirror for sale by Pretty Parlor in the 1925 Biltmore Annex building on Summit Ave off of Olive Way. On the right is the 1924 Biltmore Apartments, built by Norwegian home-builder Stephen Berg in the Tudor-Gothic style. Berg built hundreds of homes in north Seattle between 1909 and 1922.
The Reef Cannabis Store, on the corner of E Olive Way & E Denny Way, seems to be still going strong. It opened in August 2018. It used to be a pizza parlor, and a pub & grub joint before that.
Alright. Now I’m making my way down Denny Way to where it crosses over Interstate 5. This red building has been ‘living on the edge’ for at least 20 years. The graffiti that stays on for months on end always makes me think the building is about to be demolished. The doggy day-care center is no longer there. Right now it has a vaping products store, a tobacco shop and a couple of restaurants for tenants. I’m sure the restaurants are struggling.
Here’s what I wanted to see: the construction at the corner of Denny Way & Stewart Street. I am standing on the elevated viewing corner of the Denny Substation (to my right). On the left is 1200 Stewart St, with its twin 45-story towers (apartment units) starting to go up on a 3-story podium (retail stores). The 42-story tower (apartments) in the middle with the round corners is 2014 Fairview Ave.
P.S. Amazing that there is NOT A CAR IN SIGHT. It is 4 pm on a Friday afternoon. Normally, Denny Way would be PACKED with rush-hour traffic trying to make it to Interstate 5.
There’s a break in the 3-story podium. Hopefully the residents of the 41-story Nexus condominium tower (completed 2019, in the middle) have settled in, and can tolerate the construction activity on their doorstep. (Hey, a few cars showed up for this picture!).
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Monday/ here comes the Colosseum

The completed LEGO® Creator Colosseum set. The structure is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built. Construction began under the emperor Vespasian in AD 72 and was completed in AD 80 under his successor and heir, Titus. It could hold some 60,000 spectators.

Move over 2017’s LEGO Millennium Falcon (7,541 pieces) and LEGO Taj Mahal (5,923 pieces)!
The up-and-coming LEGO Colosseum (on sale this Friday) clocks in at a colossal 9,036 pieces, making it far-and-away the largest official Lego set ever.
And yes, it comes at a high price for that many bricks:  US$ 550.

Am I tempted to go for it? Well, I would rather spend that kind of money to buy bricks like I did for my Doon Drive House creation.
Maybe I can design and build a LEGO Castle of Good Hope  – the one in Cape Town, with its brick walls and five-pointed footprint. Now that would be a challenge.

The Colosseum appearing in the 1975 movie Mahogany, as seen by Diana Ross’s character Tracy Chambers, fashion designer in Rome ..
.. and here is my own encounter with the Colosseum. It was in the summer of 1981, during my very first overseas trip. I’m on the left; my mom & dad in the middle.
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Friday/ Berlin’s new airport

Berlin Brandenburg Willy Brandt airport (code: BER) is finally, at last, open for business. Its opening this Saturday is 9 years late. Numerous scandals had devoured huge sums of money and ruined many a reputation.

I am eager to go and check it out, and I will definitely put the airport BER on my list of destinations to fly into, once this pandemic has subsided.

Architecturally, the airport is a three-wing complex with colonnades. Reviewers like its great viewing terrace, and lots of parking spaces and restaurants. Its destinations are somewhat limited, though, as are the power outlets in the waiting areas. (Ouch. It helps that more and more airplanes now have USB ports or power outlets in the seats of their planes). [Photo: Marcus Bredt/gmp]
Inside Terminal 1. There will be no fuss, no big party, no fireworks – just a small reception. The opening date has been pushed back so many times, and we are in the grip of a worldwide pandemic, after all. (Is that red artwork a network of blood vessels?).
[Photo: Markus Mainka/imago images]

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Friday/ my vote is in

18 days until Nov 3.
I walked down to the ballot drop box on Broadway this afternoon to drop in my ballot.

There it goes! Yay! There was a lot more than just Joe Biden for president, to vote for on the ballot. We vote for Washington State governor (Jay Inslee), for our House of Representatives member (Pramila Jayapal is mine), and for a number of local ballot initiatives as well. The two US senators for Washington State are not on the ballot. US senators serve 6 years, and Patty Murray was re-elected in 2016, and Maria Cantwell in 2018.
Here comes the Seattle streetcar. This is on Broadway, right where the ballot box is. The new apartment buildings across the street are coming together nicely. They might take a little longer to fill up with renters, with the pandemic hit that the economy has taken under the Trump Disaster Administration.
A little further down is the Broadway Performance Hall, part of Seattle Central College. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was built in 1911 and renovated in 1979. The performers (singers, speakers, poets, musicians, dancers) will be back, but not any time soon.
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Sunday/ South Lake Union construction

It’s been awhile since I went down to South Lake Union to check out the construction there, and off I went today.

Here is the $1.8 bn expansion to the Washington State Convention Center, in a deep hole in the soil, and now in a financial hole as well. It seems as if construction is proceeding, but in May it was reported that the project was seeking a $300 million federal funds bailout to make up for lost tax revenue, due to the pandemic. Critics still say the city’s money for the project should have been used to built homes, schools and parks.
The Re-bar Seattle (bar, indie theatre & night club) is temporarily closed. It’s become an institution of sorts, so I’m rooting for it. ‘Stay Weird Seattle’ is similar to ‘Keep Austin Weird’ (Austin, Texas).
Now let’s talk about that sleek machine parked in front: a 1976 Cadillac Coup de Ville painted in a color called Calumet Cream, and with fur on the steering wheel and all. It’s 19 ft (5.8m) long. I am very sure she will refuse to be squeezed into a single parking bay anywhere in the city!
This is by the Hilton Garden Inn around the corner from the Re-bar. The shiny panels, reflecting window panes & lighting will brighten up the gray winter days that are approaching.
Yeah – that’s not going to happen, enough people deleting Facebook (market cap $719bn), or Twitter (market cap $31bn). Are Facebook and Twitter doing enough to fight lies and propaganda that may help Trump win again? Of course not. But Twitter is trying a little harder than Facebook, it seems .. now marking up Trump’s tweets that are outright lies or misleading about voting by mail, for example.
Here’s the 1200 Stewart St construction along Denny Way across from the Seattle City Light substation. These are two base buildings with 3 stories that will each get 45-story apartment towers built on top of them. In the middle is the 40-story Nexus condominium tower (completed 2019).
This 2014 Fairview Ave, another apartment tower further down Denny Way, that will have 42 stories. Check out the slight S-curve that the rounded corners of the floor slabs are making.
A little further down Fairview Avenue is the El Grito Taqueria (El Grito = The Scream). I love the turquoise-ish color that complements the red bricks.
Yes, open the windows, let some fresh air in! The Cascade apartments on Minor Avenue.
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Friday/ 19 years since 9.11

2,974 victims were confirmed to have died in the initial attacks. It has been reported that over 1,400 9/11 rescue workers who responded to the scene in the days and months after the attacks have since died. (Figures from Wikipedia).

Here is a list of dates and events that followed the 9/11 attacks ..

YearDayMilestone
2001Tue–Sept11The 9/11 attacks
2001Sun–Oct07Taliban driven from power/
War in Afghanistan starts
2003Thu–Mar20War in Iraq starts
2006Thu–Apr27One World Tower construction starts
2011Mon–May02Osama bin Laden killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan
2011Sun–Dec18War in Iraq ends
2015Fri–May29One World Tower observation deck opens
2020Sat–Feb29Conditional peace deal signed with Taliban in Doha, Qatar
.. and here is 1 World Trade Center shortly after its completion in 2015. The building and spire stand 1,776 ft / 514 m tall, and has some of the heaviest I-beams in the world, manufactured in Luxembourg. At its busiest, the construction site had 10,000 workers.
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Sunday/ Lake Charles: a lot of damage

Hurricane Laura left a lot of damage behind in Lake Charles, La. There is still no water and no electricity, and it might take 6 weeks to restore both. Look at the hit that the Capital One Tower took. It opened in 1983, 22 floors, the tallest in the city.

Hurricane Rita damaged the building in 2005, and it went through years of renovations that was said to include ‘ballistic protection’ for the glass panels.
Well, it seems Hurricane Laura scoffed at that. One wonders what will be done now, to repair it. I question the wisdom of the architects, that had designed such a building for a hurricane-prone area, in the first place.

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Tuesday/ a hospital in Art Deco

I made a quick stop at a clinic in Harborview Medical Center this morning. (All is well).
The hospital was founded in 1877 as King County Hospital, a six-bed welfare hospital in a two-story south Seattle building.
By 1906, it had moved into a new building in Georgetown, with room for 225 patients. Another move occurred in 1931, when the center wing of the present hospital on First Hill was completed, and the hospital’s name was changed to Harborview.

The 2005 ABC medical drama Grey’s Anatomy ‘Seattle Grace’ Hospital was based on Harborview Medical Center.

Harborview Medical Center’s Art Deco entrance on 8th Ave in Seattle’s First Hill neighborhood.
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Sunday/ Denny Way construction

Here are pictures of the construction projects that line Denny Way just west of Interstate 5, that I had taken on Friday at dusk.
Presumably, work on these projects have started up again (while meeting the Covid-19 guidelines published by Washington State).

These are the two towers of the massive 1120 Denny Way apartment building (1,179 apartments), seen from Melrose Ave looking west.
The 40-story, 440-ft Nexus Tower on the left, with its 389 condominiums, is now complete. A handful of units are still available, including 8 penthouses (1,400 sq ft), says the website. My guess is that the asking price for each is around $2.5 million. The big expensive penthouses of 3,000 sq ft were rumored to have sold for some $5 million. On the right is the Kinects Tower apartment complex with its wedge profile (constructed in 2017).
Panning a little to the left with Denny Way crossing I-5, shows the construction of mixed-use buildings on the south of Denny Way, across from the Seattle City Light Denny Substation. I’ll make my way down there soon for a closer look. When it’s all done, there will be a pair of 44-story apartment buildings, and yet another, a 41-story apartment building.
Here is a picture similar to the one I had taken in December, from higher up on Denny Way, showing that the Space Needle is getting obscured. A few more floors on the 1120 Denny Way apartment have gotten their glass skins, but progress has been slow.
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Tuesday/ the Doon Drive House, completed

Here’s the Doon Drive house, now replete with Chev truck by the front door, back yard, tennis court, swing set, swimming pool, trees and flower beds.

Did I go a little overboard? Well no – this is really not going overboard, given all the crazy things LEGO builders have come up with!
I will let it occupy my dining room table for a bit, and then decide what to do! Maybe I will put the bricks for just the house, in a shoebox, with pictures, so that it can be rebuilt again.

Here’s a bird’s eye view of the estate. The roof tile colors worked out great, and I replaced the original white wall bricks with a tan color for the house. I patched together several gray and green baseplates to create enough ‘real estate’ to work with.
This is the driveway paved with brick, with an early 80s Chevrolet K10 Custom truck parked by the front door.
The garage doors can swing open (but yes, the door openings are too tight to accommodate the truck).
The swimming pool was created with a white base plate, so that the translucent light blue & dark blue tiles could show their true colors. That’s a bore hole in the foreground, with a little froggie looking for some water. There’s a grey bird sitting in the thorn tree with the yellow blossoms.
The tennis court and swing set were challenging, but I am happy with the result. The ‘chains’ holding the tire for the swing are the only non-LEGO pieces in the entire set (wires covered with plastic).
The ladies are enjoying refreshments by the tennis court.
Check out the white bed sheets on the laundry line in the courtyard.
The roof can be removed to reveal the rooms and furnishings inside the house. Main bedroom on the far left with its en suite bathroom, and then a long hallway lined with bedrooms in the front, and additional bath rooms across from them. Front door and entrance hall on the far right.
Here’s the kitchen, on the left, the lounge on the right, and the dining room and little patio leading to the swimming pool.
Another view of the lounge, kitchen, dining room and patio.
Trees and flower beds in the back of the garden.
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Tuesday/ Stockholm’s arty subway

Stockholm is near the top of my list, for when we can travel again.
I want to go to the ABBA museum, and I want to stop at each and every one of the subway stations that David Alrath had photographed for Wired magazine.  I copied the captions for the photos from the Wired article, as well.

As its name suggests, T-Centralen is the central stop in Stockholm’s metro system and connects its red, green, and blue lines. When it initially opened in 1957, the city had never seen anything like it. Its blue line platform (pictured) was designed in the early 1970s by artist Per Olof Ultvedt, who didn’t have to look much further than its name for inspiration. PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID ALTRATH
The Tekniska Högskolan station takes its name from the aboveground school, the Royal Institute of Technology. Artist Lennart Mörk paid it homage by decorating the walls with scientific imagery and themes, like Copernican heliocentrism and Newton’s third law of motion. PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID ALTRATH
The Solna Centrum station opened in 1975, in an era when the environmental movement was drawing attention around the world. Karl-Olov Björk and Anders Åberg’s mural is very much of its time—and this one. It’s a paean to nature, with the lower half depicting a forest and the upper half a red sunset. Sweden hosted the UN’s first conference on the environment in 1972. PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID ALTRATH
The Solna Centrum station opened in 1975, in an era when the environmental movement was drawing attention around the world. Karl-Olov Björk and Anders Åberg’s mural is very much of its time—and this one. It’s a paean to nature, with the lower half depicting a forest and the upper half a red sunset. Sweden hosted the UN’s first conference on the environment in 1972. PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID ALTRATH
After Björk and Åberg finished their initial work at Solna Centrum Station, they felt like it was missing something. So they went back and painted in details, from a prop plane coasting the treetops to a musical bar depicting notes from Woody Guthrie’s song “Better World.” PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID ALTRATH
Inaugurated in 1977, the Kungsträdgården (“King’s Garden”) station takes its name from the baroque garden outside the 17th-century Makalös Palace, which burned down in 1825. Artist Ulrik Samuelson created a ghost garden studded with replicas of the statues that once belonged to the palace … and also, spiders. It’s the only place in Northern Europe where the Lessertia dentichelis species can be found. Creepy. PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID ALTRATH
Thorildsplan station was built in 1952, a couple decades before the invention of the 8-bit aesthetic that now adorns its walls. Lars Arrhenius created the tilework in 2008. The artist wanted to immerse passengers in a videogame version of the metro, with pixelated sidewalks, stairs, and elevators. PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID ALTRATH
As Stockholm extends the metro, artists continue decorating it. The Citybanan-Odenplan stop on the green line, opened in 2017, features work by 14 different artists, including David Svensson. His Life Line sculpture features more than 1,300 feet of LED lights zigzagging below the ceiling like lightning beneath the clouds. PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID ALTRATH
At a glance, the Mörby Centrum Station looks like an ice cave decorated by elves at the North Pole. But it’s also an optical illusion. When painting the tunnel, artists Gösta Wessel and Karin Ek placed a spotlight at one end of the room and painted the shadowy areas of the blasted rock wall gray, then repeated the process from the other end, this time painting the recesses pink. The room’s color changes depending on where you stand. PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID ALTRATH
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Saturday/ once upon a time on Doon Drive

Here’s a sneak peek at my current LEGO project.
I call it ‘The Doon Drive House’. It’s a replica of the house that I grew up in, in South Africa — in a town called Vereeniging, and on Doon Drive, of course.

I had photos of the outside of the house to help me with the dimensions. As for the inside: I still recall every nook and cranny, down to the furniture and appliances that were installed.

So it’s quite a trip down memory lane for me, with the little bricks from Denmark. I used to play with them in that very house, all of 6 years old.

It’s all still very rough, but getting there. I’m using old-fashioned little red doors and windows, to keep the scale of the house down to a reasonable size (about 1:100). LEGO stopped making those doors & windows way back in 1976. The roof bricks have a 33° slope; the 45° ones would make the roof way too tall. I ordered more roof bricks from a seller in Norway & other bricks from Germany (from BrickLink). Yes: nothing is going to stop me now from completing the house!
Here are the door sizes that a LEGO house builder can choose from (dimensions in LEGO studs): the 1d x 2w x 3h, the 1x3x4 or the 1x4x6. The yellow one is FOUR times the size of the red one, and as a consequence a house built with it will be roughly four times as large, as well. Maybe I will try using the middle one for a next iteration of the Doon Drive House.
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Monday/ ‘No Bears Allowed’

I walked by the newly completed The Point apartments at 1320 University Street in the First Hill neighborhood today.

‘No Bears Allowed’, says the website of their pet policy. May we add: no bears allowed into the US stock market, as well. (Dow Jones down 3.6% today).

The architect had to squeeze the building into a triangular ‘flatiron’ shape. Those apartments on the narrow end have a great 270° view onto the streets below. Upper floor residents should be able to see a lot of the First Hill and Seattle downtown surroundings.
A poured concrete beam at the base of the apartments. The building has 11 one bed-one bath apartments, and 6 two bed-two bath apartments. These apartments are pricey: a one bedroom goes for $2,550/ month.  In late January, the parliament of the Berlin city-state in Germany, approved a five-year freeze on rents and a price cap of €9.80 per square meter — or about $1 per square foot. Seattle’s metro area is way, way (2x, 3x) beyond that kind of rate with these new apartments that come online.
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Wednesday/ the Volunteer Park Water Tower

It was another beautiful day here in Seattle.
I wanted to get a clear view of Mt Rainier, and the observation deck of the Water Tower here in Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill was a good place to go to get that. And hey, no entry fee: it’s free of charge.

The Water Tower in Volunteer Park was built in 1906 and is 75 ft (23 m) tall.
A Maurits Escher-esque illusion: does this staircase inside the Tower go up, or down? (It goes down).
The observation deck inside allows for 360 degree views. The sun was low on the horizon right by the Space Needle, though, and so I will have to go back in the morning some time, to take a nice Space Needle picture.

 

Ta-da! The Mountain* is completely out, a cloudless blue sky above it.
*Mt Rainier, a Strato-volcano mountain in the Cascade Range | Elevation 14,411 ft (4,392 m) | Last eruption: 1894.
This is the entrance/ exit facing Prospect St. MCMVI, says the Roman numerals: 1906. The brown signpost on the right says ‘Climbing Prohibited’. So that must mean that rock climbers have tried to scale the uneven outer brick wall with its toeholds and finger holds!
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Sunday/ Denny Way’s new apartment towers

I went down to check out the construction at 1120 Denny Way this afternoon – a complex with a large footprint, and two apartment towers.

At its completion it will be the biggest apartment building in the history of the city with 1,179 apartments.

I was standing at the corner of Denny Way and Boren Ave N when I took this picture. That’s a 12-story luxury hotel in the middle, with the two 41-story towers on its sides.
Here’s a picture from a nearby crane cam, that shows the proximity of Lake Union. Apartments in those top floors will have killer views, but it could come at a price. I suspect that elevator rides up and down from the top floors could easily take 10 to 15 minutes during busy times in the day. Hopefully the elevator design called for dedicated elevators for say, each section of 10 floors. [Picture found on skyscapercity.com, originally posted on Flickr on Jan31 by an anonymous user called Test_Name].
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Tuesday/ the Twin Towers in 1999

Here is a digital scan of the 35mm film negative, of a picture of the Twin Towers, that I had taken in 1999 from the Hudson River.  I was on a Circle Line boat tour around Manhattan island.

The World Trade Center’s twin towers, seen from the Hudson River, in March 1999. The building in the distance — between the Towers — is the Woolworth Building, an early American skyscraper, located at 233 Broadway. Designed by architect Cass Gilbert, it was the tallest building in the world from 1913 to 1930, with 55 floors and a height of 792 ft (241 m).