They didn’t shy away from its complexity or its ugliness. Steinbrueck's drawings caught the essence of Seattle in its details. He authored Seattle Cityscape, a 1962 collection of sketches that looked at the quilt-like fabric of the city. He played an important role in designing the Needle, and more famously in leading the drive to save Pike Place Market and Pioneer Square from wrecking balls. Steinbrueck was the brilliant, crusty conscience of Seattle architecture. Last year was the centennial of Victor Steinbrueck’s birth. Seattle has grown up, and the Needle gives us a platform to visualize that change.Ī second event was also spurred by the fair. Compare that to the last 50 years, during which time the Needle has already been topped five times, the first in 1969, only seven years after it opened.ĭowntown is a veritable garden of skyscrapers. That means it wasn’t surpassed for nearly half a century. Until the Space Needle was built in 1962 for the Century 21 Exposition (aka the Seattle World’s Fair), the Smith Tower was still the tallest building in Seattle, and it opened in 1914. That’s a downtown that had lain almost dormant for a quarter of a century. Just think of it: In 1962, the ultramodern, 19-story Norton Building (1958) and the 10-story Logan were the first, private high-rise office buildings built downtown since the Great Depression. He had built one of the first modern downtown office buildings in Seattle, the Logan Building (1959), and was eager to do more. Wright said that in 1962, he was a young man in a hurry. Wright, his wife, Jinny, and I looked at the skyline passing by over lunch. Shortly before his death, we had lunch at the Space Needle, a structure Wright helped to finance. The first hit me during a conversation I had with Bagley Wright, the late Seattle businessman and philanthropist who died last year. The year left us a legacy of seeing ourselves more clearly. Not because what was predicted then for “Century 21” came true - much of it did not - but because events of the year shifted the perception of Seattle from a port city in the wilderness to a city on the cutting edge of change, finding its place in the region and the world. I’m now convinced that 1962 was a major turning point in Seattle history. What’s the latest on the Slog or in Seattle Weekly? I’ve been more intrigued by articles in the defunct weekly newspaper The Argus, which I’ve been reading on eye-taxing microfilm. I’ve encountered Mayor Gordon Clinton in my studies more often than Mayor Mike McGinn in person. But honestly, I’ve been more fascinated with the politics of 50 years ago. Every week, I’ve appeared on KUOW-FM’s Weekday news roundtable, and we’ve discussed the Alaskan Way Viaduct, the tunnel, marijuana, and the mayor. This past year, I’ve spent a lot of time in 1962.
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