A few weeks ago I took Junior and Junior Junior to a reading by Katie Yamasaki for her new book Shapes, Lines and Light. Junior Junior was pretty squirrelly sitting still for an hour in there, but Junior got a copy of the book autographed after patiently waiting in line. The whole experience was worthwhile and afterwords we walked back to the train and took a look at two Yamasaki buildings. The book is about Katie’s grandfather Minoru Yamasaki, the badass world famous architect from Seattle who went to Garfield High School and then on to UW, graduating at the top of his class in 1934. He then moved around the country working as an architect, designing many monumental buildings and projects including the Pacific Science Center here in Seattle and the Twin Towers in New York.
I’m no architect, but I’ve watched a lot of Brady Bunch episodes and I appreciate meaningful architecture and design. Like Potter Stewart said, “I know it when I see it”. As a legal messenger, I spent countless hours standing-by in and around the varied architecture of downtown Seattle. We could pick and choose where we wanted to hang out. I found myself drawn to the plaza of the IBM building and the lobby and surrounding plaza of the Rainier Tower. You might know them as 1200 5th and 1301 5th. Both buildings were designed by Yamasaki and both share elements found in many of his buildings, including an exoskeleton and bomb proof structural engineering built to withstand earthquakes and plane crashes. Ask me about controlled demolition. The shapes and lines and light and hard-to-describe feelings that Katie mentions in her book, are there in both buildings. I spent a lot of time pondering, thinking, loitering and drinking beer and-or coffee in the shadows of those two buildings downtown. Just a few photos from yesteryear don’t really convey it all. You had to be there. And you can still “be there” if you ever find a reason to go downtown these days, walk around 5th & University. Have a seat. Have a beer hiding in plain sight. Look up. Look around. Look at the shapes and lines and light.
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