Читать книгу Walking Seattle - Clark Humphrey - Страница 18

BOUNDARIES: 5th Ave., Virginia St., Warren Ave. N., and Mercer St.

DISTANCE: 4 miles, in two segments

DIFFICULTY: Easy (all flat or slight inclines)

PARKING: Metered street parking; pay lots along Denny Way east of Broad St.

PUBLIC TRANSIT: Metro routes #3, 4, 8, 16, 19, 24, and 33 stop near this walk’s start.

In 1962, local civic leaders mounted the Century 21 Exposition, a world’s fair celebrating what our world was supposed to have become by now. While we don’t yet have domed cities or flying cars, we’ve kept the fair’s grounds as a place for theater, opera, sports, science exhibits, and festivals. It all occurs under the watchful gaze and wasp-waisted stance of the Space Needle, one of the world’s most recognizable icons. Seattle’s prime symbol also looks over Belltown and the Denny Regrade, neighborhoods long overlooked by many. Where the fair’s monorail once passed above car lots, printing plants, and nondescript commercial buildings, residential towers now scrape the sky and fashionable restaurants and boutiques beckon.

•	Start at Tilikum Place Park at the triangle of 5th Ave., Cedar St., and Denny Way. You’re near what was the northern end of Denny Hill. The steep hill rose more than 100 feet, impeding the city’s northern growth in the horse-and-wagon days. It was removed in three massive regrades from 1906 to 1929.
	Since 1912, cobblestoned Tilikum Place has been home to a statue of the city’s namesake, Chief Seattle (also spelled “Sealth” and “Si’ahl” in the imprecise transliteration of his Lushootseed language). His arm is outstretched to welcome the first white settlers—not necessarily to lead them to the 5 Point Cafe (a lovingly preserved 24-hour dive diner and bar).
•	Turn southeast along 5th Ave. You’re underneath the bulky concrete track of the Monorail, created to bring World’s Fair visitors to the downtown core. At Wall St., the 1948 Post-Intelligencer building, a full-block slab of Truman-era concrete, is now gussied up for office tenants. On 5th’s northeast side between Bell and Blanchard, a bizarre mural advertises the “Wexley School for Girls.” It’s really an ad agency with a retro name and kitschy decor (rubber chickens hang inside its front windows). Across the street is the Seattle Glassblowing Studio, where you can buy decorative glass art and watch it being made.
	Beyond 5th and Blanchard St., Top Pot Doughnuts occupies a stunning glass-fronted midcentury building. At Virginia St. looms the twin-cylindered Westin Hotel. The formerly Seattle-based chain has been at this location since 1928. The current towers were built in 1969 and 1982.
•	Turn southwest along Virginia. Across from the Westin, the Icon Grill serves upscale comfort food under a ceiling crammed with Chihuly-style glass art. Behind it lies Escala, one of the most grandiose of our late-2000s condo megaprojects. Virginia and 4th is ground zero for celebrity restaurateur Tom Douglas, with his creations Lola, Dahlia Lounge, Dahlia Bakery, and Serious Pie. A neon caricature of Douglas holding a wriggling fish stands outside Dahlia. Sub Pop, the record label that turned “grunge” into a worldwide craze, has its offices in that building.
•	Turn northwest along 4th. The 1963 Cinerama theater at Lenora St. is a plain box on the outside, but a streamlined movie palace inside. On the same block is Yuki’s Diffusion hair salon, run by Yuki Ohno. (You might have heard of his kid, skating champ Apolo Anton Ohno.) Beyond Bell St., the Two Bells Bar and Grill is a Repeal-era tavern serving art shows and thick burgers.
•	Turn southwest at 4th and Battery. The handsome, brick-clad Fire Station #2 is the oldest in the city still operating. Kitty-corner from there, the black-glassed Fourth and Battery Building is Belltown’s earliest “new” office tower (built in 1974). Two blocks away at 2nd Ave., Buckley’s sports bar inhabits an art deco gem that had been MGM’s regional office. This stretch of 2nd is Film Row, a onetime hotbed of distribution offices, film vaults, and theater-supply companies.
•	Turn southeast along 2nd. City Hostel Seattle, next to Buckley’s, was originally the William Tell Hotel, where studio sales reps (and at least a few movie stars) stayed while visiting Film Row. Across 2nd, Suyama Space is a big, rustic art space in the back of an architectural office. Next to that, the Rendezvous restaurant and lounge was originally a theater design and building company; its exquisite Jewel Box Theatre was that company’s showroom. Next to that, RKO’s old Film Row office is the Roq La Rue gallery, specializing in pop surrealism.
•	At 2nd and Bell St., Mama’s Mexican Kitchen has served Cal-Mex feasts and Elvis-dominated kitsch since 1974. It starts a block of hip drinking and music spots. The Crocodile, one of Seattle’s top rock clubs for two decades, stands at the block’s other end at 2nd and Blanchard. One block away at 2nd and Lenora, the facade of the 1914 Crystal Pool now clothes a condo tower’s base.
	A block away at Virginia St., the Moore Theatre, a magnificent 1907 vaudeville palace, still hosts touring concerts and shows. Its ground-floor storefronts include the boutiques Fancy (jewelry and metal decorative pieces) and Schmancy (quirky toys and collectibles). Turn southwest along Virginia to 1st Ave. and the Terminal Sales Building (Walk 4).
•	Turn northwest along 1st for 11 blocks to enjoy Seattle’s prime see-and-be-seen nightlife scene. These joints range from loud DJ clubs to swank wine bars to quiet supper clubs to fashionably dark cocktail houses to boisterous meet-markets to smarty-arty hangouts to ex-dive bars gone legit. Many of these are open for daytime dining. This stretch of 1st Ave. also offers fashionable shopping, including stationery, clothes, and home furnishings.
	And there’s plenty of classic architecture among the newer condos—the Vogue Hotel (now the Vain hair salon), the 1889 Odd Fellows hall (now a pub), the 1889 Hull Building (now a fashion boutique), the Austin A. Bell Building (whose facade now stands in front of a condo structure), the Sailors Union of the Pacific (now a bar and restaurant), the Electrical Workers’ hall (now a church), and the King County Labor Temple (still union offices!).
•	Turn east along Denny Way’s north side, and continue for five blocks, to Broad St. You pass Tini Bigs (a bar named for its “big [mar]tinis”), Champion Party Supply (a year-round Halloween party headquarters), and the new First United Methodist Church (a modern replacement for the building that’s now Daniels Recital Hall, Walk 2).
•	If you’d like to stop, continue along Denny back to 5th Ave. If you’re continuing, turn northeast at Denny and Broad for less than a block, to Seattle Center’s first pedestrian entrance.
•	Meander north through this pathway, toward the Space Needle. Along the way you pass through Olympic Iliad, Alexander Liberman’s sculpture made from orange metal tubes. You also pass a meditation garden donated by the Sri Chinmoy Foundation.
•	Turn east at the Needle’s north side, parallel to its main entrance. Even if you don’t visit the 605-foot tower’s restaurant or observation deck, you can admire the graceful curves of its tripod and UFO-esque “tophouse.” Turn north in front of the west side of the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum. Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen commissioned architect Paul Gehry’s bold structure (designed without straight corners) as a tribute to rock music (and, some claim, to Allen’s ego).
•	From EMP’s western entrance walk west, into the east entrance of Center House. The 1939 armory was one of several pre-fair buildings that were incorporated into the Century 21 grounds. Take the stairs up to its main floor and food court, known during the fair as the Food Circus. Exit at Center House’s west side.
•	Head north past the International Fountain, a 1985 replacement for the fair’s high-streaming centerpiece spectacle. Turn east at the Kobe Bell (a gift from Seattle’s Japanese sister city) toward the elaborately lit courtyard of McCaw Hall. Home to Seattle Opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet, it’s the third incarnation of the 1928 Civic Auditorium. Follow this courtyard out of the Center to Mercer St.
•	Go west on Mercer. On the street’s north side is Teatro ZinZanni, a circus-style dinner theater inside a high-tech “show tent.” Reenter Seattle Center just west of 2nd Ave. N.
•	This entrance leads you, heading south, toward the Bagley Wright Theatre (home of the Seattle Repertory Theatre). Pass this building’s curvy, glassy front side. Then turn west to the Center’s Warren Ave. N./Republican St. entrance. There’s an open wooden doorway planted here, a memorial to renowned playwright August Wilson.
•	Turn south and down a small flight of outdoor stairs, through a passage between the two Northwest Court buildings. These exhibit spaces are now home to the Vera Project, a teen-centric arts center. Turn east and then south beside KeyArena, created in 1995 with components from the fair-era Coliseum. It was built because the SuperSonics basketball team said they’d leave town without a new arena. Thirteen years later they left anyway. Continue south to Thomas St.
•	Head east along the back of Fisher Pavilion. Built into a hillside, its entire roof is an outdoor plaza.
•	Turn south in front of Seattle Children’s Theatre (also known as the Charlotte Martin Theatre), a handsome 1993 addition to a 1956 Shrine temple. You soon reach the main entrance to Pacific Science Center. Minoru Yamasaki (Walk 2) designed this sextet of clean white boxes with his trademark vertical trim features, surrounding reflecting pools, and streamlined, Gothic-inspired arches. Its recently-added IMAX Dome screens first-run 3D movies.
•	Turn east, past the south side of the Mural Ampitheater, a performance space with Paul Horiuchi’s 60-foot-long Seattle Mural as its backdrop. Continue east to the Space Needle’s south side. Turn southeast through a circular plaza surrounding a fountain. Leave the Center at the triangular intersection of Broad St., John St., and 4th Ave. N.
•	Cross Broad St. toward Fisher Plaza. Walk a southeasterly dogleg between its two buildings. At the northwest corner of 5th and Denny, you can see the Needle framed by KOMO-TV’s satellite dishes on Fisher Plaza’s roof. Before you cross Denny back to Tilikum Place, look east for the pink neon sign announcing the Elephant Super Car Wash.

BACK STORY: THE REGRADE

Belltown’s walkability results from Seattle’s own Extreme Makeover: City Edition. Early city leaders decided that 100-foot-tall Denny Hill, just northwest of downtown, stood in the way of urban growth. Horse-drawn wagons could not carry merchandise over it. From 1902 to 1911, some 27 blocks were sluiced down flat. By the time it was done, the Ford Model T had made horse-drawn delivery obsolete. The rest of the hill, from Fifth to Westlake avenues, was steam-shoveled away from 1929 to 1930.

Space Needle at sunrise

CONNECTING THE WALKS

This walk connects easily to four other walks. At 4th and Virginia you’re two blocks northwest of Walk 2. At 1st and Virginia you’re at the start of Walk 4. This walk’s 1st Ave. stretch is three blocks east of Walk 7. At Warren and Republican you’re one block east of Walk 8.

POINTS OF INTEREST

5 Point Cafe the5pointcafe.com, 415 Cedar St., 206-448-9993

Seattle Glassblowing Studio seattleglassblowing.com, 2227 5th Ave., 206-448-2181

Westin Seattle starwoodhotels.com/westin/seattle, 1900 5th Ave., 206-728-1000

The Crocodile thecrocodile.com, 2200 2nd Ave., 206-441-7416

Moore Theatre stgpresents.org, 1932 2nd Ave., 206-443-1744

Seattle Center seattlecenter.com, 305 Harrison St., 206-684-7200

Space Needle spaceneedle.com, 400 Broad St., 206-905-2100

Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum empsfm.org, 325 5th Ave. N., 877-EMP-SFM1

Teatro ZinZanni zinzanni.org, 222 Mercer St., 206-802-0015

Pacific Science Center pacsci.org, 200 2nd Ave. N., 206-443-2001

Seattle Glassblowing Studio sign

ROUTE SUMMARY

1.		Start at Tilikum Place Park at the triangle of 5th Ave., Cedar St., and Denny Way.
2.		Turn southeast along 5th Ave., and continue for seven blocks, to Virginia St.
3.		Turn southwest along Virginia, and continue for one block, to 4th Ave.
4.		Turn northwest along 4th, and continue for four blocks, to Battery St.
5.		Turn southwest along Battery, and continue for two blocks, to 2nd Ave.
6.		Turn southeast along 2nd, and continue for five blocks, to Virginia St.
7.		Turn southwest along Virginia, and continue for one block, to 1st Ave.
8.		Turn northwest along 1st, and continue for 12 blocks, to Denny Way.
9.		Turn east along Denny, and continue for five blocks, to Broad St.
10.		Turn northeast along Broad. Walk for less than a block, to Seattle Center’s first pedestrian entrance.
11.		Go north through this path toward the Space Needle. Turn east at the Needle’s north side.
12.		Turn north in front of the west side of the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum.
13.		From EMP’s west side walk west, into Center House. Take the stairs up to its main floor; leave at its west side.
14.		Head north, past the International Fountain, through the courtyard in front of McCaw Hall and out to Mercer St.
15.		Go west on Mercer a little more than one block, to just west of 2nd Ave. N.
16.		Reenter the center grounds. Walk past the Bagley Wright Theatre’s front; then turn west to the August Wilson memorial at the Center’s Warren Ave. N./Republican St. entrance.
17.		Turn south through the Northwest Court buildings. Turn east and then south alongside KeyArena. Continue south to Thomas St.
18.		Head east, alongside the upper plaza of Fisher Pavilion.
19.		Turn south in front of Seattle Children’s Theatre, to the Pacific Science Center’s main entrance.
20.		Walk east from here, to the Space Needle’s south side.
21.		Turn southeast; leave the Center grounds at the intersection of Broad St., John St., and 4th Ave. N.
22.		Cross Broad. Walk southeast between the two buildings of Fisher Plaza, back to 5th and Denny.

Dahlia Lounge sign depicting restaurateur Tom Douglas