The “Emerald City” of SEATTLE is laidback west coast but also cutting-edge, the birthplace of grunge music and also some über-modern architecture.
Seattle is often referred to as Emerald City. And while that’s a reference to the fantastical place in The Wizard of Oz, it’s also a moniker for the lush and green coastal wonderland of Seattle on Puget Sound in the Pacific Northwest. Washington State’s largest city is known for many “wonderous” things; it’s ground zero of grunge music and tech-forward companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Boeing. There’s a new-world gleam here as well as a rebellious spirit. This is the birthplace of the Starbucks coffee empire (its Pike Place roast is now ubiquitous but is named for Starbucks’ very first location at Seattle’s public market). And yet the city’s caffeinated can-do spirit is tempered with an easy-going PNW vibe that puts the outdoors (Seattle comes by its Emerald City nickname because of thousands of acres of parkland) and west-coast lifestyle first and foremost.
While the Space Needle (a legacy of the 1962 World’s Fair) may still be the city’s most iconic landmark, there’s far more futuristic architecture to behold in Seattle. Within the Needle’s shadow is the sinuous EMP MUSEUM. It stands for Experience Music Project and as such its mission statement states that it’s a “leading-edge nonprofit museum, dedicated to the ideas and risk-taking that fuel contemporary popular culture.” And gazing up at its gleaming, undulating Frank Gehry design (made of 21,000 aluminum stainless steel shingles and 280 steel ribs), one can envision the cross-sections of cur-vilinear guitars that the architect says inspired him and served as building blocks. And inside “boldly go where no one has gone before” via the Star Trek: Exploring New Worlds exhibition (opening May 21). {empmuseum.org}
Also currently showing at the EMP: Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses. The band most associated with grunge music also embodies Seattle spirit. Local label Sub Pop Records signed the band in 1989, over 25 years ago, and to relive some of that era stay at the HOTEL MAX, the art- and music-filled boutique bolthole that recently revealed an exterior mural (proudly proclaiming that “Seattle doesn’t settle” in six-foot tall letters and a redesigned lobby that shows off vibrant art (including an original Warhol and a bass guitar signed by Krist Novoselic of Nirvana), along with a retail shop collaboration with Sub Pop. Also on offer: free samples of local Caffe Vita brew in the morning and craft beer in the afternoon…and there’s a Sub Pop floor in which to hole up and listen to tunes. {hotelmaxseattle.com}
Attached to the Hotel Max lobby is THE MILLER’S GUILD, where a custom-made nine-foot-long Infierno wood-fired grill is a fiery centrepiece. The name is inspired by the building’s past as the 1925 Vance Lumber Company Hotel, where workers rested between harvest-ing and milling trees in the surrounding forests. Now it’s all about nose-to-tail cuisine and other fire-roasted PNW fare, as well as cask-aged craft cocktails
{millersguild.com}
More of Seattle’s creative spirit and innovative pioneering is found at the central branch of the SEATTLE PUBLIC LIBRARY. The multi-faceted structure, as if a bright gem nestled in the downtown core, is the creation of another internationally renowned architect, Rem Koolhaas and former Seattleite Joshua Ramus. Take a free guided tour of its award-winning architecture, including a maple floor that’s made of 556 lines of raised text in 11 languages {spl.org} - Barb Sligl
For more visitor info on Seattle go to visitseattle.org.
