Studio Trip!

This past weekend Studio Stannard had the opportunity to take a trip up to Seattle, Washington after the craziness of Vellum. On the itinerary, there were tours of the Amazon Spheres, The Seattle Public Library, and the Bullitt Center among other things.

For my group, the weekend started on Thursday after class with the long drive up to Palo Alto, where we were going to stay the night at a family’s residence. As we had a very early wake-up call for our flight out of SFO at six in the morning.

This was the first time I had ever flown out of San Franciso, let alone travel to another state without my family, so this was an entirely new experience for me all around. Thankfully one of the girls had interned over the summer at the airport, and she was a local, so she knew how to navigate the huge airport and get us to our boarding gate on time.

After leaving San Francisco around 6 a.m. we ended up arriving in Seattle around 10 a.m., making it approximately a 4-hour flight. We unloaded and then boarded the Sound Transit Link Light Rail which connects us directly to downtown Seattle from the airport. It actually took us right to where the Seattle Space Needle was located! We then walked a couple of blocks to the Holiday Inn that we were staying at.

We then had some downtime before we had to meet up with our studio, so the four of us decided to go to a classic place to visit when one is in Puget Sound - Pike Place Market. I loved going there because there were so many stalls where vendors were selling all kinds of things. There was handmade jewelry, pottery, soaps, fresh and dried flowers…. just about any local artisan was there. One thing to know about me is I really enjoy window shopping and looking at little trinkets, so it was very hard to not buy anything. I did however get some delicious sesame seed balls at Mee Sum Pastry and samosas at Saffron Spice to tide my hunger until dinner time.

Following a couple of enjoyable hours exploring Pike Place Market, the four of us embarked on a roughly twenty-minute walk to reach the library so we could convene with our studio at three o’clock. As we approached the library, my initial impressions could be summarized as "impressive" and "enormous".

Upon observing its surroundings, the library appeared somewhat shorter in stature when compared to the neighboring buildings. However, its expansive floor area and distinctive geometric design made it stand out prominently amidst the taller, more conventional structures that surrounded it. The library was designed by Rem Koolhaas and Joshua Prince-Ramus and first opened in May 2004. It is well-known for its glass facade and steel structure.

*The Seattle Public Library - 5th and Sprint St. Corner*

I think the coolest part of the library was the way they organized the books, in what is known as the Book Spiral. It’s an area closer to the top of the buildings that hosts four floors of books that are all connected by gently sloping ramps. This allows the organization of the books to be in a continuous flow within the Dewey Decimal organization system that isn’t interrupted. Traditional libraries typically have their books organized by floor, which can be a problem when one category’s collection expands more than another, and then cannot fit into the particular floor anymore.

After the Seattle Public Library, we went to an AIA Mixer located in one of the buildings by Pier 56. We had had quite a long day so we then all headed back to the hotel to get a well-deserved sleep.

The next day we got up around 8 a.m. and got ready for the day. It was going to be a jam-packed one, as we were going to be getting a tour of the Amazon Spheres and The Bullit Tower, as well as visiting ZGF Architects and Mithun.

*The Lush Exterior of the Amazon Spheres*

Starting out our day strong was the Amazon Spheres tour at 9 a.m., where we were very lucky to get to go inside. Amazon doesn’t let anyone from the public inside the building unless it’s the first or third Saturday of the month, so we were lucky enough to see it when it wasn’t overflowing with tourists. It was pretty crazy seeing the interior because there was just green…. everywhere. There was a huge living green wall that expanded across all four stories of one of the spheres. In each section of the spheres, there were different gardens that hosted plants from different subregions of the world. Towering over all of this though is a massive Ficus rubiginosa was 49 years old at the time of integration into the spheres. They told us that they went with an already grown-up tree because they wanted the space to feel already lived-in and lush when they were to open. For if they had selected a baby tree, who knows how long it would’ve taken for it to fill up the space… let’s just say many many years.

After the Amazon Spheres, we made our way to visit the two architecture firms. These tours took up the rest of our morning. Around late noontime, we were all starving but we had our next tour at the Bullitt Center. Thankfully we had a little bit of time after we arrived at the building so we all decided to make a pit stop at the Trader Joe’s and food market that was just up the street. Re-energized from the food we then got to go inside the Bullit Center - the ‘World’s Greenest Commercial’ Building. It was designed to meet the goals of the Living Building Challenge - where it has to hit and maintain certain performance numbers within seven categories (place, water, energy, health + happiness, materials, equity, and beauty). The view from the top floor was amazing, as you could see the underside of the photovoltaic roof (as pictured below).

We then ended our long day of walking with some delicious pizza in downtown Seattle.

Our last full day in Seattle was going to be a long day as well, but at least we weren’t going to have to walk as much. A few of us went out and rented cars for the studio so that we could get to the next places on our itinerary. Which were located on Bainbridge Island and in the Fremont area.

This was the first time I got to go on a Ferry that held passenger cars, so it was also my first time literally driving onto one as well haha. Our destination on Bainbridge Island was Island Wood. Here we were given a tour of the beautiful grounds. We got to see the buildings that they use to house students when they come on class visits. All of the buildings were made up of beautiful wood that was sourced in the Puget Sound.

After our tour of Island Wood, we made our way back to the ferry so we could visit the Watershed Building in Fremont, which is due north of downtown Seattle. Upon arriving in the area we found parking was a bit difficult as there were a lot of residential homes in this particular spot. Thankfully we found parking along one of the streets up the hill from the building. As we walked down the hill towards the building, we noticed beautiful landscaping both on the sidewalk and where the columns of the freeway met the ground. We later find out the landscaping serves as another way for the building to collect stormwater from the Aurora Bridge above.

The Watershed Building is the third building in Seattle to be designed to meet the Living Building Challenge. It was designed by the firm Weber Thompson and was completed in the spring of 2020. What I really loved about this particular project was the entryway gate. It is made of CNC’d metal, and when fully open can form a canopy to provide shade. The shadows it cast on the ‘interior’ wall while we were there were absolutely gorgeous. It was also amazing to hear just how much water the building collected and recycled as well - more than half of the water that falls on site is then reused within the building.

After the last visit of our day, we headed back to our hotel rooms. As we needed to get a good night’s sleep to wake up bright and early to catch our flight back to SFO. All in all, it was a great trip with even greater architecture.

The Job Hunt

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