Snohomish County's Best Architecture

Okay, so you're thinking "what architecture? Snohomish County has architecture?"

Yes, we are out here in the 'burbs but we do have some examples of good architecture. Architecture that fits in with and enhances its environment. Some of the great architecture is residential, and some of it is public. Today I will focus on public buildings.

Several of the best works of architecture in Snohomish County are new. They are in downtown Everett, and symbolize the revitalization of Everett's downtown.

Here is a short list:

Snohomish County Jail

Snohomish County probably has the best looking jail in the country. It won an Honor Award for Washington Architecture from the Seattle chapter of AIA in 2005, which stated,

"the unusual urban placement and innovative form of a corrective
facility introduce a new way of conceiving the process of rehabilitation as a
civic function. Having this building in the middle of the city helps us all to
overcome our reservations about incarceration, transcending connotations of the
jail as a place removed from society and hiding transgressors. The designers and
the client have challenged conventions here, and we commend them for it."

Hm. Well, I'm not sure that I've overcome my reservations about incarceration, but I will say it's a very nice looking jail.

University of Washington-Bothell/Cascadia College

This also received an award from the Seattle Chapter of AIA, back in 2003. What they found commendable about the project was:

Extended eaves shade and shelter the pedestrian walkways while the lively
structural rhythms make an allegorical reference to trees

Everett Station

Reminiscent with it's rounded roofline of a European train station, the Everett Station was designed both as a transportation hub and also a gathering place. The Amtrak Cascade and Empire Builder lines stop here, as well as Sound Transit's daily Seattle commuter train and multiple bus lines. It's also home to the University Consortium, classroom space that is shared by Everett Community College, the University of Washington, Western Washington University and Washington State University. Don't miss the art gallery space inside.

Everett Events Center

With "sail" structures on the roof that give the building height, as well as reminding us of Everett's standing as home to a Navy homeport and one of the largest marinas on the West Coast, the Events Center pays tribute to and enhances its surroundings in Everett's downtown. As host to the Everett Silvertips, minor league basketball, arena football, and a variety of concerts and events, it is playing an important role in the revitalization of downtown.

AIA Top 150

Just finished looking through the American Institute of Architects' America's Favorite Architecture survey results and am happy to report that Seattle has 2 entries. Predictably, Rem Koolhaas' Seattle Public Library made the list and is ranked 108th. Less predictably, by me at least, is Safeco Field by NBBJ at 135th.

On the one hand I suppose we are lucky to see two entries since Seattle is not a city noted for its architecture (not that some of it isn't great). On the other hand it seems like there are some important structures from our city missing. What about the Space Needle? It is certainly iconic if nothing else! Or the new "Blob"--The EMP by Frank Gehry?

Guide to Everett

I just posted my "Guide to Downtown and North Everett" with Everett's top 10 places over at my website (www.sandykaduce.com). I posted my favorite places in categories, so there are more like 30 individual favorites. I bet you didn't know it was possible for a former Seattleite and self-admitted snob to HAVE 30 favorite places in Everett! Well, it is!

This brings me to the topic of tonight's blog post--why do people always diss Everett? When I was growing up, and even when I first moved to the north end, I always looked down my nose at Everett. Everyone I knew did. And maybe our reasons for doing that made sense 20 years ago. But in the last five or ten years Everett has really transformed. Yet, people still think of it as the blighted, dying, blue-collar mill town that it was in the 1970s and 80s.

Some background might be helpful. My family has its roots in Everett--my grandfather was a personnel manager at the Weyerhaeuser mill in the late 1960s, and my family lived in Eastmont from 1967 to 1970. So, my family remembers living in Everett near the end of the time that Everett's downtown core was still a thriving community. Throughout the '60s and 70s as people moved to the suburbs and became more dependent on cars, businesses one by one moved out of downtown to malls in outlying areas. Then the lumber industry went into decline in the 1970s and '80s. By the time I was in my teens, downtown Everett was nearly a ghost town, full of empty storefronts, pawn shops, and plasma donation centers.

However, the city government and concerned citizens recognized the value in preserving and reviving the historic core of downtown Everett. Beginning in the mid-1980s, the city government worked hard to attract jobs to the area. A major success was the Navy's decision to build a homeport here. A variety of other projects and measures encouraged development and revival in downtown, most notably, the construction of the Everett Events Center and Everett Station. So far, it's working. It's not a 100% recovery--there are still a few empty buildings, mainly because a few absentee landowners have chosen not to invest in retrofitting and upgrading their buildings, so they sit empty. But, most of the storefronts in downtown are now filled with a variety of thriving businesses.

But, because Everett had a bad reputation for so long, many people still think it's the dying mill town it once was. The good news is, because of that you can still buy a decent house in Everett and not spend a fortune on it. Yes, Everett is still a blue-collar place in some respects but that kind of diversity is part of being an actual city, rather than a suburb or bedroom community. Part of being a real city is having rich and poor, young and old, white, black and all shades in between.

Everett is a success story and I think in five years, everyone will know about it. Right now, it's still something of a secret. If you've never been here (and most people who don't live nearby haven't--we are very parochial here in Puget Sound) you wouldn't know what you're missing. The word is starting to get out, but it's happening slowly. Maybe that is a good thing.

A few years ago I never thought I would say this, but I love Everett. There is a great community of people here, it has a lot of cultural and entertainment opportunities, and abundant natural beauty, yet, it is a diverse community that hasn't lost touch with its blue-collar roots. I like that about Everett. That's what keeps it from turning into a sterile, "Disneyland for the rich" like other neighborhoods that have similar attributes. Everett is a city in its own right, with all the good and bad that goes with that, yet it has a friendly, small-town feel and an energy that I, and many others enjoy.

Everett may be a secret now, but I doubt it will remain one for long.