Seattle is a city in constant evolution: it hardly has time to inaugurate a project that somewhere there is already someone thinking of a new idea. If you came here six months ago, you are probably already out of date. Here are some new things that promise to draw visitors' attention.
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The Space Needle, Seattle Centre's landmark, attracts more than a million visitors a year ©Brendan Sainsbury / Lonely Planet
Seattle icon aims for the stars
The Space Needle is to Seattle what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris: a beloved and instantly recognisable landmark. After celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2012, this dated structure was in dire need of renovation.
A number of modifications had been carried out in the past, including the addition of a floor, the SkyLine level, in 1982 and a $20 million project in 2000 for a restaurant and shop at the base of the tower.
The latest renovation, dubbed the 'spacelift' and carried out between 2017 and 2018, cost a whopping one hundred million dollars and was carried out on a much larger scale. The observation terrace was equipped with full-height windows and innovative glass benches called 'skyrisers', where visitors can sit and take a selfie in which they appear to be suspended in mid-air. Immediately below the main viewing terrace is another addition, 'The Loupe', the world's only revolving glass floor, built according to original plans from the 1960s.
Incredibly, the Space Needle remained partially open to the public during the year of construction, which was largely completed in August 2018.
The Nordic Museum holds a very rich collection of stories, artefacts and other treasures of the Nordic peoples © courtesy of the
The Nordic Museum keeps the Viking spirit alive
Nordic pioneers played a key role in Seattle's early development. From 1980 to 2017 the modest exhibition focusing on their history was housed in the little-known Nordic Heritage Museum on a tree-lined residential street in Ballard, but in May 2018 their Nordic descendants revitalised the Viking spirit and moved the collection to a fantastic purpose-built campus in downtown Ballard.
Renamed the Nordic Museum (leaving out the word 'heritage', meaning 'legacy', to emphasise the continually evolving nature of the exhibition), the new campus celebrates the history and westward migration of the peoples of the five Nordic nations: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The encyclopaedic permanent collection is arranged in a magnificent Scandinavian minimalist exhibition space whose design aims to reproduce an indoor 'fjord' crossed by numerous 'bridges' on the upper floors.
If you look carefully, you can see dozens of Nordic elements discreetly inserted both inside and outside the building, from Danish carpets to Finnish lifts.
The museum is also a cultural centre with an auditorium, several lecture rooms and a café. Interesting temporary exhibitions offer ample excuse to visit the campus again and again. The highlight of autumn 2018 is the collection of Viking artefacts on loan from Uppsala University.
The Center for Wooden Boats pays homage to Seattle's history, seafaring tradition and Native Americans © Bill Hinton / GettyImages
The Center for Wooden Boats explains the sails
Situated on the south shore of Lake Union since the late 1970s, the Center for Wooden Boats (CWB) has always been one of Seattle's most popular local institutions. As the surrounding cityscape transformed from a desolate industrial area into a hi-tech urban hub, the CWB's eclectic collection of wooden boats and piers has remained virtually unchanged - until today.
In autumn 2018, the CWB will open a new exhibition space in Lake Union Park, in the immediate vicinity of its pier. The Wagner Education Center, named in honour of CWB founder Dick Wagner, who passed away last year, occupies a beautiful cedar-walled building that will serve as a classroom, school field trip destination and museum with 11 suspended boats.
Respecting the spirit of the old centre, admission will be free and the CWB will continue to offer its popular free boat tours departing from the adjacent pier on Sunday mornings.
Amazon Spheres show us the future
The global e-commerce giant has drastically changed Seattle's skyline over the past decade, recently shifting its focus from the chameleon-like South Lake Union neighbourhood to the more central Denny Triangle.
This area, which used to be characterised by cheap hotels in low-rise buildings and ugly car parks, has gradually been filled with stylish high-rise office buildings and trendy restaurants. However, the most eye-catching element in Amazon's futuristic (and controversial) campus is the 'Spheres', three sensational spherical structures of glass and steel where a throng of employees share their work space with over 40,000 plants, including a ficus over 16 m high.
Although technically only accessible to employees, the spheres house a visitor centre called Understory, where the details of their design and construction are explained.
The giant orbs stand next to the 37-storey 'Day One' skyscraper, home to Amazon Go, the company's first checkout-free supermarket, which opened to the public in January 2018.
The newest addition to Pike Place Market includes a new space for vendors, covered communal areas, new parking and housing for city dwellers
Pike Place evolves
Long considered the soul of Seattle, the 111-year-old Pike Place Market is a rowdy mix of sassy fishmongers, creative punk street musicians and other elements of offbeat urban life. This market has never strayed too far from its roots, but anyone can change their ways.
In June 2017 Pike Place opened the MarketFront, its first real expansion in over 40 years. Cleverly fitted into the structure of the historic market, so much so that it is almost impossible to notice the junctions, the new areas include a large section for vendors, some affordable housing units and a series of terraces that will eventually connect the market stalls with the city's redeveloped waterfront.
In addition to providing a covered space for over 45 new independent vendors, the MarketFront houses a well-lit Producers Hall in which space is shared by three micro food businesses: a chocolate maker, a microbrewery and a biscuit maker.
The SoDo Track art installation took three years to complete, but is now a flamboyant new icon in Seattle's warehouse district ©Brend
The SoDo Track brings colour to the city
Quirky street art is a hallmark of Seattle - think of the concrete troll located in the Fremont neighbourhood or the 'Hat 'n' Boots' in Georgetown - but no community art project can compete in scope with the SoDo Track, a long corridor in what used to be the drab SoDo warehouse district, now covered in garish murals.
Over a period of three years, up to 60 artists (half local, half from as far afield as Hong Kong and Israel) unleashed their creativity on a group of buildings in the area. The most recent murals were painted in July 2018, when 20 artists got their hands on brushes and spray cans to fill in the blanks, freely inspired by the theme 'motion, movement and progress'.
The best sections can be seen from bus numbers 150 or 594, or from the light rail south of the Stadium station.
Now that the tunnel into which the traffic will be diverted has been dug, the Alaska Way Viaduct will be dismantled and the waterfront will be transformed into a spa
The Alaska Viaduct Replacement Tunnel is finally in the home stretch
Seatle residents often roll their eyes at hearing about the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Tunnel, a tunnel that is to replace an ugly 70-year-old motorway. The project, which has suffered long delays, aims to redevelop the waterfront.
Originally planned for 2016, the opening of the tunnel was postponed for three years due to technical problems with the giant Japanese machine called 'Bertha' used to dig the tunnel. Now, however, the excavations have been completed and, barring any last-minute hitches, the tunnel should be open to traffic at the end of 2018. The viaduct will then be dismantled and the waterfront will be transformed from a concrete jungle into a lush urban park.
Maintaining a city full of life and at the same time preserving all its anomalies and eccentricities is no easy task. These seven projects, however, certainly invite one to return to this pearl of the Pacific Northwest.
