Category: Architecture

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Monday/ arrival into Cairns 🏝

A 1990s tea towel depicting Cairns.  I had taken the picture a few days ago at an exhibit at Queensland State Library.
Here’s our Boeing 737-800 on the tarmac at Brisbane airport. A ground personnel person from Qantas came running up and said ‘No pictures, please!’, so I couldn’t take one from the top of the stairs at the tail. Aw.
As we approached Cairns, the turquoise and teal colors of the shallow waters and reefs on the seabed started to appear.
Here’s Cairns, population 150,000 or so. Latitude-wise we’re now 17° south of the equator, the closest I have ever been. (Flying over the equator doesn’t count, and some years ago I did spend 2 hours in the lounge at the airport in Lagos, Nigeria, 6° north of the equator).
It was 32 °C (90° F) here today and very humid. We couldn’t check into the hotel with our early morning arrival, so we walked to the downtown Cairns shopping mall for cool air and for a bite. (It was a slog). Here’s the 1926 Grand Hotel right across the mall.

 

We made it into Cairns, with a 6.05 am departure out of Brisbane.

We took a taxi into Cairns, which was just a few miles away from the airport.

 

 

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Friday/ Surfer’s Paradise Beach 🏄

My brother and sister-in-law and I made a trip to Gold Coast today to check in with my niece, and to check out the famous beaches there.

This is Surfers Paradise Beach, just south of Main Beach on the Gold Coast shoreline.
A dozen named beaches with swim areas line the coast here, with lifeguards and even helicopters overhead now and again. The beach looks empty, but there were several dozen people behind us on the beach at the swim area. It was 29°C (84 °F) today but it felt hotter. We just went in for a quick dip in the surf, and took a few pictures (that’s my brother and my sister-in-law).
Lots and lots of high-rises: private apartment (condominium) and holiday apartment buildings, as well as resort buildings and hotels, line the street called Surfers Paradise Esplanade.
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Monday/ the river ferry 🚤

I embarked at the West End and disembarked at South Bank.
Orleigh Park on the banks of the Brisbane River, with the ferry terminal just ahead on the right. Run, Forrest, run! I told myself. I was good that I did, because they closed the boarding gate just a minute after I had embarked.
The ferries are branded CityCat (Cat for catamaran?). There are 23 of these plying the waters of the Brisbane river, and 5 smaller vessels called KittyCats. 
This one arrived at the West End ferry terminal just as we were departing from there.
The CityCat ferries are constructed locally, in Brisbane.
This vessel was launched in August 2020. Length is 27.2 m (89 ft), beam 7.95 m (26 ft).
Here’s the Merivale Railway Bridge with a double track. It opened in Nov. 1978, 43 years ago.
This rail crossing is the only one across the Brisbane River, and a bottleneck for rail transport in the metro area.
The massive Cross River Rail project, underway since 2019, is a new 10.2 km (6.3 mi) rail line from Dutton Park to Bowen Hills, which includes 5.9 km (3.6 mi) of twin tunnels under the Brisbane River. The first services are expected to start operating by late 2025.
The William Jolly Bridge— named after William Jolly, the first Lord Mayor of the Greater Brisbane City Council during the construction of the bridge from 1928 to 1932. (So no,  not named after Willem/ William the Jolly Ferry Rider! ).
As bridges over the Brisbane River go, this one is new: the Kurilpa Bridge is a pedestrian and bicycle bridge that opened in 2009.
Here’s the end of my jolly ride, at the South Bank ferry terminal, with the Queens Wharf construction project across the river.

The sun was out in full force today, here in Brisbane in Australia’s Sunshine State
(30 °C/ 86 °F).

I was in the West End where I spotted the ferry at the terminal there. I made a run for it and hopped on.

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Wednesday/ Story Bridge 🌫

Story Bridge was constructed in 1940 and is the longest cantilever bridge in Australia. It is named after prominent public servant John Douglas Story.

The south end of Story Bridge rests on Kangaroo Point, the tip of a narrow strip of land just east of downtown Brisbane.
There is a promenade around Captain Burke Park, all around Kangaroo Point. I am approaching the Bridge from the southwest.
This is The Rock (1988) by artist Stephen Killick (epoxy paint on concrete). It featured in the World Expo ’88 in Brisbane and was later moved to this location in Captain Burke Park.
I made it down right to the river’s sandy edge, with steps down from the promenade path. Across the water under the bridge, is a microbrewery called Felons Brewing Co.
On the southeast side of the bridge, and looking towards the northwest.
There is a project underway to restore the below-deck steel on the bridge.
I was too tired of walking to walk towards the north over the bridge, so I took the bus! The bus is heading north towards downtown Brisbane.
And here’s the view from the spot where I had a bite to eat. This is the Riverside Ferry Terminal, looking northeast towards the bridge.
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Monday/ Central Station

I took the train to the city to check out Brisbane Central Station today.

Here comes my train: the northbound train on the Ferny Grove Line approaching the Park Road Station.
Four stops later gets one to Central Station. There are 6 platforms for the 6 lines that serve the city and its suburbs. I had just stepped off the train.
Inside the main hall of Central Station: a pretty standard train station hallway with information screens, ticket counters and a few places to get something to eat.
The Ann Street entrance and the original 1889 building for the Brisbane Central Station.
St Andrew’s Uniting Church, at the corner of Ann Street and Creek Street. Designed by George David Payne and built in 1905 by Alexander Lind & Son.
Anzac Square & Memorial Galleries is located just across the street from Central Station. This is the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Dedicated Memorial Queensland, in honor of First Nations servicemen and women in Brisbane. The memorial is brand new, and was unveiled in May of 2022.
A little further on is Post Office Square with stores and a food hall below street level. The main Australia Post post office is across the street. I endeavored to buy some 2022 issue Australian postage stamps, one set with Australian dinosaurs on and another set of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but they were out of stock on both counts.
These interesting geometric window pane patterns are on the Brisbane Club Tower nearby.
There is coffee everywhere in the city, and a few Starbucks locations as well. I thought Starbucks had withdrawn entirely from Australia, but there are still 50 or so locations in the Brisbane, Melbourne, Gold Coast and Sydney areas.
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Sunday/ Queen Street Mall

I took the No 120 bus to the bus terminal under the Queen Street Mall in downtown Brisbane today.

The Queen Street bus terminal is reached by tunnels under the Queen Street Mall. It’s best to check with Google Maps to make sure you wait at the right place! (and Google’s Platform 1-E is the same as Platform 1e on the signs).
There was a flea market on Brisbane Square today. That’s the Treasury Casino and Hotel Brisbane in the distance.
The art deco façade of the 1929 York Hotel was preserved when the Myer Centre at the Queen Street Mall was constructed in 1982.
Another building, that of the Hotel Carlton (constructed 1891), was preserved, along with its beautiful wrought iron railings.
These kangaroos are at the corner of Queen Street and George Street.
Walking along George Street, and looking up at the W Hotel (front, opened in 2018) and The One condo tower (at the back, opened this year).
Looking out from the entrance at the Brisbane Magistrate offices off George Street.
The aluminum and concrete artwork was installed in 2009 and the artist is Daniel Templeman.
The McDonnell & East Ltd Building at 414 George Street is a former department store, and now a heritage-listed building. It was designed by Thomas Ramsay Hall and built from 1912 to 1928 by Andrew Gillespie.
Here’s the Albert Street Uniting Church, holding its own against its concrete and steel neighbors. It was designed by George Addison and built in  1888-89 by Thomas Pearson & Sons.
A pair of kangaroos on King George Square. Mama kangaroo has a joey in her pouch (a baby kangaroo is called a joey). 
Here’s Brisbane City Hall, inaugurated in 1930. The building design is based on a combination of the Roman Pantheon, and St Mark’s Campanile in Venice— and is considered one of Brisbane’s finest buildings.
I made my way back to the Queen Street Mall, standing under a large steel and glass canopy and contemplating if the two colors on the historic old building complement each other well enough.
Here’s a Tesla Model 3 slipping into a parking garage nearby.
I thought BUZINGA might be Australian for Yowza! or something like that. All that a Google search revealed is that Buzinga is a cutting-edge software company in Melbourne.
Here’s a classic Queen Victoria statue, this one keeping watch over the grounds of the Queens Gardens Park. Victoria’s reign of 63 yrs (1837 -1901) has been eclipsed only by the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.
Taking a closer look at the Queens Wharf Tower construction project nearby, at 1 William Street. It is scheduled to open in 2023. 
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Friday/ the South Bank

We took the bus this morning to South Brisbane and South Bank, on the banks of the Brisbane river.

Inside the Route 125 bus on the way to the South Bank bus station. The TransLink Go card that I had used on the train yesterday, is good for buses and ferries as well.
This is Street Beach on the banks of the Brisbane River. The sand is trucked in from the a beach on the coast! The green is a large swimming pool. The brown above the green is the Brisbane River.
The prominent skyscraper in the middle is 1 William Street (42 floors, opened in 2016).
The construction project to its left is Queen’s Wharf Brisbane, scheduled for completion in late 2023. It will contain high-end residences (around US $2 million) and public spaces and entertainment venues.
The Clem Jones Promenade runs along the river, with a green space and magnificent fig trees providing shade for warm summer days.
This is the Nepalese Peace Pagoda nearby, that was built in 1988 by craftsmen from Kathmandu for the Brisbane Expo 88.
Looking northeast towards the downtown skyline. The Victoria Bridge (concrete, constructed in 1969) is on the far left. The skyscraper on the left is ‘The One‘ apartment (condominium) tower that had opened earlier this year (82 floors). The Queen’s Wharf Brisbane construction project is on the right.
The intersection of Queen Street & William Street on the opposite side of the Brisbane River, at the Victoria Bridge. The periwinkle, yellow, orange and lime green buildings are part of a public square called Reddacliff Place, named in honor of prominent Brisbane architect Trevor Reddacliff (born 1942, dec. 2005).
The Treasury Building on the right, was constructed in 1930. It is now the home of the Treasury Casino and Hotel Brisbane.
The Australian white ibis is found across Australia, and I have already seen a few of them here in the city. They eat frogs, fish, crustaceans and —scraps of food that humans may have discarded on the streets.
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Thursday/ lookin’ out my front door 🚪

Just got home from Illinois, lock the front door, oh boy!
Got to sit down, take a rest on the porch
Imagination sets in, pretty soon I’m singin’
Doo, doo, doo, lookin’ out my back door
There’s a giant doin’ cartwheels, a statue wearin’ high heels
Look at all the happy creatures dancin’ on the lawn
Dinosaur Victrola, listenin’ to Buck Owens
Doo, doo, doo, lookin’ out my back door
– From Lookin’ Out My Back Door, song by Creedence Clearwater Revival from the album Cosmo’s Factory, released 1970.
(A dinosaur Victrola is an old record player with a horn speaker).

The last thing the contractors painted this afternoon was the porch. They cleaned up right after that and left after we did our final inspection together.

Here’s the repainted Timid White at my front porch, with the same sturdy gray porch paint that I had before. I may have to add another ‘obstacle’ in front of the steps. That one blue ribbon with WET PAINT written on it may not be enough to deter the mailman and other visitors before it’s too late!
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Wednesday/ tennis in Astana 🎾

This week’s ATP 500 tennis tournament is hosted by the city called Astana. And where in the world is Astana, would you say? It’s in Kazakhstan 🇰🇿, and called ‘the world’s weirdest capital city’ by CNN in a 2012 story.

Tennis only became a significant sport in Kazakhstan due to the crusade and a labor of love by billionaire Bulat Utemuratov, in a campaign that had started 15 years ago in 2007.

Matthew Futterman writes in the New York Times:
Using almost entirely Utemuratov’s money, the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation went on a building spree, investing roughly $200 million — nearly a tenth of his estimated fortune — to construct 38 tennis centers in all 17 regions of the country. It trained hundreds of coaches and instructors and imported some from Europe. It subsidized lessons for young children and adolescents who can train six days a week for $40-$120 per month. The best juniors receive as much as $50,000 to pay for training and travel.

Inside the Beeline Arena, the home of Kazakhstan National Tennis Center in the heart of the capital Astana. The lime green part of the court is a little unusual —maybe by design? Here is David Goffin (Belgium, 31) serving against the newly minted World No 1, Carlos Alcaraz (Spain, 19) in a first round-match yesterday. Alcaraz lost 3-6, 5-7 — a disappointment for me, and certainly for the tournament organizers. Ticket sales have reportedly been brisk, though.
[Still from Tennis TV streaming service]
A bird’s eye-view of Astana. CNN says ‘little surrounds the city for 1,200 kilometers, save a handful of provincial towns dotted across the world’s largest steppe, a flat, empty expanse of grassland. Shooting up from this void is a mass of strangely futuristic structures’.
[Picture: Alexander Zemlianichenko/Associated Press]
The Presidential Palace in the foreground was designed to resemble the White House in Washington D.C. (I’d say it’s a passing resemblance, at best). The translucent tent-like structure in the distance is the US$ 400 million Norman Foster-designed Khan Shatyra shopping mall, and said to be the world’s largest tent (but it is really a tent?).
[Picture Credit: AFP/ Getty Images]

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Saturday/ the ‘deep river’ 🌫

Here’s my house’s front door (that used to be brown) with its new paint— a color called ‘Deep River’.
‘Reminiscent of vast jungle rivers, this saturated gray has a hint of green in its undertone’, says the Benjamin Moore brochure.

Colors are complicated. The green undertone of the door’s paint stands out strikingly in the direct sunlight. In the shadows, the eye sees more gray than green. In the dim winter light in a month or two, it might look like a dark gray, almost black.
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Saturday/ Balboa Park

Balboa Park is a 1,200-acre historic and urban, cultural park in San Diego.
The park was originally called ‘City Park’, but was renamed after Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa, in honor of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, held in the park that year.

The architecture of the buildings in Balboa Park are a mix of Mediterranean and Spanish Colonial Revival style.

My brother and I have been to the San Diego Zoo (next to Balboa Park) many, many times, and we decided it was time to take a look inside the Natural History Museum instead. This is the main entrance.
The original ‘Jaws’ .. a megalodon model on display in the main exhibition hall. The model is very accurate, and shows the electroreceptors on the shark’s nose between the nostrils. These receptors are filled with a jelly-like substance which help the shark to pick up electrical fields in the surrounding water. They can detect even the slightest of electrical pulses from the muscle movement of potential prey. Megalodons lived approximately 23 to 3.6 million years ago, and are relatives of today’s great white sharks.
Another view of the main exhibition hall, with a Steller’s sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) top left. These slow-moving sea creatures grew to 9 m (30 ft) and 8-10 tons and had relatively few predators, but were easy prey for humans. Within 27 years of its discovery by Europeans in the Bering Sea between Alaska and Russia, the slow-moving and easily-caught mammal was hunted into extinction for its meat, fat, and hide. The year was 1768.
The California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) is a New World vulture and the largest North American land bird. They became extinct in the wild in 1987, at which point only 22 birds in captivity remained. Breeding programs at San Diego Zoo and Los Angeles Zoo were launched, and as of December 2020 there were 504 California condors living wild or in captivity.
The Balboa Park Botanical Building. Built for the 1915-16 Panama-California Exposition, along with the adjacent Lily Pond and Lagoon, the historic building is one of the largest lath structures in the world.
The beautiful façade at the entrance of the San Diego Museum of Art has detailed full-body sculptures of artists Velázquez, Murillo, and Zurbarán.
The nearly 200-foot-tall Tower and Dome of the California Building are covered with intricate carvings, colorful tile, and glass beads.
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Sunday/ Pioneer Square 🧱

Here are pictures from my (self-directed) architecture appreciation tour today, around Pioneer Square.

Here’s the Pioneer Square light rail entrance and exit hall, on Yesler Way.
Looking up at one of Seattle’s most famous landmarks: Smith Tower, constructed in 1914 and named after its builder, the firearm and typewriter magnate Lyman Cornelius Smith (not related to Horace Smith of Smith & Wesson).
Detail of the white terra-cotta cladding on the walls and the overhang of the pyramid top of the Tower.
The Collins Building right next door, in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, was built much earlier, in 1894. The construction was paid for and supervised by Irish-American businessman John Collins, who had also served as Seattle’s fourth elected mayor.
Across the street is the Corona Lofts apartment building, which is also a historic landmark building, built in 1903.
Walking along Yesler Way towards the waterfront, and here is the canopy at the old Travelers Hotel building (constructed 1913) that says Barney McCoy’s Buffet Lunch, Cigars, on the side that is facing the street. (Present day there is a cozy eatery called 84 Yesler inside).
The CitizenM hotel at Yesler and Alaskan Way is a brand-new boutique hotel (it’s a Dutch brand). The large tiled graphic mural is called ‘Schema’: an abstract map depicting layers of Seattle’s early history and idiosyncrasies.
The Pioneer Square Hotel was designed by architect Albert Wickersham and built in 1914. By the 1930s it was a flophouse (a cheap hotel & rooming house). Restored in the 1990s, and now run by the Best Western franchise, it had long been the only hotel in Pioneer Square. (The new CitizenM hotel is kitty corner from it).
Here’s the corner of Yesler and First Avenue. This building started out as the National Bank of Commerce building, constructed in 1890-91. (So right after the Great Fire of Seattle in 1899, which had destroyed 25 city blocks, including some in Pioneer Square).
‘Constructed in 1890 and known as the Squire-Latimer Building for many years, this ornate brick building was the home of Seattle’s Grand Central Hotel (1897-1933). Like many luxury hotels, the Grand Central did not outlast the lean years of the Great Depression’. -from theclio.com
A peek of the hallway inside the boarded-up Grand Central Hotel building with my phone camera’s wide-angle lens.
The four-story State Building on South Washington Street, built in the Queen Anne – Richardsonian Romanesque style, is another that was constructed in 1891, right after the Great Seattle Fire of 1889.
The Broderick Building (constructed in 1892), is a six-story building with brick walls and large blocks of rusticated Tenino sandstone on its main facades.
The Mutual Life Building of 1897, built in a modified Romanesque Revival style, is on First Avenue. It had suffered minor earthquake damage on two or three occasions, and was in need of some repair work by the 1970s. In 1983, the totally empty Mutual Life Building was purchased by Historic Seattle, and they spearheaded a complete architectural rehabilitation the following year.
A closer look at the detail at the base of the arch at the building’s entrance.
This is the public space called Occidental Square, and the totem artwork is of Tsonoqua, a mythological giantess and ‘nightmare bringer’ invoked by exasperated North Coast mothers to frighten their children into obedience.
Another view of Occidental Square. The Seattle Fallen Firefighters Memorial statue by Hai Ying Wu (1995) honors generations of heroes. On the right are the glass windows of the Occidental Street offices of the timberland and wood products company Weyerhauser (completed 2016).
All right .. time to go home, and here comes the southbound train rolling into Pioneer Square station. I took the northbound train three stops up to Capitol Hill, and hey! just as I walked out of the Capitol Hill station, the No 8 bus rolled up to take me another seven blocks closer to home.
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Saturday/ apartments with art 🎨

I frequently drive by the newly completed Midtown apartments on (23rd Ave. in Central District) with its colorful exterior and artwork.
Today I checked it out a little closer, on foot.

The Midtown Square apartment building has 7 floors with 428 apartments, from studio ($1,800 pm) to 2-bed, 2-bath (about $3,200 pm). So expensive, as expected for a new development, I guess ⁠—although a 130 apartments are offered as affordable housing units through Seattle’s MFTE and MHA housing programs.
The images on the panels were created by photographer/ artist Adam Jabari Jefferson.
The entrance to the public square on the inside, from the Union Street sidewalk.
The colorful exterior panels on the corner of Union Street and 23rd Avenue.
The artist is Barry Johnson.
Public art on the Union Street/ 23rd Avenue corner. I couldn’t find the artist’s name.
I would like one of these for my backyard. Beautiful.
Central .. the first of a series of murals facing 23rd Avenue.
Edwin T. Pratt (1930 – 1969) was an American activist during the Civil Rights Movement. He was assassinated at his home in Shoreline, WA in Jan. 1969. At the time of his assassination in 1969, he was Executive Director of the Seattle Urban League. His murder is still unsolved.
DeCharlene Willians (1942-2018) was a legendary owner of a Central Area boutique, who also founded the Seattle neighborhood’s chamber of commerce. 
The artist is Central District native Myron Curry.
District.. the second of a series of murals facing 23rd Avenue.
Langston Hughes (1901-1968) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. (The Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute is a cultural, community, and artistic center in the Central District). 
The artist is Central District native Myron Curry.

 

Community .. the third mural facing 23rd Avenue.
Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970) was a musician, singer, and songwriter and a Seattle native.
Ernestine Anderson (1928-2016) was an American jazz and blues singer. Her family moved to Seattle when she was 16.
The artist is Central District native Myron Curry.
The entrance to the public square from 23rd Avenue. The lamp sconces feature performance and recording artists. The installation was made by Henry Jackson-Spieker in collaboration with KT Hancock studios.
I believe this is Duke Ellington (1899-1974), composer, pianist, and leader of a jazz orchestra for most of his life. He gained a national profile through his orchestra’s appearances at the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City. Duke Ellington’s The 1952 Seattle Concert was his first legitimate live performance release.
The public square inside the apartment complex. The picture shows part of a 120-ft mural with historic scenes and lettering that says C E N T R A L  D I S T R I C T.
The artist is Takiyah Ward.
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Monday/ tennis, in La Caja Mágica

The Magic Box (“La Caja Mágica”) was designed by French architect Dominique Perrault. (Also design by him: the François Mitterrand National Library in Paris).
The Magic Box opened in May 2009 at a cost of some US $300 million. The main moving roof is 101m x 72m x 4m (surface area of 7250 sq m/ 78,100 sq ft). The architect used very slender steel columns and trusses in the design. Horizontal trusses in the roof sections help to resist wind forces.

The 2022 Madrid Open tennis tournament is under way, in the multipurpose stadium complex called La Caja Mágica.
During the Madrid Open, it is the only facility in the world with three tennis courts under a retractable roof.

This year, the top Men’s Singles seeds are ‘No Vax’ Djokovic, Sacha Zverev, Rafael Nadal (the ‘King of Clay’), Stefanos Tsitsipas, the Norwegian Casper Ruud, Andrey Rublev— but no Medvedev (he had hernia surgery), Carlos Alcaraz and Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime.

The entrance lobby to the center court named for Manolo Santana, Madrid native and world No 1 as an amateur in 1965. He had passed away last December at age 83. 
[Still from Tennis TV]
It was a rainy day, so the roof was closed today. This is a first-round match between two Grand Slam champions Andy Murray (Scotland, 34) and Dominic Thiem (Austria, 28). Thiem is recently back from an injury to a ligament in his wrist. (He did not need surgery). Murray won 6-3, 6-4.
[Still from Tennis TV]

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Saturday/ it’s not orange; it’s galaxy gold 💫

My mission for the afternoon was to get a few pictures of the Space Needle. It is again painted in galaxy gold for its 60th anniversary⁠— the way it had been for its debut at the Seattle World’s Fair in April 1962.
I even drove up Queen Anne Hill to Kerry Park, to get the classic skyline-with-Space Needle picture.

The Davenport Apartments building is posted here as a ‘Find the Space Needle’ puzzle. (Part of the Space Needle appears in the picture). The Davenport was designed by architect Herbert Bittman in 1925, and has an unusual courtyard entrance to its 14-car garage.

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Friday/ you look nice today

These pictures are from my walk back home from the Bartell pharmacy on First Hill.

This is Hofius House at 1104 Spring Street, First Hill. Designed by German-born architects Spalding and Umbrecht and constructed in 1902. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese began housing the Seattle Archbishop in this residence in 1920.
The Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church at Harvard and Howell held a last service in June 2018, and then closed its doors for good, it seems. The church was built just about 100 years ago, in 1923.
Hey! The tourists are back, even if just a handful. I waved at them. (Maybe I shouldn’t have. I could the city’s reputation for stand-offishness to neighbors and visitors alike, called ‘The Seattle Freeze’).
Spring leaves on the trees by Seattle Central College on Broadway.
I hate graffiti, but hey⁠— if the graffiti complements me, it makes it a little better. Maybe.
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Thursday/ a new garage door

“Open sesame!” (French: “Sésame, ouvre-toi”)
– a magical phrase in the story of “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” in Antoine Galland’s version of One Thousand and One Nights.
It opens the mouth of a cave in which forty thieves have hidden a treasure.

My fancy new garage door & opener arrived today, brought by the technician that did the installation. It took five months after I had placed the order, but that’s OK.

I can do an ‘Open Sesame!’ in four different ways.
1. Press the button on the garage door opener (the one with a clip that I can put in my car);
2. Use the key pad on the outside (enter a PIN code);
3. Use my smartphone app to open it from anywhere (through my home’s wifi network);
4. If all else fails, use the emergency release handle on the door opener inside.

Just four panels, all white. (Yes, will have to see what the white looks like in a few months, but I can always paint it a darker color).
Four windows to let in a little gray Seattle sunlight in winter, and a bright LED light that jumps to life when I open the side door. There’s the rail and (top left) the torque spring that pulls or pushes the panels in the rail track. My old single-panel door had two coiled tension springs along the sides of the door frame, with brackets that had started to buckle— downright dangerous.
The door panels have insulated steel plating, front and back. The windows are plain and practical. There were rounded ones and decorative ones, and frosted panes to choose from as well.
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Monday/ 5 years of construction

It’s been so long, that I had forgotten that this stately old house used to be on the corner of Thomas and 17th Avenue. It was constructed in 1906, and named Dunshee House when it became the home of the Seattle Area Support Groups & Community Center (SASG). It was sold to a developer and demolished in 2017.
[Source: Google Streetview]

The townhomes at Thomas St and 17th Avenue East are done, five years hence from the start of their construction.

There are 4 new townhomes on 17th Avenue, and 2 that are facing Thomas Street. I’m not sure if they are all the same size. One is listed for sale on Redfin & Zillow for $1.4 million: 2,000 sq ft, 3- bedroom, 3.5-bath, detached garage and extra parking space.
Here’s 17th Avenue looking south towards Thomas Street.
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Wednesday/ a brisk walk

It was only 38 °F (3 °C ) as I walked back home today after getting a haircut.
It was good to get out of the house, though .. and hey! I thought: might as well try my luck to get another passport photo taken.

The kiosk at the Bartell pharmacy* at Broadway & Pike had me in and out with great photos in 5 minutes.

*Officially Bartell Drugs or the Bartell drug store. Yes, I know it’s prescription drugs —but it still doesn’t sound right to my ears.

There was a crew cleaning up the main entrance of the beleaguered Kelly-Springfield Building on 11th Avenue. As it was getting ready to open is office spaces (most of it leased by WeWork), the pandemic came. And then in June 2020 the Capitol Hill Organized Protest and its graffiti and vandalism happened right there (half a block away) as well.
A little further north on 11th Ave. on Capitol Hill, is the Central Lutheran Church building. It is boasting new white paint on its gothic-styled main entrance. The Capitol Hill location’s land was purchased in 1901 for $2,300, according to the Central Lutheran archives. The building must have been constructed soon after that.
Nearby the Central Lutheran Church, is the German United Church of Christ, its building also more than 100 years old. It was founded in 1881 by early German settlers, calling themselves “The First German Reformed Church of Seattle.” Today they are largely supported by private donations, and the “German Heritage Society”, the “Plattdeutscher Verein” and the “Frauenverein”.