From artisanal microbrews to thriving tech start-ups, the Emerald City has a latte to suit every interest – including engineers’.
Sleepless? In Seattle, birthplace of Starbucks and home to the highest number of independent cafés per capita in North America, it’s understandable. Yet there’s so much more to the world’s second most caffeinated city than espresso made with locally roasted Kuma beans or reality-show baristas. Reinvention is part of this former boom-and-bust timber town’s DNA, and today’s high-tech hub brims with unique cultural and culinary attractions – many an easy walk from the Washington State Convention Center, site of ASEE’s 122nd Annual Conference and Exposition.
Those unable or unwilling to hoof it have a number of public transportation options. June’s average temperatures hover in the 60s – but skies can flip from sunny to spritzy in mere seconds. These conditions brighten Seattle’s verdant cityscape, as blossoms burst from its well-watered soil after a long, gloomy winter. Take the opportunity to explore the Emerald City in transition – a state in which it always shines.
Historic Pioneer Square
Downtown Seattle owes much of its charm – and sturdy engineering – to a pot of glue in a cabinetry shop that boiled over on June 6, 1889, igniting a fire that engulfed 25 city blocks and effectively eradicated the rugged, rapidly expanding outpost on the shores of Puget Sound that Europeans had established in 1852. Rather than pack up and start over elsewhere, its hardscrabble citizenry opted to rebuild – reconstructing wharves, raising street levels (up to 22 feet in places), creating a municipal waterworks, and mandating brick or steel buildings to replace the scorched wooden structures.
This handsome architectural redux still stands in Pioneer Square, the city’s oldest neighborhood. Its original streets, buried under the post-fire rebuilding, are delightfully revealed in Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour. Wear sturdy shoes – the pioneer-era subterranean passages are bumpy and poorly lit. While older kids will enjoy the talented tour guides’ bawdy jokes and casual conviviality, the narrow tunnels and talk-heavy format are ill-suited to infants and the very elderly (also claustrophobes).
During the Klondike Gold Rush, Seattle became an essential pit stop for prospectors headed north. Shopkeepers scrambled to outfit travelers with everything from mining lessons to extreme-weather clothing, while brothel and tavern owners hawked services of a different sort. History buffs can learn more about this period at the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, located in a three-story brick building at the northwest corner of Second Avenue South and South Jackson Street (a sandwich sign marks the entrance).
Hungry after all that walking? Pioneer Square is a mini-mecca of casual Italian cuisine. Try Pizzeria Gabbiano, chef Mike Easton’s delectable homage to Roman style pizza, or his ever crowded spaghetti joint, Il Corvo Pasta. Sandwich lovers should join the line for massive porchetta and meatballs sandwiches at Salumi Artisan Cured Meat, the pork-centric shop and deli run by the family of Crocs-clad celebrity chef and Seattle native Mario Batali.
Pioneer Square, still not the safest neighborhood after dark, has several noteworthy libation spots that lure urbane crowds to its brick-lined streets. The smartly named Damn the Weather, for instance, has earned its place on many a top bar list this year, thanks to concoctions like the Bamboo Cocktail, with sherry, dry vermouth, and orange and aromatic bitters. Nearby, at charming boutique E. Smith Mercantile, cognoscenti gather at a wee back bar for gin drinks and snacks of spiced chickpeas and candied pecans. Other attractions include the recently redecorated Il Terrazzo Carmine, a popular traditional Italian restaurant, and chef Matt Dillon’s rustic-chic beauty, Bar Sajor.
Family-Friendly Seattle Center
Built to impress guests of the 1962 World’s Fair, the Seattle Center is home to the Jetsons-evoking Space Needle observation tower, along with a number of family-friendly museums and attractions. A short monorail line ferries visitors between downtown and the 74-acre park, with trains departing every ten minutes. There’s no better way to orient yourself in this lake-rich and mountain-flanked city than to take a zippy, 41-second elevator ride to the top of the 605-foot-tall needle for a 360-degree view of the city. More oohs and ahs await at the nearby Pacific Science Center, featuring a balmy tropical butterfly sanctuary, an IMAX theater, and a gang of eight robotic dinosaurs.
Be sure to save time for the massive Experience Music Project — EMP — Museum. “Dedicated to the ideas and risk-taking that fuel contemporary popular culture” and funded by Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen, the undulating aluminum building was designed by architect Frank Gehry to resemble a smashed Stratocaster. Inside, visitors rock out with state-of-the-art instruments and computerized music tutorials, ogle Star Trek costumes and other sci-fi memorabilia, and enjoy world-class gaming exhibits. There also are 55 vintage guitars on display, and an interactive sound lab.
Before leaving the center, check out the Chihuly Garden and Glass, a trippy, indoor-outdoor wonderland featuring the signature serpentine sculptures and multicolored orbs of Northwest glassblowing artist Dale Chihuly.
Downtown: Art and Soul
A ten-minute walk down Pike Street from the Washington State Convention Center lies Pike Place Market, a popular destination for 108 years. Dubbed “the soul of Seattle,” it houses an impressive array of fresh-food stands, restaurants, curio shops, the original Starbucks, and stalls selling handmade jewelry, wooden toys, and cozy slippers made with wool shorn from sheep on nearby Whidbey Island.
At the entrance to the main arcade, an ever present scrum of visitors surrounds the much-photographed fishmongers as they toss their slippery wares just beneath the market’s iconic red-neon clock. Head one level down to buy tickets to ghost tours led by Mercedes Yaeger, a market lifer whose father has run a shop here since she was seven. Guiding groups through the labyrinthine layers, she tells tales of oft-sighted ghouls like Jacob, a young boy who perished in the 1918 Spanish flu, and Princess Angeline, daughter of chief Sealth—the Duwamish tribe leader for whom the city was named.
From the market, head south down Post Alley past the infamous Gum Wall, a colorful tableau of Wrigley’s and Double Bubble chewing gum that forms the backdrop to many a tourist photo. The alley opens up to the wide Harbor Steps leading to the waterfront and the Seattle Great Wheel, located at Pier 57. A 12-minute ride on this giant Ferris wheel, opened in 2012, offers exhilarating views of Elliott Bay and the city.
It’s a short climb back up the Harbor Steps to the Seattle Art Museum on First Avenue, home to an excellent modern and contemporary art collection, innumerable African and oceanic masks, and the astonishing “Porcelain Room,” lined with warmly lit, floor-to-ceiling shelves full of fine-detailed china. World-class traveling exhibits and an uncommonly well-curated gift shop – a great spot to pick up activity-focused kid’s toys – round out the visit. Before you leave, be sure to check out Mirror by artist Doug Aiken, a glass-covered screen that covers the section of the museum’s facade at the corner of First and Union and has been described as a “living kaleidoscope.” Nearby at First and University, 48-foot-tall “Hammering Man” toils 24/7 outside the museum’s original entrance. One of a series of sculptures by Jonathan Borofsky, this kinetic metal giant features a mechanized arm and is designed to inspire, according to the artist, “the worker in all of us.”
South Lake Union: Enterprise Zone
Connected to downtown Seattle by a 1.3-mile streetcar line that locals gleefully refer to as the SLUT (South Lake Union Transit), South Lake Union is a former warehouse district characterized by squat structures and barren sidewalks. SLU was the subject of much controversy in the 1990s, when Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen backed a measure to convert the industrial wasteland into a grassy park dotted with buildings designed to attract tech and biomedical companies to Seattle. That plan was squashed at the polls, but Allen had already invested $20 million in the project, and has since swayed big-name biomedical and global health companies to set up shop here, including PATH, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Bio-Rad.
As if one billionaire in the ’hood weren’t enough, in 2010 Jeff Bezos moved Amazon.com’s headquarters into a new set of SLU structures large enough to accommodate 30,000 employees. Local restaurateurs soon scrambled to open shiny new versions of their businesses – from high-end pizza to organic sandwiches and upscale Mexican fare – for the well-paid techies who swarm the streets at lunchtime and happy hour.
On the edge of Lake Union, the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) offers an afternoon’s worth of edifying entertainment for families or anyone looking to bone up on the region’s history. First opened in 1952, the museum moved to its current digs – a 50,000-square-foot former naval reserve armory building – in 2012 following an extensive renovation. Upon entering, visitors encounter an airy atrium where kids frolic around a stunning, 65-foot-tall wooden spire that artist John Grade crafted from wood that once lined the sailing schooner Wawona, used to transport lumber between California, Oregon, and Washington State through the 1940s. Capping four floors of exhibits is a top-level maritime collection with a 39-foot-long periscope that rotates 360 degrees for views of downtown Seattle, Lake Union, and the Wallingford neighborhood. (Look out for Gas Works Park, an oddly beautiful public space on the edge of the lake, featuring storybook-evoking grassy hills juxtaposed with the rusty remnants of a former coal gasification plant.)
Beer fans traveling without children should pop into the Brave Horse Tavern, the 21-and-over brew hall from famed local restaurateur Tom Douglas. While some of Douglas’s spots have descended into tourist-trap territory, this warmly lit bar boasts the warm, glowing feel of a ski-lodge pub, with live sports on screens dotted around the long, brick-lined room and two shuffleboard tables where strangers compete while sipping on a selection of microbrews that represent some of the best brands in the Northwest.
Families, meanwhile, will enjoy a trip to outdoor outfitter REI’s spectacular, 100,000-square-foot flagship store, complete with a 65-foot-tall climbing wall (single-visit reservations are available – see the REI website for details) and a two-story stone fireplace, not to mention hard-to-find equipment for all manner of outdoor activity.
Capitol Hill: Music, Oysters, and Bookshops
Northeast of downtown, Capitol Hill was once an edgy grunge-rock epicenter for 20-something counterculture types drawn to its cheap rents and hip dives. Today this highly walkable neighborhood is somewhat slicker – catering to well-compensated young professionals with chic restaurants, bars, and markets; gorgeous green spaces; and a dizzying number of first-rate coffee shops. It remains the hub of the Seattle gay and music communities, and the upshot is a diverse and energetic urban neighborhood brimming with youthful verve.
From downtown, ascend Pike Street to the southern section of the hill known as the Pike-Pine Corridor and home to the recently opened Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room. This gleaming, 15,600-square-foot roasting facility, cafe, and restaurant kicks off the hometown corporation’s latest endeavor: high-end shops aimed at serious coffee nerds. Nearby at Melrose Market, pop into Taylor Shellfish to sample just-shucked Pacific Northwest oysters along with a list of bivalve-friendly wines. Keep walking up Pike Street, and hang a left at Tenth Avenue to reach the Elliott Bay Book Company, a city institution that charms literary types with its carefully selected texts and cozy wood interior. Around the corner is Cal Anderson Park, home to the handsome Lincoln Reservoir. First constructed in 1889 in response to the Great Seattle Fire, the park is named for Washington’s first openly gay state legislator.
Farther up the hill on 15th Avenue East, Seattle’s geeky community gathers in the café and co-working spaces at Ada’s Technical Books, outfitted with a robust collection of science-focused texts – including an entire section devoted to engineering – gadgets and games.
In the evening, serious whiskey and cocktail fans are called to Canon, a self-described “whiskey and bitters emporium” on 12th Avenue East. This warmly lit boite from famed barman Jaime Boudreau recently ranked number six on the list of the World’s Best 50 Bars, and wait times can be lengthy. It’s worth the chance to try Milk N’ Cookies – a concoction of chocolate, milk, and Ardbeg single-malt Scotch that’s served in a ceramic milk carton and accompanied by house-made Oreos laced with Fernet Branca.
Best bets for dinner include upscale Korean barbecue at Trove, old school Italian at Machiavelli, and Indian-by-way-of-the-Pacific-Northwest samplings at Poppy, a favorite of the 30-and-over crowd that tends to congregate on the north end of Broadway, the neighborhood’s main thoroughfare.
Natural Landmarks
Flanked by the Cascades and Mount Rainier, Seattle’s natural surroundings are as much a must-see as the Space Needle. Engineers may find its man-made wonders equally alluring. In a movement known as “the Seattle Spirit,” the city literally moved mountains to build locks, a canal, and the world’s largest man-made island at the mouth of the Duwamish River. Local families enjoy watching yachts and tugs parade between Puget Sound and Lake Washington through the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, built in 1911. A 15-minute drive from downtown, the locks include a fish ladder with underwater glass panels that let visitors watch salmon as they swim upstream to spawn, typically from mid-June through September.
Sporting Life
Seattle plays in the major leagues, and both baseball and soccer will be in full swing during the ASEE annual conference. Safeco Field, the Mariners’ home base, has America’s only retractable roof, a breathtaking view of Puget Sound, and a chandelier made from 100 baseball bats. CenturyLink Field, where stomping Seahawks fans generated two small earthquakes cheering their team to a Super Bowl victory in 2014, hosts the Sounders during fútbol season. Built from recycled materials and decorated with $2 million worth of art, the stadium’s overhang protects 70 percent of its seats from the rain.
From the convention center, catch the number 13 bus (at Third and Pike) to the north end of the downtown waterfront and this nine-acre park with panoramic views and astounding works by artists such as Claes Oldenburg, Ellsworth Kelly, and Beverly Pepper. Free admission and a wide, clean path attract neighborhood joggers, who dart between tourists taking in works such as Alexander Calder’s 39-foot “Eagle,” an imposing abstract bird made from crimson-colored sheet steel. Wander through Richard Serra’s “Wake,” formed by undulating sheets of curved weathering steel, or pause on the pedestrian bridge to study Teresita Fernández’s glass-and-photo piece “Seattle Cloud Cover,” designed to catch the city’s signature moody light. Before its opening in 2007, this stretch of scenic waterfront was home to a contaminated brownfield, and its transformation from foul blight to spectacular green space serves as a vivid visual cue that this once sleepy outpost in the upper left corner of the country has staked its spot among America’s foremost cities for art, culture, and civic ingenuity.
By Jessica Voelcker
Jessica Voelcker is a freelance writer based in Seattle.