"Last year I had the opportunity to climb the clock tower of Seattle's historic King Street Train Station and see the glass pyramid at the top, which is made of beautiful cast glass tiles. The pyramid interior glows during the daylight hours and the exterior transforms into an urban beacon at night. As the city of Seattle plans to make a permanent art center here, more people will likely experience one of Seattle's most interesting rooms by passing through the interior of the enormous glass clock on the climb up."

"Our region has some remarkable individuals with big ideas. Two of them are creating alternatives to how we are buried and remembered. The Lundgren Monuments showroom on Capitol Hill displays one-of-a-kind and custom tombstones designed by local artists, architects, and the studio proprietor, Greg Lundgren.The Urban Death Project is a research effort led by Seattle architect Katrina Spade that investigates a sustainable future where human bodies are composted - literally dust to dust. Visit the website for future development and prototype work."

"Seattle designer Sarah Bergman wants to connect all public green spaces across the globe with a garden network of interconnected pathways called The Pollinator Pathway. You can visit her first built prototype located on Columbia Street – which connects The Seattle University Campus on 12th Avenue and Nora's Woods at 29th Avenue. While the conceptual premise addresses a sweeping sustainable future, I love to walk the path when the pollinators are out in full force and clearly using the pathway as the designer intended."

"Seattle’s most obvious tourist attraction remains the best - The Space Needle. My professor, Victor Steinbrueck, was one of the architects in John Graham’s office that designed The Space Needle. This Seattle landmark still offers thrilling views of a constantly changing and growing city. It is the greatest place to explain the region to new visitors, or to eat salmon on a rotating floor with old friends."

"For a very brief time in architecture school, I sublet a tiny houseboat that moored on Lake Union. Architecture school requires continuous and repeated late nights in the studio and my classmates and I chipped in for a used canoe that we could use to float to the center of Lake Union in midnight hours. Floating in the dark water alongside ducks and geese, while staring at the lights of the city in profile beyond was the perfect antidote to hours spent drafting."

"American artist Mark Dion found a fallen 60-foot-long Western Hemlock tree in a Pacific Northwest forest in 2006 and since then it has lived in a custom designed greenhouse in the Olympic Sculpture Park. Acting as a “nurse log,” the tree houses bacteria, fungi, insects, lichen, and plants. Magnifying glasses are provided."

"This summer the PNW will play host to several outstanding art fairs and exhibits. NW Art Now at the Tacoma Art Museum seeks to feature artists who highlight this particular moment in the Northwest visual arts and the intersection of identity, social justice, and the environment (May 14 - September 4, 2016). For the second year in a row over 80 of the world’s top art galleries (including David Zwirner, Pace galleries, as well as a strong contingent of Seattle and Portland galleries) ascend on Seattle (August 4 - 7,2016) for the Seattle Art Fair. A satellite exhibition a few blocks away from the Seattle art Fair is the return of Out Of Sight 2016, which is a large survey of art, installations, video, and performance by Northwest artists."

"Every Sunday evening at 9:30pm about 300 people fill the pews and sprawl across the concrete floors in the dark cathedral of Saint Mark’s, as 18 signers appear out of the darkness and sing hauntingly beautiful music for 30 minutes. Once complete, they disappear as quickly as they arrived, but the impression carries with the mostly young audience as they spill out into the Seattle night."

"One of the first projects that I worked on that got built was the Frye Art Museum on Capitol Hill. The museum contains a small private collection that has become home to some of the Northwest’s most interesting contemporary art shows and events."

"Capitol Hill Block Party is a three-day music and arts festival celebrating Seattle’s iconic arts and music center, Capitol Hill. CHBP takes over six city blocks for three days in the heart of this Seattle neighborhood and showcases over 100 local and national artists. The grounds house three indoor venues, dozens of restaurants and bars, in addition to two outdoor stages built for the event."