Can we no longer build things beautiful?
This unique 8-story building has been standing on the northwest corner of 3rd Avenue and Cherry Street in downtown Seattle for 118 years.
It was originally built as a home to the Arctic Club, a social institution formed by those men who returned to Seattle after “striking it rich” at Klondike Gold Rush.
It is unique because sculptured walrus heads are lined up on the third-floor exterior.
The tusks are long, the creature’s faces look real, and the intricate ornamental decorations are beautiful. “The building was one of the first in Seattle to use off-white terracotta panels over reinforced steel concrete frames as well as colored terracotta in submarine blue and ochre.” (The Arctic Club Hotel website) When completed, people must have marveled the artistry of the building.
Over a century later, what do we see? Neighboring newer buildings are all much much taller, and have shining glass exterior walls, but none has such complex terracotta surfaces anymore. People focus on maximizing the profit of the buildings, asking how efficiently or how cost-effectively they can build it. Not how beautiful it should be.
Now these sculptured walrus faces look like ghosts – forgotten, abandoned by us human beings, in the name of progress.
I wish not to call this progress…