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360-degree virtual tour of Seattle's Freeway Park (Lawrence Halprin, 1976): View full entry

Tucked into a corner of Seattle's Olympic Sculpture Park, a nondescript glass shed is easily passed by. While the park contains a flashy collection of public art (including a Calder, a Serra, an Oldenburg), the most compelling work here could easily be mistaken for a community greenhouse... View full entry

A few years ago, as I prepared to move to China from Italy, I anticipated some serious withdrawal symptoms. I had grown accustomed - no, dependent - on Rome's ubiquitous cafes. Any slot of space big enough to hold an espresso machine could qualify. Place a rickety table out on the cobblestones... View full entry

One of Seattle's true lost wonders, Boeing Plant #2 was constructed in the run-up to World War II, as a production facility for new, metal aircraft, replacing the obsolete Plant #1, whose facilities were (somewhat shockingly, from today's perspective) focused on the production of wooden aircraft... View full entry

Chinese garden design is an artistic practice that, by most accounts, has evolved over thousands of years. Several of Suzhou's famous gardens claim to have been founded in the first and second centuries C.E., their design evolving over time with expansion, destruction, restoration, etc. While many... View full entry

I-5 is one of the most frustrating things about Seattle. The highway slices north-south between downtown and the Capitol Hill and First Hill neighborhoods, severing most of the surface roads running east to west, effectively disconnecting the hilltop neighborhoods from the commercial core. The... View full entry

I was hoping for some culture shock.After a year each in Basel and Rome, and three years in Shanghai, I had become somewhat addicted to novelty, to that sense of discovery one feels exploring a new city. Arrival is a thrill. You know nothing, but find your way, assembling a mental map  from... View full entry