Seattle Architecture

Seattle Architecture: A Walking Guide to Downtown
Preservation Education and Publications Award

Authors: Maureen R. Elenga and Seattle Architecture Foundation
Publisher: Seattle Architecture Foundation
Photographer: Roger Williams, FAIA

Cover of Seattle Architecture: A Walking Guide to Downtown / Photo: Seattle Architecture Foundation

Seattle Architecture: A Walking Guide to Downtown is a book that has been waiting for someone to tackle for decades. Seattle Architecture is the first effort to assemble an up-to-date, factually accurate review of buildings downtown that is also compelling, readable, and celebratory. It divides the city into nine understandable and easily traversed districts and sets over 360 individual buildings within the historical, social, and economic context of their time and place. The book grew out of valuable information Seattle Architecture Foundation volunteers have compiled during 18 years of researching and producing walking tours. Much additional research and fact checking was done by author Maureen Elenga as part of her master’s project in the Department of Art History at the University of Washington with additional volunteer support. Development and printing was supported by 61 donors.

Seattle Architecture: A Walking Guide to Downtown was re cognized with a 2009 Preservation Education and Publications Award for allowing residents and visitors to Seattle the joy of realization that comes along with, “I never noticed that before.”