Seattle's changing a lot these days (pictured above: A two-bedroom house built in 1900 next to a modern three-bedroom built in 2015 on NW 61st Street in Ballard). But the quintessential "Seattle style" has had some mainstays over the years. (Genna Martin, seattlepi.com)GENNA MARTIN/SEATTLEPI.COM
According to Miller: "I would say that the longhouse in particular, which was built with timber frames and then infilled iwth cedar planks that type of structure was you could see that in early modern post and beam buildings. You have columns roof isn’t supported by wall, supported by post and beam."
KEVIN MORRIS/seattlepi.com file photo
Early white settlers lived in log cabins, typically one-bedroom ones. Though we've come a far way since then, the main philosophies still apply: A connection between the outdoors and the indoors, and a whole lot of wood. Courtesy Eric Slawson/Keller Williams Realty
The Albin house on Seattle's Queen Anne Hill, pictured May 18, 1914, is a good example of the ornate and complex styles that sprung up on the hill thanks to all the new money flowing in. City of Seattle Municipal Archive
The "Seattle box" style was a twist on the box style houses in the country at the time, with more windows, and rooms that were less deep (in order to keep its inhabitants close to the windows).
Craftsman helped grow the city's style in the early 1900s, gaining popularity from the plan and pattern books that flourished during a Seattle boom. Vista Estate Imaging, Courtesy Mary Mathison, Coldwell Banker Bain
Dutch Colonials gained steam around the 1920s, but aren't as prevalent in Seattle. During this period revival styles were flourishing. Courtesy Edward Krigsman/Windermere Real Estate
Tudors, similarly, flourished during the 1930s, though by then Seattle was in the weeds of the Depression. By 1932 building permits had dropped by 95 percent and our own chapter of "Hooverville" (the shanties that sprung up of displaced people) became what is possibly Seattle's first integrated neighborhood. Claudia Groom
"Hoovervilles," a sarcastic tribute to the president who was in power when the Great Depression started, sprang up in major metros across the country and Seattle was no different. Though the community was torched twice, it survived to the beginning of World War II, and boasted about 632 men and 7 women during one census counting. American Stock Archive/Getty Images
The post-war boom brought housebuilding back up and at 'em, with more emphasis on the suburbs (thanks to "white flight" and veterans returning home and looking for cheap housing). Cape Cod (pictured above) and ranch styles started springing up as still undeveloped areas were mostly filled in. Carol McElroy/Windermere Real Estate
With the 1950s came the mid-century Moderns, a big one for Seattle. Paul Thiry, John Yeon, Pietro Belluschi, and C.E. Pratt helped usher in a "more grounded, personally reflective, and localized Modernism," according to Miller. William Feemster/Image Arts Photography
As Thiry himself put the movement: "Maybe not a 'machine for living' ... but rather as a building that would better fit a way of life, that would fit the land, exploit the vast panoramas of waterways and mountains that make the Northwest, that would enliven the gray days of the winter and share the exterior country in Summer." Courtesy Bruce Phares and Mark Besta, Windermere Real Estate
A major theme in Seattle's architecture (and something that became particularly strong with the Modernist movement) is connecting the outdoors to the indoors, typically through a lot of windows (the better to soak up that precious Vitamin D with) and open air spaces, for when our wonderful summers roll through. Michael Walmsley/Windermere
Post-Modernism is a fad that "relatively passed Seattle by," according to Miller. Though some would try (like the Fifth and Jackson Building, pictured here) something about the style didn't stick to Seattle. Dan DeLong/Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Although the new Seattle Central Library is an example of Post-Modernism, so it could've been a post-Boeing-bust problem of funds. During the 1970s and 80s Seattle's market was in major recovery, which greatly affected the housing market. (During 1974, you could buy a three-bedroom with Puget Sounds and Cascades views on Queen Anne Hill for $20,000, or around $117,000 today.) Seattle Post-Intelligencer
A classic Seattle floating home that makes Portage Bay your yard. Floating homes and houseboats have been a part of Seattle's architectural landscape since around 1880s, when millworkers built shanties and secured them to whatever mooring was available. They've survived more than a few attempts to get rid of them. But floating homes have also seen a major decrease since the 1920s when they were about 2,500 strong (there's now a few hundred).
HD Estates
On floating homes and houseboats' modern style: "They tried to use elements of buildings designed for uneven sites and then adapt them to a flat raft...I think as a consequence they're kind of weird, eclectice, idiosyncratic versions of the Northwest style."
Since the late 1990s, Seattle's main focus has been on "modern hybrids," like this one designed by Milton Stricker, an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright. As the listing described it, this home "combines the best of warm Northwest contemporary styling and open mid-century design, yet has appropriate updates for today's lifestyle."
Courtesy Realogics Sotheby's International Realty
This Northwest contemporary with plenty of windows and doors that help connect residents to the outside (in this case Lake Washington beach access).
Listing provided courtesy of Sheri Putzke, Windermere Real Estate
This might not surprise you but over the years the Seattle style has not fallen all that far from the architectural tree.
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Or maybe it will surprise you; Seattle has been inhabited, in one form or another, for millennia, and has seen an abundance of architectural styles come and go. But though the conditions, style and growth rate may have changed Seattle, the city's version of "Northwest Style" has remained consistent.
So what are the fundamentals of Seattle style?
According to local architect and University of Washington professor David Miller, it's not so much a uniform look as it is a school of thought, or a consistent design style that is unique to a place and finds ways to express itself no matter what style wields the most influence at the time.
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For Seattle that means two materials over most others: Wood and steel.
"Wood is an obvious one; it's low carbon, very sustainable material," Miller, a founding partner of Miller | Hull, said. "But with a lot of ship building, the airplane industry, Boeing, Paccar – there's an industrial heritage, and steel is something you see here."
Those are fundamental building blocks for the Seattle-area's architectural style, allowing us to flex other Northwest details Miller credits for the regional style: Building in a simple form, exposed posts and beams, lifted off the land, open to the outdoors, and bringing in natural light.
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It's a philosophy that has presented itself a lot throughout our city's history.
Seattle's architecture, like any city, was influenced by the times and the trends en vogue at the time. As Seattle grew, the new money (Your Yeslers, Dennys, Borens and Blaines) flaunted their wealth with complicatedly lavish Victorian Gothic and Queen Anne style homes. The popularity of these homes atop the hill is what gave the Queen Anne neighborhood its name.
But they didn't define the city: Seattle expanded rapidly – after taking 34 years to create the first 168 subdivisions in King County, 500 subdivisions popped up between 1888 and 1891 – but architects were still rare. Plan and pattern books were used to acquire homes, giving rise to the "Seattle-Box" and Craftsman styles.
Both of those modified the existing styles in order to include more windows or extend the house for an uneven plot of land.
According to Miller, a lot of it has to do with our climate.
"There aren't many flat sites, so dealing with topography, different elevation of the ground," Miller said. "We've had a run of fabulous weather here for the last few months ... but we are light challenged; we have these long, gray days. So capturing natural light is another thing that would be something you'd see in the best Northwest architecture."
Because it's so tied into our climate, it explains why you see more similar patterns between Seattle and Vancouver, rather than Portland.
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"Portland is still within the Cascadia region, but barely," Miller said. "Certainly Tacoma, Seatle, Bellingham, Vancouver – we're in a unique climate zone. Our climate need for natural light is very influential in the architecture."
Of course some of these standards have lasted longer than the cities who have been here: Miller points out that standards found in the modern movements for which Seattle gained prominence – open floor plans, exposed beams – were also in the makings of a longhouse, commonly found in coastal Native American tribes in Washington.
They also provided the blueprint for using the materials we had at our disposal (like a lot of wood), and using it efficiently. That was what architects from the region became prominent for.
"In his most original and best-known designs, he drew chalet, Arts and Crafts, and Prairie School predilections into the milieu of the region, and found in that metamorphosis a restrained but original style which still seems marvelously appropriate to the genius of the place he loved."
Though Seattleites might love those old Craftsman homes, the designs that really turned the city on to the national architectural voice was modern design. It was during the height of modernism (1950s and 1960s) that the area was getting recognition internationally, and cemented our final legacy: Simple.
"I think we're all influenced by style as designers — it's not a bad thing; style tends to reflect culture," Miller said.
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"But I think the Northwest style, in each of those particular phases, is more authentic and doesn't get as wrapped up in too much decoration or over expression of style. There's a kind of restraint that I think maybe goes with our heritage."
