Beaux Arts Seattle: The Paris of the West Coast that was never to be...

Visionary Seattle

1912

proposed 1912 Central Station, southwest corner of Lake Union

proposed 1912 Seattle Civic Center, where Belltown is today

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/off-track-seattle-rejects-first-rapid-rail-network-measure-on-march-5-1912/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=article_left_1.1




Instead we have the lovely Mercer mess (near South Lake Union)...and the stunning Westlake Plaza (a few blocks from Belltown)...and a rapid transit system with two routes rather than the two dozen proposed in 1912.

(I feel much civic pride and derive great aesthetic pleasure walking around Westlake Plaza or even the new City Hall plaza).

Note:  Paris razed its Les Halles ca. 1979, courtesy of the spectacular stupidity of President Georges Pompidou, while Seattle somewhat miraculously kept its Pike Place Market, admittedly a far cry from the twelve pavilions of Baltard, with which they bear a common architectural heritage and resemblance.

Les Halles, Paris, ca. 1863