Building on my previous article, Symbolic Interactionism and Seattle, I’m now going to use the concept of symbolization to read Seattle skyline.
You have seen dozens of those mesmerizing images of Seattle skyline. They have caught your attention and maybe your eyes have wondered through the single elements. What about that saucer-shaped tower standing proudly among the other buildings? But you probably don’t know that the skyline of Seattle is like a puzzle capable of telling her story.
Just a recap. In urban planning the symbolization implies the active process of attribution of meanings to a territory by the people who inhabit it. In this scenario, a monument or a place becomes the identification symbol of a city and it serves as a source of personal identification for the inhabitants.1
Wohl and Strauss pointed out that a city’s spatial and social organization is often times invested in a “sentimental” history, which interests specific landscapes. The feelings that people have of cities impact on how they perceive and act towards them. They went on arguing that an invariable characteristic of city life is that in order to “see’ the people must employ certain stylized and symbolic objects/images. And the images they use and get attached to are those they see the most. And those that, for the city and her inhabitants, have some special meaning. For example, the Space Needle is linked to an event that got Seattle known worldwide. Cities, in other words, sets problems of meaning. The streets, the buildings, the changing scenes do not come already labelled.
This is the red thread of my analysis of the city of Seattle. Therefore, let’s have a practical example with a closer look on Seattle skyline.
Seattle skyline, seen from what is perhaps the most famous observation spot in the city, the scenic Kerry Park in Queen Anne, allows the gaze to catch in few instants all the symbols which define Seattle’s urban imagery. That is also the most typical image that can be retrieved from a simple internet query. It is also the image captured on the numerous postcards sold in the little shops crammed in the maze-like structure of Pike Place Market. Or in the various gift shops on the Waterfront picturesque piers.
In the foreground we are struck by the typical evergreen vegetation which dominates the Pacific Northwest and which, coming from the frame, dominates the artificial landscape.
Now let’s have a look at the background, starting from the left. We see the Space Needle, with its sleek hourglass-shaped profile derived from an abstract bronze sculpture, “Feminine One” by David Lemon, topped by an observation deck in the shape of an Oriental pagoda (the effect was more pronounced with the first golden paint).
A bit behind, the skyscrapers of the Business District seem to act as its wings while on the bottom right the Coliseum is visible. Its peculiar roof shape probably derives from the Salish Cedar Bark Hat, a typical Native headgear. Behind it, the gothic arcs of the Pacific Science Center by architect Minoru Yamasaki. Moving on, where the skyscrapers fade away, we see the elliptical arcs of Lumen Field and the balk of the Ferris Wheel at Pier 57.
In the far right, red-colored, are the tower cranes of Seattle’s vibrant seaport against the backdrop of the famous Mt. Rainier.
An image that, at a glance, catches nature, urban icons, and elements that are either Occidental, Native, and Asian. An atmosphere of the “Thousand and One Nights” in a new and reviewed way. The character that, in my opinion, defines the so-called “Seattleness”.
By Valentina Chiarello
References:
1. M. Hutter, Experiencing Cities, 2007. The next two paragraph are also extracted from the same book and can be found in the chapter called ”Anselm L. Strauss: Images of the City” (:15-17)
