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Architecture

Summer 2022

Permanence

The ancient Roman architect Vitruvius conceived of three primary virtues for structures: beauty, utility, and firmitas, a term that can be translated as permanence. Naturally, buildings can’t be crafted to last through time immemorial. What is permanence if even stone monuments wear away into sand?

Moreover, as Washington State University architecture professor Ayad Rahmani asks in this issue’s essay, maybe the longevity of structures should be questioned. Rahmani writes about Frank Lloyd Wright’s organic view of buildings and their inevitable decay, and that we should perhaps consider their “measured return to the earth.”

We don’t really expect our buildings to last forever, but we rely … » More …

Lake Quinault Lodge
Summer 2021

Twelve more significant buildings of Washington state

The Washington Classic Buildings project, led by Washington State University faculty, selected 235 structures across the state for the Society of Architectural Historian’s Archipedia. Below are 12 examples of that list.

Read more about the Washington Classic Buildings.

 

Lake Quinault Lodge, Quinault

Lake Quinault Lodge

J. Philip Gruen/SAH Archipedia

Nestled in the Olympic National Forest, the rustic, timber-framed, V-shaped Lake Quinault Lodge draws upon Colonial Revival traditions and features natural wood-stained shingles, gabled ends, dormers, and a cupola. Built … » More …

Tobias Jimenez
Fall 2020

The building of social empowerment

Tobias Jimenez spent his childhood in the type of settlement that he and his colleague Sean Anderson are now striving to improve.

The structures “have no electricity,” Jimenez says. “None have potable water. They’re not connected to the sewer. It’s not sanitary.”

Jimenez (’17 Arch., ’19 M.Arch.) was born in Pasco but moved to Colima, Mexico, with his parents as an infant. They raised him in an informal settlement— “like a favela,” he explains—on the city’s outskirts. “You’re focusing on surviving. You’re spending most of your time and energy trying to meet your basic needs. Living there is one of the reasons I decided to … » More …