Monday, May 21, 2007

More Art Walk and Tacoma.....

Ahh yes, The Elks Club...No. 164 dates from 1916...
Everyone loves it.....some want to decorate it...
some have even
proposed fixing the old girl up
and selling beer
I vote for nothing less than a full bar.......

Williams and Dame had a hand in Portland's Pearl District...





I've been there...strangely, I liked it .....a lot...
because it had what makes a downtown/urban area inviting....Human scale store fronts, neccesary services and lots of fun things to do...
mini-parks, water features, respect for familiar old buildings and a minimum of confusing modern architecture......













From the Broadway side, a righteous doorway, and along the side.....

Below is a pic of the building from the front side.....from the City of Tacoma's Filthy 15......Tacoma is soooo stupid....more on that later......









along the southeast side are The Spanish Steps,
both lovelies are on the
National Historic Register....
and built by Architect Edward Frere Champney
in the classic Second Revival design. The steps lead down to Commerce Street and Tacoma's Link train....why is that important to me?? (See me standing there in the dark like a college-educated hooker?)


Because.....you can take the FREE Link Train from The Elks Club/Spanish Steps to the other end of downtown Tacoma, just a block from the funkoma vintage shop...and back again...How cool is That???
just nod approvingly......


The real ones in Rome
...