Culture of Seattle. Places to visit - old town, temples, theaters, museums and palaces

» The offbeat museum was designed by Frank Gehry. Critics argue the building is too ugly and unconventional to be considered a landmark of the city.
»  The construction of the undulating building cost $250 million.
»  The concrete building with a steel structure contains 3,000 blocks made of 21,000 sheets of aluminum of different colors – golden, silver, red, blue, green, purple. It creates an impression that the palette of the external facade is constantly changing.
»  The unusual building was shaped to resemble a famous guitarist’s guitar. Jimi Hendrix played a prominent role in the development of American pop music.
»  There’s a concert stage inside. Electronic equipment and a huge LCD screen let visitors fully enjoy the show.
»  A huge structure made up of guitars is part of the interior. The sculpture rises in the center of the exhibition hall.
»  Later, the Science Fiction Museum and the Hall of Fame were built. All together they make up the EMP complex.
»  The building was primarily designed to promote the avant-garde movement in the modern music movement.

» The Catholic cathedral is located in the center of the urban area. Two towers adjoin the building from both sides. They can be seen from afar.
»  The construction is over a hundred years old (1907). More than 5,000 parishioners attended the ceremony when the first stone was laid. Vancouver’s episcopal see was moved here.
»  Due to the builders’ oversight, after nine years, the roof of the building collapsed under the weight of snow. Outbuildings and a priest’s house were additionally built as part of reconstruction works.
»  The colored-glass window openings are preserved in their original form.
»  The altar with a picture of Madonna created by a Florentine master should be considered a historical heritage. It is over 500 years old.
»  The entrance doors are made of bronze alloy. The scenes from the Bible are painted on them.
»  St. James Cathedral keeps the relics of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. The nun is considered the patroness of immigrants.
»  There are two active organs in the cathedral. One dates from 1907 and the other one is from 1994. Organ concerts are regularly held here.
»  The cathedral is included in the list of city landmarks. The religious building is maintained on the funds provided by educational organizations.

Location on the map:   Facts: » 1996 is not the year when the church was built, but the year when it originated as Christ’s creed.
»  Mark Driscoll became an adept. The founders rented a house to preach their views. At first, the audience consisted of 30 people. New people continued to come, so visitors began to gather in a church.
»  The first official service was attended by 160 parishioners. Evening and weekend services and online sermons started to be held. More than 260,000 people watched them online.
»  However, church leadership controversies began to arise. Pastor Mars Hill claimed in his sermons that many believers used the name of the Most High in the pursuit of self-serving goals.
»  In protest against that, Driscoll once arrived for the evening service in a hearse dressed in funeral robes. This defiant behavior was meant to communicate that religious organizations would either fade into oblivion or be able to be reborn in a new incarnation.
»  The church elders attempted to reorganize the religious dogma. But the pastor chose to resign.
»  The church leadership decided to dissolve the community, and the building located in the western part of the city was sold for $9 million.

» One of the facilities of the Art Museum is situated in a park.
»  The exhibitions in this department are dedicated to Asian countries (China, Korea, Japan, the Himalayas, India, etc). Paintings, sculptures, household textile and pottery articles are on display.
»  The cultural institution has 24,000 unique objects.
»  Exhibitions are held in the old building. The museum shop offers goods of Asian origin, printed publications dedicated to the culture and art of the states in question.
»  The 17-18th-century Chinese and Japanese articles from translucent white porcelain attract a lot of attention. Rich Europeans could afford to buy porcelain of such quality.
»  There’s a separate area showing the royal porcelain room. Aristocrats and wealthy merchants liked such rooms.
»  This kind of ceramics was valued just as expensive as gold. The quality was checked with a wooden stick. The translucent edges of a bowl should make a high and clear sound.
»  The rooms were decorated from ceiling to floor with antique porcelain and valuables in the form of decor.

» You can learn the city chronicle by visiting the Museum of History & Industry.
»  The museum is divided into 10 zones.
»  The Brinkley Hall immerses you in the atmosphere of Seattle, when the intensive industrial development of the region was underway.
»  There’s a gallery dedicated to the fire that engulfed many buildings.
»  Apart from permanent ones, there are temporary themed exhibitions. One of them is about the fishing industry development in the 20th century.
»  Car enthusiasts should definitely take a look at Ford. The car was produced in 1992.
»  The Armory used to stand on stilts on the site of the cultural institution. It rose above the lake surface.
»  A glass hole was cut out in the floor of the hall. You can see water through it.
»  A 20-meter Wawona sculpture is situated above it. It rises from the floor towards the ceiling going a meter above the roof. The sculpture was made from a fragment of an old schooner of the same name. It took two years to create it.
»  The museum halls are filled with photos and interactive exhibits. There’s a screen showing the terrain and the changes associated with the development of the area.
»  The Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) was opened in 2012.