Seattle vs Calgary: Capturing the urban tourists' imagination?
For years now friends and colleagues have been telling me “You have to go to Seattle. You will love it!” In May, we did visit Seattle (we have been there before but it was 12 years ago) and yes we did love it, but I couldn’t help but wonder why people love Seattle so much when Calgary has as much urban culture to offer.
Seattle, like Calgary, is a corporate city - Amazon, Microsoft, Starbucks are all headquartered there. However their downtown doesn’t feel as “corporate” with downtown blocks having a good mix of hotel, residential and office buildings, with some street level retail and restaurants thrown in. In fact, on Seattle’s downtown neighbourhood map, they refer to it as the downtown retail core. In contrast, Calgary has 40-blocks filled with two, three and sometimes four office towers per block and no street retail except for Stephen Avenue.
Downtown as a tourist attraction
Perhaps the biggest difference is Seattle’s downtown is perceived as a major tourist destination. Great tourist cities have iconic attractions. In Seattle, hands down, the icon is Pike Public Market. But Seattle also has converted their 74-acre, 1962 World’s Fair site into a year-round attractions district, clustering the Experience Music Project, Chihuly Gardens, Science Centre, Children’s Museum, Space Needle, IMAX and Key Arena into an area called Seattle Centre. Calgary’s equivalent would be Stampede Park - if we added the Calgary Tower, TELUS Spark and the new National Music Centre.
To visualize what the Calgary Flames are proposing for West Village, Seattle would be a good place to visit given its side-by-side baseball and football stadiums at the south end of downtown along the water’s edge, next to the LRT and Amtrak tracks. We explored the area a couple of times (when there were no games going on) and it was like a ghost town. I hope the Flames do better.
From an urban design (architecture, public art and public spaces) perspective, Seattle and Calgary are similar, both having early 20th century historical buildings districts (Pioneer Square vs. Stephen Avenue) as well as many shinny late 20th and early 21st century towers. Seattle’s free Olympic Sculpture Park along their waterfront includes a who’s who of international public art, while Calgary’s entire downtown is a sculpture park with over 100 artworks.
The Seattle Art Museum (known as SAM), like Calgary’s Glenbow, is both an art and history museum. We lucked out on the day we went - SAM is free on the second Thursday of the month. The place was packed – making me wonder why the Glenbow doesn’t offer one day free per month like most museums and galleries in major cities.
Seattle, with its huge convention centre, makes Calgary’s look very minor league. I loved that the public areas have hundreds of artworks that are free for all to explore.
Loved the psychedelic reflection of the Seattle Needle in the facade of the futuristic Frank Gehry's Experience Music Project building.
Seattle Convention Centre has a galleria over the road connecting the large exhibition spaces and meeting rooms. Inside there are hundreds of artworks that create a free public art gallery. A similar galleria was proposed for Stephen Avenue in Calgary connecting Bankers Hall and TD Square but never got built.
The Seattle Central Library is an iconic architectural gem that is popular with both locals and tourists. Hopefully Calgary's new Central Library will have the same popularity.
Like Calgary Seattle has public art everywhere. This piece that using water from the roof of the building caught my attention. In addition, Seattle has a massive Art Park with a "who's who" of public art artists.
Hotel Fun
The hotel culture in Seattle seems very different from Calgary’s, focusing much more on the leisure tourist vs. the corporate traveler. In “sleeping around” downtown Seattle, we discovered a delightful commonality - a vibrant “Happy Hour scene.” The historic Mayflower Park Hotel (famous for their martinis) offers guests free appies in their intimate Oliver’s lounge. The hipster Hotel Max offered free local craft beer in their lobby/living room (as well as great art and several large picture windows for catching the city’s “sidewalk ballet”). The playful Hotel Monaco offered a wine tasting with very liberal pours. Seattle could well be the Happy Hour capital of North America, with 600+ happy hour listings in “The Sauce “magazine.
Mayflower Park Hotel is full of historic charm and character. It is perfectly located for shoppers just a block away from Nordstrom and Macy's.
Hotel Monaco had the most colourful hotel rooms we have ever stayed in. The yoga mat was a nice touch.
Every room at the Hotel Max had a door with a large photograph on the door by a local artists. On our floor all of the doors had photos of Seattle musicians. Very cool!
Like Calgary, Downtown Seattle lacks a real Main Street for shoppers. From a tourist shopping perspective, I was surprised at not only how fragmented their retail is, but also that Nordstrom’s flagship store wasn’t more grand and upscale. Calgary’s The Core shopping center surpasses anything Seattle has to offer shoppers and Holt Renfrew is grander than anything in Seattle.
Urban Living
Urban living is exploding in Seattle - 58 residential projects will add 10,000+ residential units in their City Centre over the next few years. In comparison, Calgary has 7,194 units approved or under construction in its City Centre. Like Calgary, trendy urban communities surround Seattle’s downtown core.
Dozens of highrise condos dot Seattle's urban landscape. Seattle's monorail provides a futuristic perspective of the city for tourists, as does Calgary's 20 km +15 elevated walkway.
Cafe Culture
Belltown is Seattle’s Beltline with lots of new highrise condos, trendy restaurants and its link to the Seattle Centre (1962 World’s Fair site) i.e. their Stampede Park.
Capitol Hill and First Hill communities are separated from Seattle’s downtown core by the I-15 interstate. Capitol Hill is the city’s hipster district with several new low to mid-rise condos and restaurants opening weekly. It is home to Starbucks’ mega new Reserve Roastery & Tasting Room and several other local roasteries. Calgary’s equivalent would be Mission/Cliff Bungalow with its 4th Street restaurant row or Kensington with its abundance of coffeehouses and roasteries.
This Coke machine appeared mysteriously over 15 years ago, outside of the Broadway Locksmith near the corner of John and Broadway in the trendy Capitol Hill district. Nobody knows who it belongs to, where the money goes or who restocks it. It seems pretty popular as two people stop to buy a beverage while I was taking photos.
The Denny Triangle is an extension of the downtown core, much like Eau Claire is in Calgary with a mix of office and condos. Amazon purchased three blocks in the district to create its highrise campus, which will be analogous to Eau Claire’s campus-like collection of dark blue glass oil patch towers - Devon and Centennial towers soon-to-be joined by Calgary City Centre and Eau Claire towers.
South Lake Union, Seattle’s newest urban community, anchored by a Whole Foods store is quickly becoming surrounded by condos, restaurants and shops. Bridgeland would be Calgary’s equivalent.
Whole Food patio in South Lake district creates a wonderful street buzz.
Urban Living Test Drive
For anyone thinking of moving to one of Calgary urban communities and wondering what urban living is all about I’d recommend a trip to Seattle and staying in a couple of different hotels. Our penthouse (12th floor) suite at the Mayflower was equipped with two bathrooms, a lovely living room area with city and sea views and Macy’s and Nordstrom across the street. If you like old world charm, this is your spot.
If you want some fun new home décor ideas, check into Hotel Max or Hotel Monaco. At Max, each room door features a full, door-size local photographer’s work. Walk the hallways and enjoy the free photography exhibition. Our room had original art, as well as a record player with local musicians’ records. How cool is that?
Hotel Monaco is like living in an Andy Warhol or Roy Lichtenstein 60s Pop Art artwork with its use of bright colours and bold patterns. It is amazing how big 500 square feet can look and feel when the city lies outside your front door.
Seattle is know for its coffee, what surprised us were the scrumptious biscuits and jam that on many menus. Yum! Yum!
Last Word
Creating a vibrant city centre is more than just making it a place to “live” (new condos) and “work” (new office towers).” It is about creating a fun urban playground – shops, museums, galleries, restaurants, cafes, concerts, pubs, festivals, theatre, parks, public art and architecture. Calgary’s city centre has much to offer urban tourists as Seattle, Portland or Denver, but for some reason it hasn’t captured the attention of urban tourists.
It is certainly not from a lack of trying by Tourism Calgary!
Click on links below for Calgary blogs that connect to statements made in this blog about Seattle vs Calgary:
Beltline: North America's best hipster neighbourhood?
Kensington: One of North America's Healthiest districts