- 01 BELLEVUE ARCHITECTURE | Key Center Building – 2000 – Callison Architecture Inc.
Bellevue stands above the eastern shore of Lake Washington: the older and larger Seattle is set beyond its western shore. The concentration of downtown towers in the former is much smaller and of relatively recent date. Although in the past I had been taken by car to specific Bellevue buildings my first solo street walk was in summer 2010.
- 02 BELLEVUE ARCHITECTURE | Key Center Building – 2000 – Callison Architecture Inc.
I had about three hours in which to photograph under an afternoon breeze that kept the clouds in constant change from absence to complete local cover. The architectural styles of the two cities seemed quite distinct, particularly the Bellevue use of geometrically irregular ground plans, the intricate forms they support and the use of glass.
- 03 BELLEVUE ARCHITECTURE | Key Center Building – 2000 – Callison Architecture Inc.
I liked this building (01/04) for its silvery metallic sheen and the juxtaposition of flat-surfaced angularity and gentle curves on its component volumes. Metering to accommodate the bright metal darkened the sky in the coloured images and created the black to white tonal range in this monochrome. I also liked the complexity added by the reflections at the step change from curved to straight in 02 and 03 and the chessboard fenestration of the western façade in 04.
- 04 BELLEVUE ARCHITECTURE | Key Center Building – 2000 – Callison Architecture Inc.
A sky almost clear of clouds and the wide light contrast encouraged this symmetrical composition.
- 05 BELLEVUE ARCHITECTURE | Rainier Plaza – 1986 – Mahlum Architects
Intervening trees and low-rise structures obscured the lower storeys of a much taller tower than this perspective suggests. This is a building with a far from regular ground plan that supports a sharply sculpted form with a slender metal glazing grid reducing its visual weight. I would have preferred a procession of more billowy clouds to be reflected across the façade.
- 06 BELLEVUE ARCHITECTURE | Rainier Plaza – 1986 – Mahlum Architects
From a different viewpoint the three facets to the left in image 05 each offered reflections of different buildings behind me. I have included such reflections in other galleries and intend to assemble a larger and more varied collection over time.
- 07 BELLEVUE ARCHITECTURE | Rainier Plaza – 1986 – Mahlum Architects
The Key Center Building is caught in the angled glazing of the Plaza façade. Metering to the bright white of the reflection darkened the blue tones of the reflected sky.
- 08 BELLEVUE ARCHITECTURE | Rainier Plaza – 1986 – Mahlum Architects
Turning the lens skywards towards white cloud cover created an image almost bleached of colour in which line predominates.
- 09 BELLEVUE ARCHITECTURE | Rainier Plaza – 1986 – Mahlum Architects
Thickening clouds approached from the west contrast with the reflections of an earlier and more open skyscape drifting away behind the camera.
- 10 BELLEVUE ARCHITECTURE | Rainier Plaza – 1986 – Mahlum Architects
The sawtooth façade carried a series of closely related reflections. The Mahlum Architects' Bellevue Center further down the Avenue has similar design characteristics.
- 11 BELLEVUE ARCHITECTURE | Rainier Plaza – 1986 – Mahlum Architects
I liked the relationships of the horizontal geometric shapes, multiple reflections and the slightly ambiguous sensation of peering through glass that also projected reflections. The 1988 Bank of America Building by Sclater Partners provides the principal architectural reflection.
- 12 BELLEVUE ARCHITECTURE | City Center Bellevue – 1986 – Callison Architecture Inc.
I photographed this building from differing distances and vantage points but found the more distant shots of its bronzed glass under blue sky rather disappointing: the camera did not record the colours I saw. A formally balanced composition is one of my habits but here I liked the off-centre nudge given by the shadows of the clock and structure.
- 13 BELLEVUE ARCHITECTURE | City Center Bellevue – 1986 – Callison Architecture Inc.
The contrast between the solid weight of stone and the lightness of the glazing appealed as did the interaction between bronze tinted glass and the white and blue of the sky.
- 14 BELLEVUE ARCHITECTURE | City Center Bellevue reflected in the Bellevue Center
The Bellevue Center was designed by Mahlum Architects and is very similar to their Rainier Plaza (05 – 11) designs in form and fenestration. An avenue of trees softened the streetscape.
- 15 BELLEVUE ARCHITECTURE | City Center East – 2009 – Zimmer Gunsul Frasch Partnership
This building was set well back from the street vantage point of the previous image. Turning around. I used a zoom lens to isolate a section of the very gently curved façade and to reduce perpendicular perspective. Reflections of the late afternoon sky surround dark shadows cast by intervening buildings. I liked the random interventions of drawn blinds and office equipment.
- 16 BELLEVUE ARCHITECTURE | Bellevue Towers – 2008 – GBD Architects
A pair of slender apartment towers stood amidst associated low-rise buildings to the west of the city centre. In the short time left to me I found their intricate and irregular forms were difficult to photograph in the late afternoon light. An opportunity to shoot across the day would be a challenge, but one unlikely to materialise.
- 17 BELLEVUE ARCHITECTURE | Bellevue Towers – 2008 – GBD Architects
I was, as usual, using available supports rather than a tripod and I briefly speculated that one might have been useful here. I recall a writer-photographer stating that the automatic use of a tripod marked out the professional architectural photographer from the amateur. I have also read and agree with other practitioners who dislike it as a burden and an encumbrance on the street.
- 18 BELLEVUE ARCHITECTURE | Reflection: South East 6th Street and 112th Avenue South.
A walk to the Wilburton Trestle with a companion earlier in the day took us past this reflection in the lower half of a darkly glazed building. The timber bridge is a remarkable structure nearly 1,000 feet in length and some 100 feet in height built by the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1904. Now it is little used by its current owners, the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railroad: images may well appear in a future 'bridges' gallery.