Who the Fuck Puts Blinders on a Building? - The Stranger | Comments

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1

Could be a cooling method. It looks like they're shading the windows quite a bit.

on June 14, 2013 at 12:05 PM

2

It's ART.

Baconcat on June 14, 2013 at 12:06 PM

3

Stops a lot of sunlight from roasting the denizens

Gordon Werner on June 14, 2013 at 12:07 PM

4

Exactly what @1 said.

on June 14, 2013 at 12:07 PM

5

I'm guessing they're planning on running something "green" up the lattices, like clematis or some other vining plant.

k.wren on June 14, 2013 at 12:08 PM

6

Well, you don't want the building to get distracted or frightened by something in the peripheral. That could cause all kinds of problems.

MacCrocodile on June 14, 2013 at 12:09 PM

7

@1 & @3 It's to stop the western sun from blinding/roasting that side of the building and the people inside.

dry dock on June 14, 2013 at 12:09 PM

8

Shade? Those windows face SW, so perhaps they are to reduce the glare from the blistering south-arcing Sun.

oh wait.. hahahahaha! >phew!< Ahem. Yeah, anyway, I thought they looked odd and purposeless too.

No! I know! They are "po-mo"! That's gotta be it.

treacle on June 14, 2013 at 12:10 PM

9

Because the architect doesn't want every unit turning into an insufferable oven right about the same time people are getting home. Reducing the direct sunlight hitting each apt will hopefully, in turn, reduce the number of people who fire up a portable AC unit in order to go to sleep at night.

So it's greener. Get it?

dak7e on June 14, 2013 at 12:10 PM

11

Also, to be honest, I think it actually adds some dimension and texture to what would otherwise be a boring generic box.

dak7e on June 14, 2013 at 12:12 PM

12

They're passive solar shades to reduce energy costs.

on June 14, 2013 at 12:14 PM

13

I like it a lot. The color goes pow and the shades are going to soothe that fierce afternoon sun.

TomJohnsonJr on June 14, 2013 at 12:19 PM

14

Passive solar cooling clearly.

In addition to shading the windows in the summer --assuming they got the right angle on the grid for the mesh-- they should also let more light/heat into the windows in the winter, when the sun is at a lower angle in the sky.

Timrrr on June 14, 2013 at 12:24 PM

15

They're for throwing shade.

Foggen on June 14, 2013 at 12:24 PM

16

You're absolutely right. You don't get it.

pfffter on June 14, 2013 at 12:25 PM

17

@12 (and others) is (are) right - passive solar shading. This is very green and very smart. @13 is also exactly right. Parade that ignorance proudly though!

AFinch on June 14, 2013 at 12:27 PM

18

They're saving the residents from (a) roasting to death and/or (b) paying $1,000 a month for A/C.

Fnarf on June 14, 2013 at 12:33 PM

19

Why we let people out of high school without so much as one hour of physical science class is beyond me.

ScrawnyKayaker on June 14, 2013 at 12:40 PM

20

@15: Well played.

MLM on June 14, 2013 at 12:41 PM

21

They're there to save the developer some money.

There are much more attractive ways to do solar mitigation, and I'm sure the design featured one of them before the initial plan was turned over to the bean-counters. This will work well enough to keep the green cert, at minimal cost.

robotslave on June 14, 2013 at 12:44 PM

22

"the SHADE of it all"
- Latrice Muthafucking Royale

Rowlf on June 14, 2013 at 12:53 PM

23

What everyone else said. Heating & cooling buildings uses a lot of energy

Will in Seattle on June 14, 2013 at 1:02 PM

24

the term is Brise Soliel.

and a reporter has the tools to dertermine the firm, call the architedct and ask the question. DPD has all sorts of info.

Max Solomon on June 14, 2013 at 1:05 PM

25

Did I miss the announcement that today was Baseless Uninformed Complaint Day on Slog?

d.p. on June 14, 2013 at 1:13 PM

26

I don't know if anybody has mentioned it yet, but I think those might be some kind of shading device to keep the apartments cool in the sunlight.

MacCrocodile on June 14, 2013 at 1:52 PM

27

FFS you guys... Nice try, but: no.

These are actually cilia, and in future they will be waving and undulating, communicating & exchanging all sorts of fascinating info with the yet-to-be-built building across the street, which will also have cilia installed on its outer skin.

It's the first phase of AIB - Artificial Intelligence Building. And apparently, Seattle is in the vanguard of this exciting new technology.

Yer welcome. :-)

merry on June 14, 2013 at 1:53 PM

28

@6 wins!

WFM on June 14, 2013 at 2:04 PM

29

@28 I would have said @27 ...

Will in Seattle on June 14, 2013 at 2:11 PM

30

@27 hi crazy!

Rowlf on June 14, 2013 at 2:20 PM

31

It could use balconies but it's a nice looking building. You mad it's not an apodment?

treehugger on June 14, 2013 at 2:27 PM

32

@ 30 - Whoosh!!

merry on June 14, 2013 at 2:38 PM

33

Is this the same reason the downtown Library is cover by a giant cheese grater. Always thought that was weird looking too. But then the inside is sterile and cold, so chalked that up to Seattle's...

on June 14, 2013 at 2:59 PM

34

Its kinda funny hpow so many people have to chime in with an answer, after the original question was adequately answered.

SLOG: A potty-mouthed (and tipsier) version of Wikipedia's Help Desk.

Dr_Awesome on June 14, 2013 at 2:59 PM

35

Blocks the sun. Makes sense to me. Not much of a mystery here...

Eckstein on June 14, 2013 at 3:03 PM

36

Because you do NOT want a building that size to get spooked by one of those caterwauling, new-fangled iPodments and go galloping all higgledy-piggledy up the counter-balance in a paroxysm of rambunctiousness - can you IMAGINE the imbroglio such a kerfuffle could cause?

COMTE on June 14, 2013 at 3:08 PM

37

To be fair to Cienna, Seattle does have a lot of ugly nonsense decorating our buildings.

Andy on June 14, 2013 at 3:21 PM

38

@ 34 - Or jokes, even, huh? I KNOW! Buncha bucketmouths...

@ 36, from 6 - Oh, that made me LOL pretty hard.....

merry on June 14, 2013 at 3:29 PM

39

I like the idea of using those for plants. I'd love to try to grow some tomatoes or whatever on the things. Also, I would have like it if those were more like window shutters so that I could open and close them to my liking.

Simone on June 14, 2013 at 3:57 PM

40

@39

Either of those would compromise the greenlyness that the things are meant to impart. The plants because they would require watering and energy for their upkeep, the adjust-ability because averaged aesthetic preference is quite unlikely to provide efficient temperature regulation.

robotslave on June 14, 2013 at 4:26 PM

41

No one in Seattle should be worrying about too much sun.

johnnie on June 14, 2013 at 5:03 PM

42

It's because architects are self involved morons whose purpose is to spend way too much money on something ugly while they then criticize the workers who fuck up their "vision".

pb1025 on June 14, 2013 at 5:05 PM

43

@41

You just live in the wrong part of Seattle. In my part of town, the east sun is deadly in the morning during the summer, and the south sun is blinding in the winter. Neighbors get to live with setting sun.

uptown on June 14, 2013 at 6:12 PM

44

@41
Ignore my rant, forget I said anything, we don't having no stinking sun, no sir.

uptown on June 14, 2013 at 6:14 PM

45

I have a west-facing office over the sound. I would estimate that maybe 40-50 days out of the year I am absolutely roasted in the afternoon.

These work well for some applications. What I'd really like is an engineered awning that sits at the right angle so I get sun through the winter, but when the sun is higher the window is shaded.

Chris Jury on June 14, 2013 at 8:21 PM

46

Also, this anti-science, anti-inquiry crap is getting old. we are all adults here, we can all guess, ask or figure out what these are. how about we knock off this childish shit?

Chris Jury on June 14, 2013 at 8:26 PM

47

Ask the person to the left and the right of you. One of them will know.

Michael of the Green on June 14, 2013 at 11:13 PM

48

Like most contemporary buildings they usually look like boring boxes. They are cheep to build and look ugly but make developers lots of money. This at least tries to resolve that problem by giving some texture to the building.

-B- on June 15, 2013 at 9:01 AM

49

It's probably for the same reason why architects will put a canopy on a building with nothing on it so it doesn't protect a damn thing and is useless for protecting you from inclement weather. (3rd Avenue @ Pine St.)

Weekilter on June 15, 2013 at 1:59 PM

50

Poor Cienna. Let me guess - English/comms major?

on June 16, 2013 at 9:52 AM

51

It's forgivable not to know what these are for, but to get all hysterical and foul-mouthed about it is really pathetic.

Billy Chav on June 16, 2013 at 10:13 AM

52

Just a guess, but they remind me of the sort of architectural design that prevents birds from flying in to the glass. Birds see a big sky, but it turns out to be a reflection of the sky and they crash and die. The screens break up the image so it doesn't look like a big open sky, like the horizontal balconies in the aqua tower in Chicago.

Glass kills between 97 and 975 million birds a year, which can't be too good for the windows either (Source: http://www.greeniacs.com/GreeniacsArticl…).

on June 16, 2013 at 1:19 PM

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