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You know this city…
The Space Needle says this city. Vancouver and Portland lack such a building; all they have are backgrounds. But there is no city without a background, and so Portland or Vancouver can only be any city.
Paul’s review of the movie advertised in the poster makes me want to see it. As for MIA, she is far from original.
Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory... More by Charles Mudede
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Iconic architecture is mass hypnosis.
More and more I find the Space Needle to be a tacky embarrassment, like some left over prop from The Jetsons.
I beg to differ and offer up Everything’s Gone Green (2006) as an example of how Vancouver itself can be a co-star.
The Space Needle is as iconic a skyline building as exists in the US outside of New York, or maybe the TransAmerica pyramid in San Francisco. But buildings are not the only markers; Portland for most of my life was signified by the White Stag sign, which now unfortunately reads “Made in Oregon” (as seen in “Portlandia”), and which I just this minute learned originally read “White Satin Sugar”, changing to White Stag the year after I was born.
When I read this post, and realized it had no reason to have been written, I instantly realized it had to have been a Charles Mudede offering. >Sigh<
The Space Needle is a fantastic example of Googie design, built at the highth of the Space Age. It’s a classic.
I wonder what kind of deal the Sounders had with the producers of the movie, I noticed thier logo in a few places, most notably a billboard that someone gets thrown into.
The Space Needle IS a leftover prop from the Jetsons. But it’s OUR leftover prop from the Jetsons, and it’s now both classic and highly recognizable, and those of us who are slightly older than whippersnappers and grew up in Seattle like it just fine.
What makes the Needle iconic is crudely simple: it sticks out. Same way as the World Trade Center stuck out in Manhattan — ugly, domineering, but… there. I only realized its real function for me after 9/11: getting out of a subway station, a quick glance up or down the avenue no longer told me where south was. The World Trade Center had oriented me simply by its height. The Needle does the same. Architecturally speaking, I far prefer the WTC memorial, which is distinguished by its depth.
@2: Yup, that’s the space needle I love.
@8, you’re absolutely right about the WTC; I used it for exactly that purpose.
You lose me with the WTC memorial, though. The One World Trade Center skyscraper will indeed serve that function but it is is BUTT ugly. But then, so were the original twin towers. In 30 years we’ll see if this new piece of crap has any retro charm or not; I doubt it.
PDX does have some truly awesome early 20th century style steel bridges though. Sweet, sweet girders.
Fnarf @10 — I was referring to the memorial itself, which is four walls of water starting at ground level and falling down into a kind of void at the center. But am totally with you re the nearby skyscraper. What IS this thing with scraping skies?
@11, quite true. I’m quite fond of the St. John’s bridge. Some friends of mine were married underneath it. Cool little neighborhood above it, too. Broadway Bridge and the Burlington Northern rail bridge are gorgeous as well, in a more industrial vein.
There isn’t a bridge there that instantly says “Portland, Oregon” to people who don’t know the city well, though, like the Brooklyn or Golden Gate do for their cities.
Seattle’s bridges are, in comparison, pretty lame, at least since the beautiful original floating bridge was sunk in 1990 and then rebuilt unbelievably hideously. The ship canal bridges have a certain charm but no real excitement. The West Seattle Bridge, the I-5 bridge and the First Avenue South bridges are horrible. The Aurora Bridge is impressive but far from beautiful.
The prettiest Seattle bridge is the Ballard rail bridge, the Salmon Bay Bridge.
Perhaps a more recently defining feature of the city is people who are actually embarrassed by tacky things?
My BART station is currently wall-to-wall “come visit Seattle and drink coffee and go to restaurants and that kinda stuff” ads. Even at a glance from a distance, it’s obvious what they’re for, thanks largely to the Space Needle. The Vancouver tourism ads that were up a year or so ago required more explanation.
@7 – I agree completely. Charles is completely right here, these pieces of iconography make our city known at a glance and it’s instantly recognizable in a way that other signs aren’t. I’ve never been to St Louis, but if you showed me a picture that included the Arch, I’d know exactly what city it was without needing to be told anything else.
Maybe it’s because I came from Spokane, but when I lived on the Hill for five years and had a view of the Needle from every room in my apartment (and from the functional balcony!) I was always in awe of it (esp with the Olympics as background). The Needle never got old.