The most amazing thing about the first-ever Seattle Design Festival is that it's the first-ever Seattle Design Festival. How could something so obvious as a festival devoted to local, regional, and international design have never happened here before?

The 10-day festival is programmed and sponsored by organizations and firms including AIA Seattle, SIFF, Mithun, ARCADE, Industrial Designers Society of America NW, Seattle Architecture Foundation, and Bassetti Architects. One of the many panels concerns Brightwater, "a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment system designed to handle the projected growth in King and Snohomish Counties." Design, bacteria, and urban infrastructure—what more could you ask for?

Another promising panel, Beyond Boundaries, will be moderated by John Boylan and engage Lead Pencil Studio (Stranger Genius Award winners), Vall-Nogues Studio, and Atherton|Keener in a conversation about the intersections of art and architecture. Also: Hidden Places and Stories, a tour of Seattle's downtown obscure parks and gardens; an expo on container architecture; and documentaries screened in SIFF's new home at the Seattle Center (the building was designed by Owen Richards Architects).

This is a good start to a thing we should have begun long ago.