SAF is thrilled to once again partner with Refract, Seattle's premier glass festival, for their 6th Anniversary! Refract 2024 takes place October 17–20 and celebrates amazing glass artists from around the Pacific Northwest. 

To highlight Seattle's unique relationship with glass, SAF is offering our popular Through the Looking Glass tour. Guests will discover how glass is used from the past to the present as Seattle has grown in the last few decades. While modern buildings are often fully wrapped entirely in glass, Seattle’s older buildings have smaller scaled windows as you recede into the history of building design. Learn how architects and developers went from using glass as an opening nestled into a stone wall to today’s modern buildings sheathed in glass. How does one build in such a way that we can control both temperature and light during different times of the day and seasons of the year?

PNW bonus tip! At the end of the walking tour, guests learn how young salmon find their way to the ocean through the innovative use of glass in urban architecture.

Learn more about Refract 2024 here. 

This tour begins at the Amazon Spheres at 6th and Lenora (north side of spheres by dog run)

Please note: The interior of the Amazon Spheres is not included in this tour. The Spheres are open to the public with reservations on the first and third Saturday of the month. Register here. 

Photo by Evan Chakroff