What is it that you simultaneously see and not see in the buildings around you? 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? Glass!

Join the Seattle Architecture Foundation for a two-hour walking tour of Seattle’s unique relationship with glass. 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. On this tour, you will discover how glass is used from the past to the present as Seattle has grown in the last few decades. 

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.

This tour meets on the steps by the Amazon Spheres at 6th and Lenora (north side of spheres by dog run). 

Please note: The interior of the Amazon Spheres are 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. 

Photos: Evan Chakroff, Jacky Wong, ZGF Architects, NBBJ