{"id":1574,"date":"2017-10-06T23:31:25","date_gmt":"2017-10-06T23:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/?p=1574"},"modified":"2017-10-06T23:31:25","modified_gmt":"2017-10-06T23:31:25","slug":"gatsby-in-seattle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/?p=1574","title":{"rendered":"Gatsby in Seattle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Growing up in Pittsburgh, we knew a lot about the Carnegies, Mellons, Fricks.\u00a0 Once these robber barons made their fortunes in the ruthless American way, they moved towards polishing their elbows, cultivating art and manners through acquiring European art and civilization.\u00a0 They bought old masters, cathedrals, collections and funded showy but public endeavors.<\/p>\n

Now consider Seattle, poised on the Pacific, looking to Asia, remaking contemporary civilization in its tech image. And consider their fortunes: Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks, Boeing.\u00a0 There is an unusual density of public art, a surge of maturity and refinement with this big money behind it. \u00a0Is the maturing of Starbucks what generated its refined and elegant Reserve coffee lounge?\u00a0 Usually this kind of design fetishism is reserved for a bar in Barcelona or high French boutique or a Milano Prado boutique \u2014 or in the old days, a museum. \u00a0The coffee salon is monochrome – as sleek and sensual as a highly polished coffee bean – with hints of whiskey, chocolate and cigars. \u00a0Or as buttery and textured as the shirts in Gatsby’s closet. \u00a0It is understated, even as it manages to suggest Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for caffeinated adults.<\/p>\n

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation partly funded a superb outdoor sculpture park with stand-out pieces by Richard Serra, (also a model of gorgeous monochromist), Calder, Jaume Plensa, Nevelson.\u00a0 What can be said of the public library in relation to all those old Carnegie libraries we visited as children?\u00a0 This Seattle Public Library is a prismatic cantilevered glass masterpiece, with innovative environmental design.<\/p>\n

I remember stopping in front of the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh where my sister and I used to shout out the line we\u2019d memorized from “Merchant of Venice,” etched on the bronze plaque of the running fountain: “The quality of mercy is not strain’d.\u00a0 It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven\/ upon the place beneath: \u00a0It is twice blest\u2026it blesseth him that gives and him that takes.\u201d \u00a0 Shakespeare said it all.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Growing up in Pittsburgh, we knew a lot about the Carnegies, Mellons, Fricks.\u00a0 Once these robber barons made their fortunes in the ruthless American way, they moved towards polishing their elbows, cultivating art and manners through acquiring European art and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[635,639,634,638,637,636],"class_list":["post-1574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gates-foundation","tag-rem-koolhas","tag-seattle","tag-seattle-public-library","tag-starbucks","tag-starbucks-reserve"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4D5qU-po","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1574"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1577,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1574\/revisions\/1577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}