ARCHITECTURE CRITIC GLENN WEISS ON IMPLODING THE KINGDOME AS AN ACT OF PATRICIDE

GENERATIONAL BLOWOUT. The fuse is lit for the Kingdome's explosive exit. And no one is rushing to save the old beast. Unloved, it will expire after only 24 years. But it's a case of more than mere neglect.

The demolition this April of America's last concrete superdome may be a case of patricide, according to an idea floated by the late, great New York City urban thinker Lewis Mumford. Mumford suggested that each new adult generation of Americans rejects the world of its parents, while pining for the world of its grandparents.

The Kingdome was a modern sports fantasy of the 1960s establishment. Today's aging boomers, the oft-called "children of the '60s," are set to implode this dream in April- an echo of when the 1960s establishment demolished their parents' field of dreams-Sicks' Stadium-in 1974.

So many ironies exist in this generational wrecking-ball roulette. The infamous Queen Anne "Blob" was finally carted away, only to reappear as the Experience Music Project at Seattle Center-four blocks away. The first Seattle Public Safety Building at 400 Yesler Way was declared a horrible place of "grimy, murky corridors" when the current Public Safety Building opened. Today the former, a neo-classical 1908 building, is a historic landmark, while the 1951 building will be destroyed in two years.

Strangely, the architectural firm NBBJ plays into swirling pool of steel, concrete and politics. Twenty-five years ago NBBJ architects designed the Kingdome, but the new generation of principals rarely mentioned this fact while designing Safeco Field. And, long gone were the NBBJ designers of 1951 as the Public Safety Building was publicly crucified to generate the civic will to pay for a new one-designed, of course, by NBBJ's "young Turks."

In the late 1960s and early '70s, a Seattle generation got serious about saving the world of their grandparents. They institutionalized preservation of historic buildings through landmark commissions and nonprofit advocacy groups. But historic always meant Beaux Arts, neoclassical or Craftsman style. They had no interest in protecting the ugly, horrible modern structures of their mothers' and fathers' creation.

A telltale sign that a new generation of grandchildren is moving up came last year when Historic Seattle acquired the 1957 Egan House, a wedge-shaped home on Lakeview Drive East designed by architect Robert Riechert. Will Seattle be far behind Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Miami, which have organizations dedicated to preserving local modern architecture? While it is too late to preserve the ideals of 1970s superstadia design, smart money will he trading high-priced Wallingford bungalows for sleek Seward Park ranch houses.

Big, live-action, real blow-em-up scenes come but once in a blue moon. When the victim is right in our own backyard, taking it in on the tube won't quite fulfill that surround-sound experience. Here are some of the best sites where you can watch from a distance. Pack your binoculars, hard hat, goggles and face mask-and don't forget the video camera.

BEACON HILL: Jose Rizal Park or the 12th Avenue Bridge
FIRST HILL: Harborview Medical Center parking garage
DOWNTOWN: Wai Lui Pea Patch (aka Kobe Terrace Park) or Yesler Street Bridge over l-5

Seattle Magazine
March 2000

For further information the preservation of the Egan House by Robert Reichert: Egan House

For further information on the Library design by OMA: Seattle Public Library

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