Hello ARLIS/NA and VRA members,

The Seattle conference nears and we want to highlight some of the outstanding tours that we've created just for you! Most of the tours have already sold out, but a few spots remain in the following excursions. Get in while you can and see what makes Seattle so special!

Chinatown/International District, Wing Luke Museum and Locke Library Tour
Saturday March 12 @ 1:30pm — 5:30pm

This tour has several spaces remaining. Join us for a tour of one of Seattle oldest neighborhoods: Chinatown/International District, made famous in Jamie Ford's novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (http://www.jamieford.com/).

The Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience will be our host for their Historic Hotel Tour, a tour of the Governor Gary Locke Library & Community Heritage Center, and a walking tour of the Chinatown/International District neighborhood. The Wing Luke has been described as "a piece of living history in a 100-year-old immigrant hotel building that captures both the Asian-influenced past and the subtle complexity of the Asian-American-influenced present." The Historic Hotel Tour will allow us to follow in the footsteps of Asian Pacific American pioneers. It has been described as an opportunity to "come face-to-face with the dreams of those early Asian Seattleites who spent their life savings on steamer journeys to the United States in hopes of a better life." During our visit to the Locke Library, we'll learn about the important role the library plays in the community and hear about their innovative oral history program. Finally, through our walking tour of the historic ID neighborhood, we'll learn about the facts, myths and legends of the area, and learn more about the diverse contributions of Asian cultures to Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.

Pike Place Market Tour
Wednesday March 9 @ 12:30pm — 1:30pm

Spaces are going fast! This tour will highlight the historical development of one of America's oldest public markets. Led by a volunteer from the Friends of the Market and Mimi Sheridan, an expert on Downtown Seattle architectural history, this tour will show the market at lunch hour, when its restaurants and stores are bustling with office workers from nearby skyscrapers and tourists. New additions to the market designed by the well-known architectural firm, Miller-Hull will be highlighted. It's a quick walk from the Westin, and worth seeing with these expert leaders.

Pioneer Square Walking Tour: "The Rise and Fall and Rise and Fall of Pioneer Square"
Tuesday March 8 @ 2:30pm — 5:00pm

If you're arriving early, consider taking this Tuesday afternoon walking tour of Pioneer Square with me. Pioneer Square, as the name suggests, was the original center of Seattle during the 19th century and into the 1910s. This tour will consider this neighborhood's history of infamy, prosperity, economic decline and rejuvenation during the 1960s-1980s, a period of intense interest in the arts and historic preservation during. Today, the area is still vibrant, but its character has changed somewhat during the last decade due to rising rents. Sports teams and their fans play a big part of the neighborhood's current economy.

Freeway Park: Halprin's Answer to Superhighway Supremacy
Thursday March 10 @ 12:30pm — 1:30pm

Nearby to the Westin, architectural historian and librarian Rebecca Price of the University of Michigan will lead this tour of landscape architect Lawrence Halprin's remarkable Freeway Park, a multi-leveled, 5-acre oasis atop U.S. Interstate 5, a superhighway that bisects Downtown Seattle. Halprin designed this in the early 1970s, at a time of environmental activism and general cultural upheaval. He created celebrated (and criticized) public works in San Francisco, Portland, and Denver, but his Seattle project was one of his largest and most ambitious. As Rebecca will indicate, building a city park over a major freeway creates all sorts of problems and opportunities; while initial professional response was positive, public opinion has been lukewarm since it opened on Independence Day, 1976.

See you soon!

Alan Michaelson & Josh Polansky

Local Planning Committee Co-Chairs

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Stephanie Beene

Fine Arts & Architecture Librarian, Fine Arts & Design Library

College of University Libraries & Learning Sciences

University of New Mexico MSC05 3020

Albuquerque, NM 87131

(505) 277-0679