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The Museum and the Mountain

Balance in the Speed Zone: Seattle

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You are standing on a hill in Seattle, one of seven. You're shocked. You're having a vision. You're seeing modern life in balance.

Look down. The speed-zone city lies spread out beneath you. It's all high-tech. It's all Microsoft and Boeing and Starbucks and Amazon.com.

Look up. Above you, always, looms Mt. Rainier, nature immense, and all high-touch. The museum below, and the mountain above. Both in the same view. Both in the same life.

Twenty years ago, Alvin Toffler's most compelling prediction in Future Shock described our greatest challenge: how we would balance high-tech and high-touch, juggle and integrate them into our lives.

Bill Gates is the role model. He strides the world of high technology; but he lives the high-touch life of his lakeside home and family. Many Seattle people integrate both worlds, and it's easier here than anywhere I know.

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Silicon Valley is all high-tech, a bloodless, loveless permanent traffic jam. The ceaseless electronic screech of New York City is a long, long way from serenity. Most places of triumphant technology also feature the highest stress levels on earth. But cities are necessary. You can't earn a living, living in Yosemite.

Down in the town lurks the famous wavy building. The Experience Music Project is surely no “building.” It's more of a monumental meltdown of rock 'n'roll guitars, in five jolting colors.

Architect Frank Gehry has done it again — rocked the world with a “visual” so strong that it identifies the place. This instant civic landmark icon is Microsoft founder Paul Allen's gift to Seattle and the world.

The request has become famous: Paul Allen said to Frank Gehry, “I want swoopy. Give me swoopy.”

He got swoopy. Go inside, to the exhibit that shows the story. See the smashed guitars that suggested this, and the pen and ink evolving strokes that do not look like architecture. Study the wooden models of the structure; they look like dinosaur skeletons. We are reminded of the power of a similar gesture 40 years ago: the Sydney Opera House, instant and enduring worldwide fame for all of Australia. Now EMP identifies Seattle. Interestingly, it slumps and crouches around the foot of the former Seattle icon, the Space Needle. Although refurbished, the Needle will always be ordinary. You get to see it from inside EMP by looking up through one of the very weird windows. That way, it looks great.

The list of instant place-identifiers is short, but fascinating: Eiffel Tower, Empire State Building, Houses of Parliament, The Pyramids of Gizeh, Taj Mahal, Statue of Liberty, Leaning Tower of Pisa, The Golden Gate Bridge, the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao. Some have it naturally: It is easy to recognize almost any crude snapshot of Rio or Venice. Most don't: What is L.A.'s identifier? Dallas? Atlanta? Chicago? EMP does not stand for a city or a nation, so its influence may stop short of those on the Eternal Hit List above. It intends to be a monument to rock 'n'roll, and that it is.

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The building's interactive innards are inserted into the waviness with great care. And although there are a lot of strange new spaces, levels and shapes, they fit well into the wit of the whole enterprise. People balk at the $18 entrance fee, then dive deep down into making music with equipment the likes of which they'll rarely have access to again. The bar and gift shop both make you want to spend money — the gift shop because you want a piece of this place, and the bar because your martini can lead you to deepening joy.

The best thing for me was watching a video in which the on-site people who built the building spoke of it. They speak from the heart and with purpose. They acknowledge the difficulty of the job, of having no precedent, of being original, of inventing processes and even tools, while coordinating with every other team. You feel their pride at being inventors, of creating a landmark. You feel they must have talked like this just after they finished the Sydney Opera House, or even Salisbury Cathedral. To watch them speak and hear their words, to catch the rapture of their work, is worth a trip to Seattle.

Now: from your hillside view, look up. The mountain dwarfs everything you've just been studying below. Anyone at any time in any situation in Seattle can pause, can “lift up mine eyes unto the hills, whence cometh my help.” My refreshment, my nature checkpoint, Mt. Rainier puts everything into proportion.

And everyone in Seattle knows it. And goes there. They take ferries, kayaks, yachts, speedboats, bicycles, snowboards, scooters, canoes, backpacks and coffee, and go out to greet nature within 30 minutes.

There is culture, too, a firm expression of the city's vitality. Among the ski slopes and computers you will find the new Benaroya Concert Hall, a rich amber surprise, with a well-behaved, enthusiastic audience that stands to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the concert. The Seattle Opera competes with the world's best and leads in production values. Rock 'n'roll produces much music — and the wavy building. Nordstrom was invented here. The Bon Marché stripped back to its original art deco building, revealing grandeur and improving it, something only a downtown department store can do (and they should all do it). Washington Mutual is revolutionizing banking by turning its banks into “customer-centric stores” — a daring idea, and believably Seattle. Dine as an adult at Canlis'restaurant — soothing and elevating customers with good food and good manners for many years. Stay at a W hotel, or a Four Seasons, or the funky “ACE” — find out for yourself and enjoy the fringe of edgy inventiveness — including three condoms on your pillow. The Pike Place Market is one of the great high-touch stores in the world. There is more energy in the salespeople, tossing fish and ringing bells and singing, than there is in a whole national chain of “Can I help you?” and “When is my break?”

Civilized choices, all of these. The word “mellow” comes to mind. Seattle is mellow.

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Hop an easy ferry and the city vanishes. Mt. Rainier rises. You're inhaling blood pressure-lowering fresh air. It is high-touch in a high-tech world. Seattle is a modern reality that doesn't hurt. Experiencing the museum and the mountain is invigorating for those who are forging our tech identity and still worry about the state of our souls. High-tech makes Seattle a vibrant success. High-touch saves us from it. Seattle is a human place in an often inhumane world.


Peter's current activities include presentations to Saatchi & Saatchi L.A., Washington Mutual Bank, Furniture Today, Amfac Parks & Resorts and the Retail Advertising Conference. A videotape of Peter's inspiring keynote address to R.A.C. 2000, entitled “It's About Time!,” can be ordered from the Retail Advertising & Marketing Association (RAMA). Phone: 312-251-7262; fax: 312-251-7269; Internet: www.ramarac.org. Comments? Contact Peter by e-mail at: jasminehill@thegrid.net.

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