The loneliest bench in the city is firmly fixed on the Pioneer Square Sounder platform. It can not see the train. It has little light and no view. It is behind a column. It is of no help at all, except to hold two people, and there is no other seating. It is always in the shade and always cold. It cannot hear a thing. Whoever chose this bench location had either perverse humor, numerous restrictions, or no sense at all. It is the only bench on the entire platform. The loneliest bench, facing firmly and only west, to the back side of the Amtrak Station service department.
Ironically, at least for some of its name, Seattle is not a city of seats. The Pike Market has few places to sit. It even has a bench at its north end that is locked in the evening so that no one can sleep on it. I have always hoped they might one day add chairs at the end of each day, in the dry months, so you could sit and watch the market finish. That is a sweet day’s end parade, and the cars can only crawl through. By 6:00 PM, it is the people who are the market, the visitors, and the vendors.
The new Waterfront is the best, for a mile and by a mile, with seating and seating. They are in numerous shapes and textures, and quite lovely and generous. But they each have a limited view and none of them looks out to the water. They are benches, but only for here and now. They are not much use for pondering.
The new Overlook Park is finally open, giving the great crowds of the Pike Market a glamorous route to the Waterfront and the Seattle Aquarium. It turns and dips in places and is not a single broad sweep down to the water. But it has some big-time seating, and it honors some very glorious views out to the water and the west. And it may well become a day’s end tradition. They could book weddings lined up like planes landing at Kennedy.
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Pike Market? Are you from Seattle? You sure don’t talk like it.
There are a few benches at the park (I think it’s a park) around Green Lake. Lo and behold, those benches face the lake. It’s a nice view, although often there’s more views of people running or walking or using skates, skateboards or pushing a stroller or some other wheeled ‘thing.’ Anyway, I appreciate Green Lake and both its paths.
I always thought the small wood bench for the Metro bus stop at E. Shelby St. and Harvard Avenue East took the cake for the loneliest bench in the city. But I think Peter found a better one.
(I’ll try a Google Maps link here – I have no idea whether it will work. You may have to click on the Street View option on the map.)
https://www.google.com/maps/@47.6469097,-122.3221559,3a,75y,272.07h,81.01t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sHNxxzwB0aCdkdcn7416Gzg!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb\_client%3Dmaps\_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D8.994123700505668%26panoid%3DHNxxzwB0aCdkdcn7416Gzg%26yaw%3D272.0694660021409!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g\_ep=EgoyMDI1MDUyMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
At least someone (probably in the neighborhood) noticed the same thing and tried to cheer up the Shelby/Harvard bus stop with potted red flowers on its flanks – at least when the Google camera car took this photograph. The bench is almost hidden by the ivy wall which hold backf the northbound lanes of I-5 just south of the Ship Canal bridge.
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I’ve always thought someone made a good call with the cheery red wire chairs on the lawn and path near the Calder sculpture in SAM’s Olympic Sculpture Park. There are several good concrete benches to rest on nearby as well and watch ships, ferries and people float by. It acts as a bit of a northern extension for Market visitors out on a day trip. Same can be said for plenty of concrete steps and benches to rest on near the SAM cafe and the Richard Serra sculptures nearby.
i’ve always thought it odd that Seattle uses so many wood benches in it’s parks in this often wet climate. Wood rots, takes forever to dry, and collects mosses and other creatures. I know steel benches are more expensive but they last longer, dry quicker, and clean easier. There’s a balance point there somewhere.