Design Perspectives By Clair Enlow

January 22, 2003

1907 church sees wrecking ball as salvation

With its red-orange tiled dome set squarely on a Beaux Arts box of tan brick and terra cotta, the three-story First United Methodist Church at Fifth and Marion holds a space for history and human scale in the city’s narrowing canyons of glass and steel. It’s rest and respite for the eyes and spirit in a city bent on higher and better land use.

Inside, the sanctuary rises in stages above carved wood furnishings into a wide dome ringed with clerestory windows. Designed by Seattle parishioner James Schack and built in 1907, it’s a forum for speech, with heavenly light and music to back it up.

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Previous columns:

• Can transit planners find a winning formula?, 12-18-2002
• New urban design challenges ride in on monorail, 11-27-2002
• Neighbors gather to transform, uplift Courtland Place, 10-23-2002
• In Cuba, the future of the past seems assured, 09-18-2002
• Local designers expand vocabulary of architecture, 08-21-2002
• A/E diversity means freedom to pursue dreams, 07-17-2002
• Today's land use rules give as well as take, 06-26-2002
• Can art be the basis for expanding architecture?, 05-22-2002