Historic Preservation

Walking through Pioneer Square (Seattle's Old Town) last week, I looked down an alley and was surprised to see this:

I thought, How cool, an enclosure that preserves the transparency of the alley right-of-way while converting it to a useable space!  I wonder what they do in there.

I walked around to the other side, where I found an entrance:

It became clear that the slant of the roof originated from linking the roofs of the adjacent buildings.  Inside I found the silent peace of a cathedral.  The left wall was adorned with window boxes filled with ivy, giving the impression of a Parisian alleyway and reminding me that this was once an exterior.

A little internet research discovered that the space is used for weddings.  I'm not the only one that got the churchey vibe.  

Photo from Yelp (source)

The history was harder to find. According to the spotty source I found, it was designed by none other than Pioneer Square's grandfather himself, Ralph Anderson (who has a Wikipedia page) in 1984 (source).

My takeaway: adaptive reuse of historic buildings can completely transform a space, in this case, an industrial alleyway into a sacred place.