Seattle Art Museum’s New Face

“Lie down with a bank, get up with pinstripes; but riffing off a bare-bones bank was not the only challenge. Venturi’s 1991 building is a faux art deco merger of a traditional Chinese palace and a McDonald’s drive-through, five stories of muted razzle-dazzle. Portland architect Cloepfil was charged with creating a plausible link between art and banking. What he came up with would be a handsome addition to any post-industrial urban core. It’s cleaner and more alluring than the bank but doesn’t attempt to compete with Venturi’s postmodern patchwork.”