Lectures
Join us for lectures from artists, experts, and other compelling voices on wide-ranging topics. Check back for upcoming events and purchase tickets online.
New Heights: Transforming Seattle’s Iconic Space Needle Talk and Book Signing
Wednesday, January 22nd, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
What does it mean to reinvent one of the world’s foremost, internationally recognized observation towers? How was the historic architecture and original vision of the defining symbol of Seattle maintained throughout a transformation that completely re-imagined the observation experience? In its 55th year, the Space Needle looked to the future with The Century Project, a holistic redesign of the tower’s upper levels led by Seattle-based architecture firm Olson Kundig. Join project design lead Alan Maskin and project architect Blair Payson for a presentation on the history, design vision, and technical innovations of this award-winning tower, documented in the new book, New Heights: Transforming Seattle’s Iconic Space Needle.
About the speakers:
Alan Maskin
For over three decades, Alan Maskin—a principal and owner of Olson Kundig—has designed iconic museums and cultural spaces around the world, including The Century Project at the Space Needle, the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and a new museum addition at the Jewish Museum Berlin. Many of his projects pursue unexpected challenges, such as Recompose, the world’s first full-service funeral home to offer human composting as a sustainable alternative to burial or cremation. Alan’s work has contributed to the firm’s reputation as one of the world’s most innovative companies, as recognized by Fast Company and Architizer, and his projects have been widely recognized, including multiple Honor Awards from the American Institute of Architects and the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design.
Blair Payson
A maker at heart, Olson Kundig principal and owner Blair Payson is an architect who revels in the details. From large cultural projects such as The Century Project at the Space Needle and the Gates Foundation Discovery Center to unconventional work like Recompose, he seeks to inspire through the poetic, with designs informed by a deep appreciation of history. In addition to work on culturally significant institutional projects at Olson Kundig and frequent collaborations with Alan Maskin, Blair has also guided some of the firm’s most technologically advanced projects including Aro Home, a prefabricated modular that produces more energy than it uses annually and, over several years, offsets the embodied energy and carbon of materials used in its construction.
Stealing Home Talk and Book Signing
Thursday, January 30th, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Meet local Tukwila resident, Sharon Hashimoto, winner of the 2022 Washington State Book Awards for Poetry. She will share excerpts from her new collection of short stories, Stealing Home.
In her stunning debut short story collection, Sharon depicts the intergenerational impact of war and internment on Japanese American families, as they navigate loss, secrecy and pain amidst a backdrop of forced removal, confinement and cultural struggle.
Sharon will be interviewed by the poet, Michael Spence.
About Stealing Home
A family in a Wyoming camp copes with gossip amid the losses caused by their sudden removal and confinement. A World War II veteran reluctantly tells his granddaughter about his time overseas. A young boy acts as a translator between his mother and her doctor, trying and failing to convey the source of her pain. In this stunning debut short story collection, Sharon Hashimoto traces the costs of war and internment as felt across generations of Japanese Americans. Her title, Stealing Home, is both an allusion to an American pastime and a searing condemnation of its history of forced internment.
About the Author:
Sharon Hashimoto’s first poetry book, The Crane Wife, was co-winner of the Nicholas Roerich Prize in 2003 and reprinted by Red Hen Press in 2021. That same year, her second collection of poetry, More American, won the 2021 Off the Grid Poetry Prize. More American went on to win the 2022 Washington State Book Award in poetry. Hashimoto’s short story collection, Stealing Home was published by Grid Books in September, 2024.
About the Interviewer:
Michael Spence served a hitch in the navy then drove public-transit buses for Metro for thirty years. His poems have appeared lately in Arkansas Review, Catamaran, The Hudson Review, The New Criterion, and Tampa Review. His latest book, Umbilical, won The New Criterion Poetry Prize.