Seattle Floating Homes

This view is across the street on Lake Union… (blipped before a few times, the group on the right is here, from above.)) .  We see the small Seattle tour buses stop here so everyone can get out and gawk at a Seattle Landmark. They used to all be called Houseboats but now the city has several categories which includes floating homes (connected to city sewers), barges, vessels with a dwelling unit, (liveaboard) and floating-on-water-residences (usually not connected to the city sewer)  all of which need to 
be registered with the city.  The very first were built by loggers on rafts in the early days of Seattle..to follow the logs down the rivers, then in the 1920’s for summer homes for wealthy, then a cheap place to live during the depression of the 30s and then students and more “bohemian” types.  In the 60s and 70s architects started to build new ones, not on logs but on cement and styrofoam floats.  These homes on the water do vary a lot and these are some of the newer fancier boxes that fill the space allowed…there are still some older ones with more character…..living on the water is still unique in the middle of the bustle of the city.    
More if interested here.

It was kind of a grey day so I played a bit with the images to look a little more like an illustration and overlaid a water texture. You can see the Freeway bridge to the north and a tree that still has its fall dress.  A Seahawks flag, and I didn’t realize I caught a float plane too. Had to stop myself from adding some mallard ducks. :-)


For the Cultural Blip