Inside/Out: Bringing the beauty of the outdoors to the comfort of indoors

A new design from Ryan Cornwall

Dream. Design. Build.

Written By Blake Adams, Director of Business Development, DEON Design/Build

I ascended to the 76th floor of Seattle's Columbia Tower to seek inspiration for this article. What I found there was fascinating.

Seattle architecture has always intrigued me. I see the elegance and pride of workmanship of the 1914 Smith Tower next to a series of buildings of all sizes that strike me as enormous cargo containers... with windows.

The Smith Tower was ‘dreamed up’ by Burns Lyman Smith. The architects had never designed anything taller than a few stories. There were no similar towers outside of Manhattan and plenty of cheaper options locally. Even the Smiths almost gave into mediocrity... the original design was just 14 stories tall!

But Burns saw the building as more than a place to handle the business of Typewriter manufacture. He saw it as an expression of himself, his company, and his ambitions. The result was the neoclassical jewel that has helped form Seattle’s personality and reputation for over a century.

We at Deontology don’t need to land a contract for the next “Smith Tower” to have such an impact on a community. Rather, we just have to treat every project, of any size, like Burns Smith would have done... with pride and creativity meant to inspire and endear. We can dream, design, and build even the simplest or most utilitarian spaces to make life better and more enjoyable and the great rooms and lobbies into places we want to be.

The point is: Start dreaming! Building the home or business of your dreams is more than just possible... it’s essential. Spend your time inside a home that is an expression of you not an expression of tract-home mass-production. Let the building you do business in increase your bottom-line by encouraging better health, efficiency, and productivity. Even if your project is in the earliest planning phases, start dreaming...

… and you’ll end up with a “Smith Tower” of your own!

What does your dream building look like? Feel free to comment below!

Photo by Christopher S. Maloney & The Seattle Engineering Department