Place 14 of 52: Seattle, City of Glass

Never really liked Dale Chihuly glass much, i guess you do tho! It's just too breakable and we're in an earthquake zone. Plus, it's not attractive! I've always thought he was laughing all the way to the bank. I think you would have been better off kayaking around lake union visiting at the houseboats, working up an appetite and then having some great food (which we have in abundance).

Seattle would be a lot nicer city if their homeless population was addressed. Walking downtown is an exercise in dodging homeless on every corner, and they are not shy about panhandling. It's no fun coming out of a restaurant or underground Seattle and being accosted by a bunch of ill smelling beggars.

Nice try Seattleites--the comments are fun. "You missed the…the…space needle! and the EMP! Pike Place!" Seattle is--let's admit it--a pretty dull city, its most notable feature being traffic.

thank you sooo much for featuring Preston. I worked at the Hutch which features his pieces. As a fiber artist and lover of all things woven, the creation of basketry in glass is wonderful. But I find all of his pieces both calming and evocative. After years of looking at the Chihuly's that lined the hallways of the Arnold building, Preston was a welcome change. I can wait for his exhibit at MOG.

Seattle does have lots of glass. Glad that Ms Yuan listed the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, 40 minutes south of Seattle. Besides its more permanent collection and revolving exhibits from artists all over the world, there is a wonderful glass blowing arena where both burgeoning and professional visiting artists create glass "live". One sees that creativity, timing, coordination, and muscle are all part of the glass sculpting process. Super.

If you tell me how to experience this exhibit, that takes all the wonder out of it. I'll figure it out for myself, thank you.

Seattle is lovely but it is growing so fast that it suffers with horrible traffic. City planners should hire logistics specialists (I believe Google maps is based in Seattle) to address this problem before it becomes impossible to move. Perhaps the people at M.I.T. traffic lab could help too.

I am so over Chiluly. I live in the SF Bay Area and to the relief of all my Seattle friends and relatives I have no intention of ever moving there. You can come visit me in Feb when you haven’t seem the sun rise before noon in four months!

Seattle is a joy to visit. Its dowtown is walkable, artistic and alive. A ferry to Bainbridge Island is well worth the time. I walked out of the Asian Museum high in the hills of Seattle and saw the most beautiful sunset I have ever laid eyes upon. Don't miss this great city in your travels.

In tirelessly promoting himself Chihuly has had the incidental beneficial effect of also promoting glass art. As a resident of Seattle I feel comfortable saying that the Corning Museum offers the best single display of glass art to be found anywhere.

Glass art in Seattle, sadly, is pretty derivative---a lot of Chiculy knockoffs and Chihuly himeself has a worker bees who mass produce work for his temporary installations.. If soeone wants to see glass art being made as well was being exhibited they should go to Toledo (glass art as art got it's start at the Toledo Museum of Art--Chihuly was a student at the seminars that accomplished this) or Millville, NJ, home to the Glass Institute. Corning, NY is another worthwhile stop, for the Corning Museum.

The first sentence threw me. Did the correspondent mean Tuesday was Preston's glass blowing day, or rainy Tuesdays were his glass blowing day? With artists you never know. Glass blowers are an idiosyncratic bunch. Perhaps this one needs rain to work. Perhaps they all do. This would explain their gravitating to Seattle. There are of course glass artists in Los Angeles. Perhaps they stay indoors with the blinds drawn and the water on. I don't know. I was interested in the process of "turning a molten blob into a raven." My friends on the north coast feed ravens. They sometimes buy them a dozen eggs. Once they learn ravens are not real animals but merely transformed molten blobs, they'll be able to save themselves a lot of money.

Fact check: Mr. Chiuly's artwork graces the ceiling and mezzanine windows of a U.S. District Court building in downtown Tacoma, a *former* train station. Tacoma's current train station is located near the Tacoma Dome, the world's largest (by volume) area with a wooden dome. #tacomaproud

Lovely article but the real City of Glass is Corning NY Much richer museum, with a world famous collection of glass and stunning architecture - Corning Glass Headquarter is a master piece of constraint design. Dear NY Times : You do not have to travel 3.000 miles to see stunning glass 250 miles from from NYC to Corning , New York , will do

As a Seattle resident, this article makes me laugh on so many levels. First, if you come to Seattle and want to really check out the glass scene, we are going to go hit (pun intended) the bong shops and see what became of all of the Chihuly students who did not make it in the art scene. I am being serious. Bongs sell for upwards of a $100,000 around here and its where form meets function to create works of art. Second. Never in a million years would I tell a visitor to head to Tacoma unless it was on their way to Los Angeles...and even then I would suggest taking a ferry across the Sound and take 101 down the coast and avoid the city completely. Its like telling someone to visit San Francisco and stop by Oakland while they are there. No, thanks, been there. Third. Yes, there is lots and lots of glass around here. But its the last thing I would have someone put on their list of things to see and do in Seattle. We are long overdue for a major earthquake and the glass library downtown is the last place you want to be when it happens...except perhaps the Chihuly Gardens:) Now, if you will excuse me, its time to pack my piece of art that I got at the local "glass museum" :)

My only words of advice when blowing glass, "don't inhale."

Lot of glass, no affordable housing. Thanks, Amazon.

I enjoyed this column. This isn't one of the "36 hours" columns. It's not intended as a travel guide. You can easily google to find all of the usual tourist things to do in Seattle, and in a way it would have been boring to hear once again about the seafood, the greenery, the mountain, the Puget Sound. I'm sure those things are lovely, and they are what I would probably do if I visited Seattle. But I know about them. I didn't know very much about Seattle's glass culture, though, and I found this to be a nice little insight. I've lived in multiple cities around the world, and everyone knows that your experience of the city is often just a little niche of the city's many cultures and attractions. This is one little niche, and it's interesting to see sometimes, rather than just an overview of the city.

Thank goodness! A chance to read about Seattle being more than just Pike Place Market! I for one LOVE art glass and may actually re-visit the city now that I'm aware of multiple attractions.

What is astounding about this article is the complete neglect of Lino Tagliapietra, master glass blower from Murano in Venice, Italy, who has had a studio in Seattle and is a major influence on Dale Chihuly himself. A major oversight here, Jada Yuan!

Make sure you bring A LOT of money when you visit Seattle (for any reason). Heck, if you're an adult it costs $29 to see the Chihuly "museum" at the Seattle Center. Throw in travel time, parking, buying something to eat and you've spent a good chunk of your grandkid's inheritance.

Being a Washingtonian, it's odd she focused on the glass - yes, it is interesting and maybe one stop to see it is great - but to have this the entire focus of a city that has so many interesting things to see and do is rather odd.

Advice from a local: only on Sunday evening or at 4am can one make the drive from Seattle to Tacoma in 35 minutes. Take the train from King Street station to the Tacoma Dome (50 minutes, with great views of Mount Rainier), or buses leave every 5- 30 minutes (depending on the time of day and day of week) from downtown Seattle to Tacoma. Then, easy walk to the Tacoma Art Museum, or take the free link. Much easier than driving! You can also bring a bike on the bus if you want to bike out to Point Defiance Park in Tacoma for example.

Mr too ! Love it.

A very disappointing column. I am not a Seattle resident but have visited this wonderful city almost a dozen times. Really, no one except a glass aficionado goes there just to see the glass. Yes, the glass scene is vibrant, and a side trip to Chihuly Garden and Glass is definitely worth it, but glass is hardly all that Seattle has to offer. Visitors should also experience the fine dining, marvelous outdoor experiences in town and nearby, music, the Space Needle, Pike Place Market, and on and on. (No, I don't work for the Chamber of Commerce, I just really enjoy this city.) Makes me wonder how the author picks her topics to highlight for each column; it this case it sounds like she had a guide who was hot for glass.

A disappointing article. I am not a Seattle resident but have visited this wonderful city almost a dozen times. But no one except a glass aficionado goes there just to see the glass. Yes, the glass scene is vibrant, and a side trip to Chihuly Garden and Glass is definitely worth it, but glass is hardly all that Seattle has to offer. Visitors should also experience the fine dining, marvelous outdoor experiences in town and nearby, music, the Space Needle, Pike Place Market, and on and on. (No, I don't work for the Chamber of Commerce, I just really enjoy this city.) Makes me wonder how the author picks her topics to highlight for each column; it this case it sounds like she had a guide who was hot for glass.

With all due respect to other commenters, I think some are missing the point of The New York Times' intent by sending someone to visit the “52 places to travel". We are meant to see each place through the eyes of the traveler (this year, Jada), and of course each experience will be unique: it's a real person traveling in real life, and may I add, spending barely a few days in each place. There are plenty of other resources out there if we're looking for guides and “Things to do in..." sort of articles. Let's savor these dispatches as they are: a way to experience a place (and life!) vicariously through a very lucky lady. I'll follow you to the 52 places, Jada. Just don't miss your voice.

With all due respect to other commenters, I think some are missing the point of The New York Times' intent by sending someone to visit the “52 places to travel". We are meant to see each place through the eyes of the traveler (this year, Jada), and of course each experience will be unique: it's a real person traveling in real life, and may I add, spending barely a few days in each place. There are plenty of other resources out there if we're looking for guides and “Things to do in..." sort of articles. Let's savor these dispatches as they are: a way to experience a place (and life!) vicariously through a very lucky lady. I'll follow you to the 52 places, Jada. Just don't loose your voice.

I am absolutely loving your 52 Places dispatches. Go, Jada, go!

As a 5th generation Seattleite, I found Ms. Yuan's review of my fair city to be quite narrow-minded and odd. Hello, how did she not notice the huge white thing to the south, (Mount Rainier), green everywhere (our wonderful forests), or blue all around the city, (Puget Sound)? Did she eat anything while visiting? Salmon would have been the obvious choice. Halibut, asparagus, and rhubarb would have been the seasonal choices. Did she ride a ferry or visit the Ballard Locks? We have a flourishing music scene. a brand new Nordic Heritage Museum, and lots of other art besides glass. Did she consider anything about our history? Apparently not. I have enjoyed her previous posts, but will now view her future posts with a skeptical eye.

So disappointing! I live for these reviews but as a Seattle resident and transplant not from the area who can definitely point to the good tourist things for my guests - I feel like the travel guide missed all of them! I've been to the Tacoma Glass Museum - far away and definitely not on the hit list or even the top 25 things to do or see. I was using these travel reviews as my travel bible - but no more!

Flora.