What comes after the Viaduct? This Seattle architect has big ideas

In the latest episode of The Teardown, David Miller contemplates the role of Seattle's Viaduct in his life and his city, as well as his role in unmaking it.

Ashli Blow

Ashli Blow • Aug 23, 2019

Aug 23, 2019

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          <article>
            <header>
              <hgroup>
                <h1>What comes after the Viaduct? This Seattle architect has big ideas</h1>
                <h2><p>In the latest episode of The Teardown, David Miller contemplates the role of Seattle's Viaduct in his life and his city, as well as his role in unmaking it.</p></h2>
              </hgroup>
               <p>By <a href="/author/ashli-blow/">Ashli Blow</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Aug 23, 2019</time></p>
            </header>
            <figure class="kg-card kg-embed-card"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="100%" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="https://player.pbs.org/partnerplayer/u1OCR6KO7rJviJNV3YAXiQ==/?start=0&amp;end=0&amp;topbar=false&amp;autoplay=false&amp;endscreen=true" width="100%"></iframe></figure><p>Architect David Miller has lived his entire life in proximity to Seattle's Viaduct. As a child he traveled its concrete decks with his family and in his adult life he has peered out over the elevated highway from his office at work and his downtown apartment. And now that the Viaduct is coming down — what he calls its "unmaking" — Miller is playing a role in determining what comes after. For this episode of The Teardown, Miller takes in the sights and sounds of the demolition and shares visions of a future waterfront that is very different from the working waterfront he grew up with.</p>
          </article>

Architect David Miller has lived his entire life in proximity to Seattle's Viaduct. As a child he traveled its concrete decks with his family and in his adult life he has peered out over the elevated highway from his office at work and his downtown apartment. And now that the Viaduct is coming down — what he calls its "unmaking" — Miller is playing a role in determining what comes after. For this episode of The Teardown, Miller takes in the sights and sounds of the demolition and shares visions of a future waterfront that is very different from the working waterfront he grew up with.

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By Ashli Blow

Ashli Blow is a Seattle-based freelance writer who talks with people — in places from urban watersheds to remote wildernesses — about the environment around them. She’s been working in journal