Velocity Art and Design (Seattle)

City/neighborhood: Belltown

Hours: Spring and summer hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday

Parking: Street parking

Seattle's skyline boasts a public library designed by Rem Koolhaas, a museum (Experience Music Project) designed by Frank Gehry and an iconic World's Fair remnant that, unlike other artifacts from similar expositions, has been successfully integrated into the city's architectural vernacular. If anyone says that Seattle isn't a design-conscious city, they've obviously never taken a good look around them — and they've never stepped foot into Velocity Art and Design.

Velocity features furnishings, accessories and art by top international designers — names include Jonathan Adler, Thomas Paul, Angela Adams, Chilewich and Modernica — that recall the Jet Age design of the late 1950s-early 1960s without edging into parody or, worse still, into dysfunction. The cool-looking, "Jetsons"-like tables, chairs, sofas and shelving sold here are wholly functional, comfortable to sit upon, accommodating of piles of books and CDs and conducive to real living.

And lest you think that the "art" in the store's name is only there for the purposes of feng shui, Velocity features works by local and regional artists, conspicuously hung above all that nifty designer stuff. It's a credit to the discerning eye of the Velocity crew that everything on its sales floor seems to belong together, that dozens of designers and artists can mix and mingle without making so much visual noise — in much the same way that the Space Needle and Gehry's museum, designed in radically differing idioms, somehow agree with each other.

By Geoff Carter
NWsource staff