_ Nordic Museum _Seattle, Washington _Mithun Site Visit
SEATTLE CELEBRATES ITS NORDIC
HERITAGE WITH A STRIKING NEW
MUSEUM BY MITHUN
WORDS _Andrew Braithwaite
PHOTOGRAPHS _Bruce DamonteFjord
Focus
By the early 1900 s, approximately one-third of Seattle’s
foreign-born population hailed from Nordic nations.
These immigrants had made fresh starts in the Pacific
Northwest, a land of familiar bountiful forests and
rugged coastlines. Now local firm Mithun has crafted
a bold and modern vessel for Seattle’s museum of
Nordic history, organizing the structure’s double-height
main hall to resemble a long, narrow fjord.
Founded in 1980 in a red brick former schoolhouse,
the Nordic Museum organized a competition in 2007
to design its new home in the historic Ballard district.
Mithun, partnering with the Finnish architect Juhani
Pallasmaa, won the commission. “Our entry was the
very first thing I touched upon joining the firm,” says
project architect Dustann Jones. “And then the
economy drove off a cliff.”Seattle’s Nordic Museum
is sculpted to evoke the
similar geographies of the
Pacific Northwest and
Nordic regions.