With style and humor, the author writes of special places in everyday Seattle. The author takes us to popular, high-profile landmarks like Pike Place Market as well as tucked-away gems — cozy cottages, trendy pubs, gracious apartment buildings, and vibrant urban villages — that flavor and enliven the city. The author shares his eye for unique, humanizing details of design, architecture, and function, bringing this colorful metropolis to life so vividly you'll practically smell the coffee they brew and sell on (almost) every street corner.

Along the way, the author explains the public and private decisions that helped Seattle avoid the urban desolation that plagues other American cities. The author introduces many of Seattle's movers and shakers — mayors, developers, artists, and urban pioneers — who took it upon themselves to guide metropolitan Seattle along a different path.