Every summer, when I head back to my hometown of Seattle, I visit Peter Miller Books (and I always tell my design-minded friends heading to Seattle to do the same). This summer, there's even more reason to pay a visit. After 25 years in the landmark Terminal Sales Building near the Pike Place Market, Peter Miller Books recently moved to a new space just four blocks north. Located in the heart of Seattle's Belltown neighborhood, the new shop is housed in a building owned and designed by Suyama Peterson Deguchi architects, a perfect match as building mates. The bookstore occupies one of two retail spaces that adjoin Suyama's architecture studio; the other is occupied by 3 x 10, Suyama Peterson Deguchi's own furniture and accessory showroom. Situated in a third dedicated space in the center of the building is the Suyama Space art gallery. A singular design destination just became better.
Above: Located at 2326 Second Avenue in Seattle (about the halfway point between the Pike Place Market and the Olympic Sculpture Park), Peter Miller Books has been a mainstay in the architecture and design scene in Seattle for more than thirty years.
Above: The interior of the new shop.
Above: The building started as a livery stable over a century ago and then spent nearly sixty years as an automobile repair shop before George Suyama purchased it in 1995 and transformed it into his architectural studio (with additional retail spaces in the front).
Above: Miller offers a huge range of titles for the architect, the architecture lover, and the design enthusiast, with a focus on building, landscape, urban, product and graphic design.
Above:The store also offers a collection of office tools and stationery supplies (some items are available through Peter Miller's Online Shop).
Above: Drawing materials on offer include the Le Corbusier Stencil Set available in a variety of sizes; $36.
Above: The Stendig Wall Calendar hangs in the shop; $40 (the 2013 edition is sold out; wait a few months for the 2014 calendars to arrive in store).
Above: Peter Miller Books carries a small but well-curated collection of housewares, including Orskov Glassware from Denmark. A staple at the store for nearly twenty years (Miller first admired the glasses on a trip to Copenhagen), the delicate glasses are deceptively durable as they are made of heat-resistant borosilicate (laboratory glass). They are microwave and dishwasher proof, and unlike most glassware, the base is perpendicular to the walls; $8 to $13 each, depending on size.
Above: Peter Miller Books is open Monday through Saturdays from 10am to 6pm.
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