Building Age in Seattle

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has released a series of interactive maps to visualize the data gathered from their study into how the character and age of buildings influence urban vitality.

The study, called Older, Smaller, Better, analysed the impact of building character and scale across a range of economic, social, and environmental outcome measures. The findings of the study suggest that areas with a mix of older and smaller buildings perform better than neighborhoods with newer, larger buildings.

The study was undertaken in three American cities, Seattle, San Francisco and Washington DC. The interactive maps allow you to explore the data from the study of the three cities in a range of areas. Among the more interesting of the maps are heat-maps of the median building age in each city, which reveal the historic areas of each city.