For years, my only relationship with this building was a gray flash at 70 mph. Visible from I-5 just south of Seattle, the former Weyerhaeuser Headquarters in Federal Way has always looked like a secret lair tucked into the ridgeline.

In this video, I finally stop the car to explore.

Completed in 1971 by architect Edward Charles Bassett and landscape designer Peter Walker, this building is a masterpiece of "Modernist Environmentalism." It wasn’t built to stand out, but to disappear. From the "Severance-esque" liminality of its concrete staircases to the way the ivy was planned as a feature—not an invasion—this is a study in how architecture can sit gently on the land.

This was filmed in VR180. I recommend watching in a headset (Meta Quest/Apple Vision Pro) for the full spatial experience of the scale and the "breathing" architecture.