“When used well, design can solve problems,” says Linda Norlen—and she has proof. The associate director of Design in Public (designinpublic.org), a new nonprofit devoted to showcasing our region’s wealth of innovative architecture and graphic, interior, industrial and urban design, Norlen is helping to coordinate the organization’s second Seattle Design Festival (in partnership with several…

Beacon Hill-based artist Klara Glosova doesn’t worry when people wonder, “That’s art?” She invites the question at adventurous happenings she hosts regularly at NEPO House (her living room turned pop-up art gallery). It’s also a driving question at NEPO 5K DON’T RUN, an art walk truly like no other in the city. The second iteration…

When it’s finished this fall, the Bullitt Center (bullittcenter.org) will be the greenest commercial building on the planet, using solar panels, geothermal wells, composting toilets and rainwater collection, among other innovations, to achieve “net zero” energy use. The six-story, $30 million building, on Capitol Hill at 15th Avenue and McGilvra Place, will serve as a…