This website is an attempt to document and understand various types of retaining walls found in Seattle. Because retaining walls are somewhat mundane, they are an often overlooked aspect of the infrastructure of a city. Because Seattle is a city full of hills, retaining walls are a necessary feature, as they serve to deliniate public and private property when that property is anything but dead flat.
This website is roughly divided into two parts; public and private. Public means civil infrastructure, and is often found abutting roadways. Private means walls that separate private property from other property. There seeems to be much more diversity in the kinds of materials and designs found within private walls, thus more pages on this site are devoted to them. Because of the variety of materials and construction styles, various advantages and disadvantages of each material and style become apparant.
It should be noted that I am not a contractor or structural engineer. I'm an amateur, but with an educated layman's understanding of the fundamentals of materials science. The basics are easy to understand. There is also an aesthetic element to both residential and civil retaining walls which is often closely related to the structural aspect!