The Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce has an awesome article about the Future of Seattle's

"Walkable city
With new pedestrian connections and multi-modal transit opportunities such as the streetcar and light rail, Seattle will become a truly walkable city. Pedestrians are the lifeblood of a city, feeding the hospitality and entertainment venues in a symbiotic relationship that breeds vitality.
Seattle will become the 24-7 live, work, play urban village that has been envisioned by the mayor and City Council when they adopted our new zoning code. We will see a proliferation of new retail, hospitality and entertainment that will serve thousands of new downtown residents.
Emerging neighborhoods
Just like our neighbors up north in Vancouver and down south in San Diego, we will witness distinctive emerging neighborhoods as downtown evolves into vibrant, pedestrian-friendly zones of energy and activity.
The Denny Triangle will foster new neighborhoods of green street-focused projects, Second Avenue will emerge as a world-class retail zone, and the retail core will sprout a number of boutique hotel/condo hybrid projects.
The greening of Seattle
Seattle will become increasingly green, not just relative to sustainable issues, but quite literally -- with new sensitivity to the importance of landscape and hardscape at the ground plane. Pocket parks, plazas and pedestrian-focused green streets will proliferate. More attention will be paid to softening buildings with greenery and innovative hardscape treatment where the buildings meet the street.
Taller towers, smaller plates
The new zoning code allows for taller towers provided that the plates are no greater than an average of 10,700 square feet. In combination with new tower spacing requirements, this will result in more light and air at the street, and the preservation of open space around these new towers. More attention is being paid to the pedestrian amenities at the base of a structure -- where the building meets the public realm -- and to the tops of our towers -- which are distinctive, iconic and sculpted -- in an effort to continue to improve our skyline."
Read More from the article here