Seattle Met composite. Photographs by Olivia Brent, Amy Vaughn, and Shutterstock.

Off the southern end of Lake Union sits a company with some of the most resources in the world: Amazon. On the northern end, beginning with a bucolic park once home to a gasification plant, abides a community abundant with resourcefulness. Wallingford, the neighborhood between Fremont and the University District, doesn’t waste a letter, let alone a building. Everything from the sarcastic Chevron sign to the benevolent Good Shepherd Center bespeaks a devotion to clever repurposing. And vintage still undergirds the area’s impressive array of restaurants and shops.