Seattle Architecture

I wanted to say more about the Architectural tour that my niece and I took on my trip to Seattle last weekend. It really was quite interesting, and I’d highly recommend it to people.

The Seattle Architecture Foundation organizes a whole bunch of different tours, available by reservation or as a walk-in. If you’re heading down that direction – or over, depending on your current location – check out their website and see if they have a tour that might interest you. It’s worth your time!

http://www.seattlearchitecture.org/

The tour my niece and I took was titled “Historic Skyscrapers” and highlighted 19 different buildings around the downtown area. It was a 2-hour long walk with lots of up-hill climbs (it is Seattle, after all), so make sure you dress appropriately and wear proper shoes.

Here is a list of the buildings we learned about (although, I think they’re cheating on the Space Needle: they did talk about it, but it was seen only from a great distance).

Smith Tower, 506 2nd Avenue
Frye Hotel, Yesler at 3rd Avenue
King Street Station, 303 South Jackson Street
Butler Block, 2nd at James
Alaska Building 618 2nd Avenue
Hoge Building 705 2nd Avenue
Dexter Horton 710 2nd Avenue
Artic Building 3rd and Cherry
Norton Building 801 2nd Avenue
Jackson Federal Building
Wells Fargo Center, 3rd and Marion
2nd and Senneca Building
Space Needle from 2nd at Senneca
Washington Mutual Tower, 1201 3rd Avenue
Seattle Tower, 1218 3rd Avenue
Cobb Building, 1305 4th Avenue
Westin Hotel (from University at 5th)
IBM Building, 1200 5th Avenue
Rainier Tower, 1301 5th Avenue

I won’t detail each and every building on the list here in my blog – that would take away from the actual tour, should you ever decide to take it yourself – but there were a couple buildings that really stood out for me.

One was the Arctic Building: this was built back in 1916 as a gentleman’s club and includes such features as a life-size polar bear over the 3rd Avenue entrance, life-size walrus heads along the exterior of the 3rd floor, and an opulent dining room beneath a huge stained glass dome. It was sold in 2005 to the Arctic Club Hotel LLC and now consists of 117 rooms. I’m told you can rent The Dome Room for weddings and such.

Another building that made an impression on us was the Rainier Tower. This one is beyond unique. Designed in 1978 by Minoru Yamasaki, best known for designing the World Trade Center Towers in New York City, it looks like it’s balanced precariously on a base half the size of the actual building. It kind of resembles a wine glass, if you use your imagination. I have pictures, if anybody is interested. They’re not the greatest, but they’ll give you an idea as to what it looks like.

The people who put this tour together also recently published a book that I highly recommend: Seattle Architecture: A Walking Guide to Downtown by Maureen R. Elenga. If you don’t find an actual guided tour to your liking on the website mention above, perhaps you will find a self-guided one in the book!

I plan on making use of it extensively next time I’m down there.