The tallest building in Seattle is the 76-storyColumbia Center, which rises 937 feet (286 m) and was completed in 1985.[5] It is currently the 41st-tallest building in the United States, and the tallest building in the state of Washington.[6] The 20 tallest buildings in Washington are all located in Seattle.[7][better source needed]
After the Great Seattle Fire of June 6, 1889, Seattle began reconstruction of the city's central business district under a new building code requiring the use of fireproof materials, such as stone and brick. By the end of 1890, 465 buildings had been built, completing the initial phase of reconstruction, and city boosters looked to build modern high-rise buildings after the infusion of new money from the Klondike gold rush later that decade.[8][9] The Pioneer Building, whose observation tower surpassed 110 feet (34 m), was completed in 1892 and is regarded as the city's first modern high-rise building.[10][11] The Alaska Building, completed in 1904 and rising 203 feet (62 m) above 2nd Avenue in Pioneer Square, is considered to be Seattle's first skyscraper and first steel-framed high-rise building. It held the title of tallest habitable building in the city until the completion of the 205-foot (62 m), 18-story Hoge Building in 1911.[12][13] Both buildings had been surpassed in height by the clocktower of King Street Station, opened in 1906, which stands 245 feet (75 m) tall.[14]
New high-rise construction in Seattle was halted during the Great Depression and World War II, and slowed during the post-war economic boom in the 1950s, as suburbanization took hold in the region.[15][17] The first new building in downtown to be built after the war was the Norton Building in 1959, a 19-story office building in the International Style with a glass curtain wall and simple exterior features, a departure from the previous Neo-Gothic and Art Deco styles used in high-rises.[10][18] By 1959, office space occupying downtown buildings had overtaken retail uses, with over 4,987,000 square feet (463,300 m2).[19] Seattle was selected to host the World's Fair in 1962, revitalizing the downtown area and bringing the construction of the fairgrounds' centerpiece, the Space Needle. The 605-foot (184 m) observation tower became the symbol of the fair and a landmark for Seattle, and was the first new structure to surpass the Smith Tower in height.[15][20]
An aerial view of Downtown Seattle looking north in 1969, after the completion of the 50-story Seafirst Building
The Downtown Seattle skyline in 1986, viewed from Elliott Bay
The boom of the 1980s was capped by the Columbia Center and other downtown towers such as 1000 Second Avenue (1987), 1201 Third Avenue (1988), the Pacific First Centre (1989) and the Gateway Tower (1990),[2][15] with new downtown office space in the decade surpassing what had been built over the previous 100 years in Seattle.[23] The new wave of development sparked fears of "Manhattanization" in downtown that would push out lower-income residents and reduce quality of life.[10][24] A downtown land use plan adopted in 1984 and shelved until 1986 required the addition of public benefits for major construction projects. Opposition to the new downtown plan, which would allow "generous" new construction unhindered by a height limit,[25] led to the creation of the "Citizen's Alternative Plan", which would limit buildings to 450 feet (140 m) and restrict development to an annual limit of 1 million square feet (93,000 m2) of space per year. The plan was approved by voters as a ballot initiative on May 16, 1989, replacing the land use plan and introduced the city's modern design review process for new development.[10][26][27]
Development of new high-rises slowed down across U.S. cities during the early 1990s recession as demand caught up to an over-built market,[28] with Seattle's 1980s office buildings suffering from a lack of tenants that forced ownership changes or the threat of bankruptcy and foreclosure.[29] By 1992, vacancy rates for office space in Downtown Seattle reached 14.7 percent, while vacancy rates in outlying suburbs remained much lower.[30] The dot-com bubble of the late 1990s, including a local economy boosted by Boeing and Microsoft, led a cut of the vacancy rate to 6 percent by 1997;[31] between 1997 and 1999, new office buildings created an average of 1.5 million square feet (140,000 m2) of additional office space per year.[32] After the burst of the dot-com bubble and the early 2000s recession, downtown office vacancies shot up from 1 percent to 13 percent by the end of 2001.[33]
Two major downtown projects, the IDX Tower (2003) and WaMu Center (2006), were completed during the early 2000s and were the first office buildings to be built since the Key Tower in 1990.[34] By the mid-2000s, office vacancies in Downtown Seattle improved to below 10 percent, but office developers were hesitant to break ground on new projects.[35][36] A new downtown zoning plan adopted in 2006 effectively repealed the 1989 Citizens' Alternative Plan and its modified 540-foot (160 m) height limit, favoring unlimited heights in downtown and 400-foot (120 m) residential towers on the periphery of downtown.[37] The new zoning plan set off a wave of high-rise residential development in the late 2000s, including the completion of Fifteen Twenty-One Second Avenue (2008), Escala (2009), and Olive 8 (2009), coming at the peak of the United States housing bubble and the demand for downtown luxury condominiums before the Great Recession.[38][39]
During the Great Recession, downtown office vacancies rose to a record 21 percent by the beginning of 2010,[40] but dropped to 10 percent by 2013;[41] the downturn was partially blamed on the collapse of Washington Mutual, which employed 3,500 in its downtown offices.[42] The surge in demand for office space revived several downtown high-rise office projects, including The Mark and Madison Centre, both exceeding 500 feet (150 m) in height and planned to open in 2017.[43] Other planned office and mixed-use buildings in Downtown Seattle include 2&U, the stalled Civic Square project, and the Rainier Square Tower, the city's second-tallest building at 850 feet (260 m).[2][44] Since 2010, developers have also sought to build high-rise residential towers in Downtown Seattle, including a supertall 101-story tower named 4/C, which would become the city's tallest building at 1,029 feet (314 m),[45] and the 880-foot (270 m) 888 Tower.[46]
Recent high-rise development in Seattle has been concentrated in the Denny Triangle and South Lake Union areas to the north of Downtown Seattle, both rezoned to support development in the 2000s after decades of supporting industrial and low-rise commercial establishments.[47][48] Office development came first to the Denny Triangle area in the mid-2000s, with the construction of the United States Courthouse (2004) and 1918 Eighth Avenue (2009).[2] In 2012, Amazon.com announced their intention to relocate their South Lake Union headquarters to a complex of high-rises in Denny Triangle;[49] the first towers, the 520-foot (160 m) Doppler and Day 1, opened in 2016, and at least three more towers are in development.[50] The Denny Triangle also hosts the region's largest hotel, the 45-story Hyatt Regency Seattle near the Washington State Convention Center, which was completed in 2018.[51]
This list ranks Seattle skyscrapers that stand at least 400 feet (122 m) tall, based on standard height measurement. This includes spires and architectural details but does not include antenna masts. The "Year" column indicates the year in which a building was completed. Freestanding observation towers, while not habitable buildings, are included for comparison purposes; however, they are not ranked.
Originally designed to be 1,005 feet (306 m) tall, but the height was reduced due to concerns of a nearby flight path by the Federal Aviation Administration[53]
* Table entries without text indicate that information regarding one or more of building heights, floor counts, and dates of completion has not yet been released.
Proposed
This lists skyscrapers that are proposed for construction in Seattle that are expected to rise over 400 feet (122 m), but are not yet completed structures.
* Table entries without text indicate that information regarding one or more of building heights, floor counts, and dates of completion has not yet been released.
Timeline of tallest buildings
This lists buildings that once held the title of tallest building in Seattle. The Space Needle is not a building, and is thus not included in this list; the 605-foot (184 m) tower was the tallest structure in the city from 1961 to 1969.
C.^ The Space Needle is not a habitable building, but is included in this list for comparative purposes. Per a ruling by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, freestanding observation towers are not considered to be buildings, as they are not fully habitable structures.
^ abPastier, John (July 1, 2004). "Smith Tower (Seattle)". HistoryLink. Retrieved February 13, 2017.
^ abMcDermott, Terry (May 7, 1989). "High-rise: Digging the hole – Latest skyscraper rises from one man's dream, another's financial pit". The Seattle Times. p. A1.
^Hampson, Rick; Lane, Polly (October 29, 1995). "Skyscrapers topping out? U.S. high-rises may have reached their peak as demand diminishes". The Seattle Times. p. F1.
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