Cobb Building (Seattle)

The Seattle Tower, originally known as the Northern Life Tower, is a 27-story skyscraper in downtown Seattle, Washington. The building is located on 1218 Third Avenue and is known as Seattle's first art-deco tower. Its distinctive, ziggurat exterior is clad in 33 shades of brick designed to effect a gradient which lightens from the bottom to the top of the building. This is said to have been inspired by local rock formations.According to the US National Park Service website: The Northern Life Insurance Company was founded in Seattle by D. B. and T. M. Morgan, with assets of $170,232 and a 12 by 12 foot office in the Colman Building. As the firm prospered, it was moved to larger offices where it remained until, after the death of T. M. Morgan in 1919. D. B. Morgan then decided to construct his own building "finer than anything on the Pacific Coast." The plan to construct the building at a cost of $1.5 million was announced in April 1927. Originally a 24-story building, the Northern Life Tower was increased to 27 stories and when completed was one floor higher above sea level than the Smith Tower, which had previously been referred to as "the tallest building west of the Mississippi." Completed in 1928, the Northern Life Tower--a true skyscraper--represents a dramatic shift in the appearance of Seattle's skyline. Earlier 20th-century buildings had derived their style from classical precedents. But by the 1920s, architects began to favor designs that attempted to emulate the speed, efficiency and power found within technology, perceived by many as humanity's hope for the future. The Northern Life Tower was the first building in Seattle to illustrate this style, now known as Art Deco or Art Moderne. Derived from Eliel Saarinen's famous, second-place proposal for the Chicago Tribune contest, the Northern Life Tower building beautifully illustrates the increasing popularity of a simple, smooth, almost machine-like exterior. This faith in progress also appeared in the lighting that once fully illuminated the building: more than 200 floodlights faded into one another in a "phantasmagoric display" meant to imitate the aurora borealis, a play on the Northern Life Insurance Company's name and an illustration of the belief that science could imitate nature's most incredible wonders. Today the lights are gone, and taller, newer skyscrapers dwarf the building, but it remains one of the Northwest's most elegant Art-Deco buildings. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and is also a designated city landmark.

Puget Sound Plaza is a 21-story skyscraper in the Metropolitan Tract of downtown Seattle, Washington. It is located on 1325 Fourth Avenue and offers 271,000 rentable square feet of space. Its lower two stories were remodeled in 1988. The building also houses a parking garage with 334 parking stalls.

The Fairmont Olympic Hotel, originally The Olympic Hotel, is a historic hotel in downtown Seattle, Washington. It was built on the original site of the University of Washington's first campus. The hotel opened in 1924, and in 1979, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Downtown is the central business district of Seattle, Washington. It is fairly compact compared with other city centers on the U.S. West Coast due to its geographical situation, being hemmed in on the north and east by hills, on the west by Elliott Bay, and on the south by reclaimed land that was once tidal flats. It is bounded on the north by Denny Way, beyond which are Lower Queen Anne (sometimes known as "Uptown"), Seattle Center, and South Lake Union; on the east by Interstate 5, beyond which is Capitol Hill to the northeast and Central District to the east; on the south by S Dearborn Street, beyond which is Sodo; and on the west by Elliott Bay, a part of Puget Sound.

The Metropolitan Tract is an area of land in downtown Seattle owned by the University of Washington. Originally covering 10 acres (40,000 m2), the 1962 purchase of land for a garage for the Olympic Hotel expanded the plot to 11 acres (45,000 m2). The Metropolitan Tract is primarily located in a rectangle formed by Seneca St, Third Ave, Union St, and Sixth Ave.

Rainier Square Tower is a mixed-use skyscraper in the Metropolitan Tract of downtown Seattle, Washington. The 850-foot (260 m) tall, 58-story tower is located at Union Street between 4th and 5th Avenues adjacent to the existing Rainier Tower; it is the second-tallest building in Seattle. The $600 million project was completed in 2020, and is the tallest building constructed in the city since the construction of the Columbia Center in 1985.

University Street station is a light rail station that is part of the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel in Seattle, Washington, United States. The station is located under 3rd Avenue at University Street, near Benaroya Hall, and is served by Sound Transit's Line 1. It is located between Westlake and Pioneer Square stations and has surface connections to buses operated by King County Metro and other providers. The station consists of two side platforms situated under street level, with two mezzanines connecting to the surface. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture and includes several pieces of public art added during construction and later additions. Trains serve the station twenty hours a day on most days and the headway between light rail trains is six minutes during peak periods, with less frequent service at other times. The transit tunnel opened on September 15, 1990, and was used exclusively by buses until 2009. Along with all other stations in the transit tunnel, University Street station was closed from 2005 to 2007 for a major renovation to accommodate light rail. Link light rail service to the station began on July 18, 2009, and bus service ceased on March 23, 2019. It is planned to be renamed to Symphony station in 2023, coinciding with the opening of Line 2.

The Main Seattle Post Office has a significant history.

The 1411 Fourth Avenue Building is a historic building in Seattle, Washington, that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 28, 1991 (ID #91000633). The 15-story plus basement Art Deco structure is located at the Northwest corner of Fourth Avenue and Union Street. The main entrance is located at 1411 Fourth Avenue. The building was built in 1928 for the Stimson Realty Company under the direction of the Metropolitan Building Company for $1.1 million by Teufel & Carlson, contractors. Robert C. Reamer was the architect. The building was fully constructed within seven months in 1928, setting a record for a building of its size.From 1997 to 2012 the ground floor housed Tully's Coffee flagship store on the corner of Fourth Avenue and Union Street. The store was among those closed following Tully's bankruptcy protection filing.In 2016, it was sold to the Onni Group for $29.6 million.

1201 Third Avenue (formerly Washington Mutual Tower) is a 235.31-meter (772.0 ft), 55-story skyscraper in Downtown Seattle, in the U.S. state of Washington. It is the third-tallest building in the city, the eighth-tallest on the West Coast of the United States, and the 97th-tallest in the United States. Developed by Wright Runstad & Company, construction began in 1986 and finished in 1988. 1201 Third Avenue was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates and The McKinley Architects. The building was the world headquarters of the financial company Washington Mutual from the building's opening until 2006, when the company moved across the street to the WaMu Center (renamed the Russell Investments Center after the bank collapsed in 2008).

Rainier Tower is a 41-story, 156.67 m (514.0 ft) skyscraper in the Metropolitan Tract of Seattle, Washington, at 1301 Fifth Avenue. It was designed by Minoru Yamasaki, who designed the World Trade Center in New York City as well as the IBM Building, which is on the corner across the street from Rainier Tower to the southeast. Its construction was completed in 1977.The skyscraper has an unusual appearance, being built atop an 11-story, 37 m (121 ft) concrete pedestal base that tapers towards ground level, like an inverted pyramid. Architect Yamasaki chose the design in order to preserve the greenery of downtown Seattle and allow more ground space to be devoted to a retail shopping plaza.Beneath the tower was Rainier Square, an underground shopping mall connecting with One Union Square, which is owned by the University of Washington (UW). This shopping center was demolished in 2017. Both the mall and tower were originally named after Rainier Bank, which was merged in the 1980s into Security Pacific, which was eventually merged into Bank of America. The tower was named after Security Pacific in 1989 until UW chose to rename it back to the more familiar "Rainier Tower" in 1995.Locals often refer to it as the "Beaver Building" as its physical appearance looks like a tree being felled by a beaver. It had also been referred to as the "golf tee" building.In 2015, the University of Washington proposed the Rainier Square Tower, an 850 ft mixed-use tower, to occupy space on the same block as the Rainier Tower. Construction began in September 2017, and completed in 2020.

The 5th Avenue Theatre (often referred to as 5th Avenue or the 5th) is a landmark theatre building located in Seattle, Washington. It has hosted a variety of theatre productions and motion pictures since it opened in 1926. The building and land is owned by the University of Washington and was once part of the original campus. It is operated as a venue for nationally touring Broadway and original shows by the non-profit 5th Avenue Theatre Association. The theatre, located at 1308 Fifth Avenue in the historic Skinner Building, has been listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places since 1978. The 2,130-seat theatre is the resident home to the 5th Avenue Musical Theatre Company, and employs over 600 actors, musicians, directors, choreographers, designers, technicians, stage hands, box office staff, and administrators, making it the largest theatre employer in the Puget Sound region. A non-profit, the theatre company is supported by individual and corporate donations, government sources, and box office ticket sales. The 5th's subscriber season programming includes six to seven shows per year, a mix of locally produced revivals of musical theatre classics, and premieres of bound-for-Broadway shows, and national touring musicals. The 5th Avenue Theatre has established a tradition of being a "testing ground" for new musicals before they make their debut on Broadway, launching hits such as Jekyll & Hyde, Hairspray, and The Wedding Singer. The theatre also hosts a variety of special events, and offers education and outreach programs to school-age children and adults reaching over 61,000 students, professional performers, and audiences each year.