Commerce Street/South 11th Street station

On February 10, 1997, the Seafirst Bank branch of Lakewood, Washington, was robbed of $4,461,681 in cash by Billy Kirkpatrick and Ray Bowman, also known as the Trenchcoat Robbers. An investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service caught the two, and they were both sent to 15 years in prison in 1999. It is one of the largest robberies in U.S. history.

Northwest College of Art & Design (NCAD) is a private for-profit college in Tacoma, Washington that focuses on the visual arts. The college offer the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Student enrollment is usually "under 125" in a given academic year. The college is accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges.

The Tollbooth Gallery was a site-specific exhibition space and project of the nonprofit arts organization ArtRod launched in 2003 and located in Tacoma, Washington. The project featured contemporary art on view 24 hours a day and seven days a week. The aim of the Tollbooth was to offer dynamic and challenging installation and video art in an outdoor urban setting. Tollbooth Gallery was created and curated by Jared Pappas-Kelley and Michael Lent. For each exhibition an artist or artist team was commissioned and tasked with the realization of their project at the site, while taking advantage of the freestanding concrete structure. Art critic Regina Hackett characterized the project as “mind-expanding art packed into cramped quarters” and described the approach as: “Art that is eager to wrestle with reality.” Hackett noted: “What it lacks in space, it achieves in time,” and “on top of that, it's fabulous.”The Tollbooth commissioned eight exhibitions per year, focusing on varied approaches and engagement with the site and viewer, with an emphasis on video art, time-based work, photography, printmaking, and installation art. The gallery’s stated mission was to bring video and gallery work outside of the traditional museum setting, challenging artists and audience to approach site in different ways. Participant and curator Fionn Meade described the Tollbooth site as a “challenging space to work with but in a good way,” commenting that “the limitations of a format make you be more decisive.” This decisive approach to exhibiting contemporary art allowed the Tollbooth Gallery to program work that might be considered “edgier,” which was furthered by the temporary nature of the commissions. As the journal Public Art Review noted, the project benefited from the “dynamics” of its temporary exhibitions as they allowed for experimentation and “delivered on a short timeline.”Over the years the Tollbooth Gallery was selected by Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles to be included as part of their curriculum, presented as part of the panel Conduit to Contemporary Art at Americans for the Arts National Conference, and Make Your Own: Art in and out of Cologne at Henry Art Gallery. A catalogue of the first year of exhibitions at Tollbooth Gallery was subsequently published as Toby Room 10.The Tollbooth Gallery was one of four major projects of the art organization ArtRod, which included Critical Line - an exhibition center, the publication Toby Room, and the film and video series Don’t Bite the Pavement.

The World Trade Center Tacoma (WTCTA) is an office building and trade center in downtown Tacoma, Washington. The World Trade Center is affiliated with the World Trade Center Association and is considered the only full-service center in the Pacific Northwest.The World Trade Center Association of Tacoma was established in 1970 and was renamed to the World Trade Center Tacoma after licensing was approved by the World Trade Center Association. The organization was originally headquartered on Port of Tacoma property, but moved in 2003 to the Rust Building in downtown Tacoma.Since 2017, the trade center has been managed by the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce.

Key Bank Center, formerly the Puget Sound National Bank Building, is a 16-floor high-rise in Tacoma, Washington. When completed as the National Realty Building in 1911, the 71 m (233 ft) tower was the tallest building in the state of Washington until surpassed by Seattle's Smith Tower in 1914. Key Bank later sold the tower and moved into the building at the corner (1101 Pacific) which now houses the South Puget Sound District Offices of Key Bank as well as its Tacoma Main Branch office. The tower, with marble quarried in Alaska, was designed by Frederick Heath.

The Luzon Building was a historic six-story building at 1302 Pacific Avenue in downtown Tacoma, Washington designed by Chicago architects Daniel Burnham and John Root.The Luzon was built in 1890–1891 as the Pacific National Bank, which had a first floor entrance on Pacific Avenue and a second floor entrance on Commerce Street. Both floors contained businesses such as W.L. Davis & Sons Co. Furniture and Chaddy & Son Tailors in addition to the bank; the upper four stories were living space. The building was named "Luzon" in 1901, after the largest island in the Philippines, where on July 1 of that year William Howard Taft inaugurated establishment of American civil government of the Philippines. The building was demolished on September 26, 2009, despite efforts by local preservationists.

The Pythian Temple, built in 1906 for Commencement Lodge Number 7 of the Knights of Pythias, is an historic building located on Broadway in the Theater District of Tacoma, Washington. It was designed by noted Tacoma architect Frederick Heath. Like many multistory urban fraternal buildings built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, its lower floors were rented out for retail and office spaces while the upper floors were reserved for lodge use. This pattern of usage continues into the 21st century for this building, although Commencement Lodge plans to renovate the building to permit the rental of its hall for cultural events.On August 23, 1985, Pythian Temple was added to the National Register of Historic Places.The building was featured in the summer 2008 newsletter of the Marian Dean Ross Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians. The group reported that the Pythian order remains active and is working to preserve its 1906 building and has received grants for work on the Knights of Pythias Castle Hall. "This two-story hall, completely hidden within the building's interior, is a rich confection of early 20th Century woodwork, plaster, lighting, murals and carpeting."For a short period in the mid-1990s, the Pythian Temple hosted a local gypsy theater company, and its ornate auditorium was the setting for productions of such plays as Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead, Inherit the Wind, 12 Angry Men, and Talk Radio. In addition to the Knights of Pythias, the building houses the Tacoma Youth Theater and Seabury Middle School.

1201 Pacific, formerly the Wells Fargo Plaza, is the tallest building in Tacoma, Washington, and was completed in 1970. It was built with help from investors such as George Weyerhaeuser and Ben Cheney, and was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.The $14 million building was announced in 1968 and uses land that was cleared under Tacoma's urban renewal program. It was originally built for the National Bank of Washington, which was acquired in 1970 by Pacific National Bank (later First Interstate Bank of Washington), in turn acquired in 1996 by Wells Fargo. It was known as the Wells Fargo Center until 2016, when it lost its naming rights.The building, now owned by Unico Properties, was awarded LEED Silver certification in 2011.

The National Bank of Tacoma Building, also known as the National Bank of Washington and as the Tacoma Art Museum, is a former bank building in downtown Tacoma, Washington, United States. It was designed by Sutton & Whitney and built in 1921. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.The bank changed its name to the National Bank of Washington in 1937. In 1970, the building ceased to be used for banking and was sold to the Tacoma Art Museum, which converted it in 1970–1971 for use as an art museum. It remained in use as the Tacoma Art Museum until 2003, when the museum moved to a new building. Already in 2002, in anticipation of its move, the art museum sold the former bank building to the Asia Pacific Cultural Center.In 2007, a business named Sound Inpatient Physicians moved into the building. Sound Physicians remained there until 2015, when the company moved to another building in downtown Tacoma. As of October 2017, the building was for sale.

The Rialto Theatre in Tacoma, Washington was built in 1918 to showcase movies. Its design reflects the affluence following World War I. It reflects the character of a palace and is the result of efforts by entrepreneur Henry T. Moore and Tacoma architect Roland E. Borhek. Designed to hold 1500 patrons (revised to 780 today) and retail space. The two-and-a-half-story structure is in the historic downtown of Tacoma. The area has long been associated with theaters and entertainment. The theater is freestanding, with a dramatic view on an incline with a classical façade sheathed of glazed white terra cotta. Both the interior and exterior retain most of the original design of Roland E. Borhek. The theater has an auditorium, proscenium with stage, a relocated projection booth, balcony, lobby, and commercial space. It has been altered with the removal of the storefronts and marquee. On the inside, the lobby's decorative ceiling has been hidden and the concession areas expanded. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

The Pantages Theatre or Jones Building in Tacoma, Washington was designed by the architect B. Marcus Priteca. The unusual structure opened in January 1918. It was designed to be an office building and a vaudeville theatre. The theaters Second Renaissance Revival style is juxtaposed with the Commercial style. The exterior above the ground floor is largely unaltered. The building still houses entertainment and commercial activities (Tacoma City Theaters).

Frost Park (officially Larry L. Frost Memorial Park) is a public park in Tacoma, Washington. Named after police officer Larry Frost, the park is located at the intersection of South Ninth Street and Pacific Avenue in downtown Tacoma. Frost Park has a fountain and hosts chalk art competitions.