For several years, the 38-story tower would hold the title of tallest west of the Mississippi River, and dominate the Seattle skyline. On July 4, 1914, firearm and typewriter magnate Lyman Cornelius Smith opened the 484-foot-tall (148 m) Smith Tower, the city's new tallest building. Seattle's continued growth at the turn of the century, bolstered by the hosting of the Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition in 1909 and the opening of the Metropolitan Tract to development, led to a building boom north of Yesler Way in the modern-day downtown. Both buildings had been surpassed in height by the clocktower of King Street Station, opened in 1906, which stands 245 feet (75 m) tall. 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. 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. 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. 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.
Īfter 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. In terms of the number of skyscrapers over 493 feet (150 m), Seattle's skyline is ranked first in the Northwestern United States, third on the West Coast (after Los Angeles and San Francisco) and seventh in North America. The 20 tallest buildings in Washington are all located in Seattle. It is currently the 29th-tallest building in the United States, and the tallest building in the state of Washington.
The tallest building in Seattle is the 76- story Columbia Center, which rises 937 feet (286 m) and was completed in 1985. An additional 65 high-rise buildings are under construction or undergoing planning and design review, as of 2016.
Seattle, Washington, United States, the most populous city in the Pacific Northwest region of North America, has 117 completed high-rise buildings over 240 feet (73 m), of which 47 are over 400 feet (120 m) tall. Map points are ordered north to south.Skyline of Seattle from Kerry Park on Queen Anne Hill, 2019 Map all coordinates using: OpenStreetMap
Here, we used north to Denny Way, south to South Atlantic Street, east to Interstate 5, and west to the water, encompassing Belltown and the Denny Triangle.Īll of these projects have had construction permits issued-but progress ranges from projects not too far off the ground to topped-out towers just putting on the finishing bells and whistles. The term “downtown” can also be a little fuzzy. A few of these projects are just barely over that threshold, but one soars up to 58 stories-that’s the tapered Rainier Square Tower project, which is set to be Seattle’s second-tallest building at 850 feet tall. Downtown, with its lack of height limits, is home to the most impressively massive projects though-buildings that will transform the city’s iconic skyline.įor purposes of this map, we considered “skyscrapers” buildings with 40 stories or more, which leaves out a couple of honorable mentions like the 36-story Third and Lenora project. Seattle is rapidly growing and changing, with most neighborhoods undergoing an influx of development.