Jake IllustrationsRosebyVariousArtists24 Places to Visit and Color
Needle
Conceptualized by Edward Carlson in 1959, designed by John Graham, Jr. and Victor Steinbrueck, and built for the 1962 World’s Fair by the Howard S. Wright Construction Company, the tower’s futuristic design symbolizes humanity’s Space Age aspirations.
Standing over 600 feet tall, the tower’s saucer-shaped top house offers visitors Seattle’s only 360-degree indoor and outdoor panoramic views of the downtown cityscape, Mount Rainier, Puget Sound, and the Cascades and Olympic mountain ranges.
One of the world’s most recognizable and photographed landmarks, the Space Needle is a treasured icon that has epitomized Seattle’s innovative and forward-thinking spirit.
Space1.
Photo by James_Seattle
Photo by Daniel Schwen
Pike2.
Created by Seattle City Councilman Thomas Revelle in 1907, Pike Place Market is one of the United States’ oldest and largest continuously operating public markets. Considered by both residents and visitors alike as a defining city icon as well as the soul of Seattle, the Market is best known for its fresh fish throwing, neon sign and clock, and Rachael the piggy bank. Most importantly, the Market is home to the world’s first Starbucks café–making it the birthplace of a business empire that has given a little bit of Seattle to the world over. Likewise, Pike Place Market remains Seattle’s neighborhood marketplace to this day, as it is the center of fresh, locally produced, and high-quality foods, goods, and handcrafted products.
Place Market
Pioneer3.
Square / Pioneer Building & Pergola
Photo by ESB Professional
Established in 1852 as the Emerald City’s first neighborhood, Pioneer Square has been Seattle’s anchor as the city has evolved from a small settlement to world-class metropolis. Featuring the perfect balance of old and new, walk through its storied streets to experience the neighborhood’s beauty and history alongside all of its businesses, shops, eateries, and night life. It's all here, waiting to be explored.
The Pioneer Building, designed and built by Elmer Fisher in 1892, is a fascinating blend of Victorian and Romanesque Revival styles. Located on 1st Avenue and James Street, the Pioneer Building’s unique architecture came from its rise after the Great Fire of 1889 and the resulting building ordinance. Thanks to the historic restoration movement of the 1960s and the Speidels’ Underground Tours, this iconic edifice was saved from demolition and as a result led to the Pioneer Square Historic District’s creation in 1970. Rehabilitated in the early 1970s by Ralph Anderson, the Pioneer Building is a tribute to Henry Yesler and Seattle's pioneers. For sheer decorative exuberance, the Pioneer Building remains one of Seattle's most beloved historic buildings.
The Iron Pergola, designed by Julian Everett and built in 1909, is a lavish Victorian-style waiting shelter that features decorative wrought iron columns. Today the structure provides shade for visitors and serves as one of Pioneer Square’s most memorable features.
Smith4. Tower
Envisioned by Lyman Cornelius Smith and designed by Gaggin & Gaggin, Smith Tower opened in 1914 as Seattle’s first major skyscraper as well as the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. Home to the Observatory, thirty-fifth-floor bar, Legends of Smith Tower exhibits, and the historic Wishing Chair, Smith Tower has given both visitors and residents alike the opportunity to take in Seattle from above, relax, and have a good time for over a century. With a storied past that includes connections to radio, rum-running, and a host of interesting characters and storylines, Smith Tower will leave you enthralled and intrigued.
Photo by Jeffery Simonson
Museum5.
of Flight
With over 175 aircraft and spacecraft, tens of thousands of artifacts, millions of rare photographs, dozens of exhibits, and a world-class library, the Museum of Flight brings mankind's incredible history of flight to life as the world’s largest independent, non-profit air and space museum. Founded in 1965 by the Pacific Northwest Aviation Historical Foundation to save major aircraft and artifacts representing the evolution of flight, the first Museum of Flight exhibits were displayed at the Seattle Center. The Museum of Flight complex began taking shape in 1975 when Seattle leased the Boeing Red Barn to the Museum. Known as the birthplace of The Boeing Company, the Red Barn was restored in 1983 and became the Museum of Flight’s first permanent location. The Red Barn was joined by the Great Gallery in 1987, the Library and Archives Building in 2002, and the J. Elroy McCaw Wing and Airpark in 2004. The Museum of Flight continues to expand their exhibits, their experiences, and their programs–paying homage to the history of flight and inspiring the entertainment and education of generations to come.
Photo by Norman Ong
Located in Seattle's SoDo neighborhood, the multi-purpose Lumen Field is home to the National Football League’s Seattle Seahawks, the Major League Soccer’s Seattle Sounders FC, and National Women's Soccer League’s OL Reign. Opened in 2002 as Seahawks Stadium, the facility was renamed to Qwest Field in 2004 and then to CenturyLink Field in 2011 before being rebranded to Lumen Field in 2020. With a capacity to hold nearly 69,000 rowdy fans and a roof that covers 70 percent of the seating area, Lumen Field can get incredibly loud. So loud in fact, that this arena was consider by the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s loudest stadium. This loudness is not just audial but also physical, as in 2011 Seattle Seahawks running back Marshall Lynch performed his famous ‘Beastquake’ run against the New Orleans Saints. The ‘Beastquake’ came from the fact that the screams and vibrations of the fans was so intense that it actually registered 2 on the Richter scale. Now that is impressive!
Photo by Another Believer
Lumen6. Field
To provide science with its lofty status for the 1962 World’s Fair, Minoru Yamasaki designed five delicate, Gothic-styled steel arches and six white rectangular buildings surrounding an elevated courtyard for the United States Pavilion. With 125 total exhibits, the Pavilion was the nation’s largest science exhibit at the time and also had the nation’s largest single use of precast, prestressed concrete structural components. Yamasaki’s bold design helped lure visitors into an otherworldly space befitting the possibilities of innovation and technology. Now known as the Pacific Science Center, the complex has since added the Seattle Rotary Discovery Labs, Boeing IMAX Theater, the Ackerley Family Exhibit Gallery, and a butterfly pavilion. Today, the Center features plenty of fascinating exhibits that explore the latest theories of the scientific frontier.
Photo by Seattle Municipal Archives
7. Paciffiic Science Center
The center for world-class visual arts in the Pacific Northwest since 1933, the Seattle Art Museum is as much a part of Seattle's landscape as Pike Place Market and the Space Needle.
Initially situated at Carl Gould’s landmark Art Deco structure in Volunteer Park, the Museum moved to its current downtown location in 1991. Designed by Robert Venturi, this building features Jonathan Borofsky’s Hammering Man at its entryway. Its 2007 expansion has a stainless steel façade that responds to its urban surroundings and the Pacific Northwest’s light and landscape, while its spacious interiors provide an inviting environment to experience art. SAM also features Olympic Sculpture Park–a luscious greenspace that is highlighted by stunning works of art like Alexander Calder’s The Eagle and Jaume Plensa’s Echo. With collections, installations, galleries, and exhibits that features art from around the world, SAM invites you to wander through their beautiful museum.
Art Museum
Seattle8.
Photo by Dolovis
Adopted as a branch of Seattle city government in 1890, The Seattle Public Library moved around to various locations in order to find more space. After a fire burned down the Library's first home at the Yesler Mansion in 1901, Andrew Carnegie gifted $200,000 for a new library building. Designed by P.J. Weber in a Beaux-Arts style and completed in 1906, this new library was Seattle’s first Central Library.
Photo by DVD R W
11. Seattle Central Library
– contained a drive-thru service window, an Abstract modern art collection, and a film department with 1,000 16-millimeter films. Seattle’s third and current Central Library – designed by Rem Koolhaas and LMN Architects and completed by Hoffman Construction Co. in 2004 – is a sight to behold. This library can contain up to 1.45 million books and other materials, a four-level "Books Spiral" with the nonfiction collection in a continuous loop, a “Mixing Chamber” with computers and information desks, and an exterior skin of insulated glass on a steel structure.
Seattle’s second Central Library – designed by Bindon & Wright and Decker Christenson & Kitchin in the international style and completed by the Lloyd Johnson Co. and the Morrison-Knudsen Co. Inc. in 1960
Photo by Checubus
Since the Aurora Bridge was erected in 1932, there have been reports of troll sightings underneath. These mythical sightings became a reality in 1989, when Seattle asked the Fremont Arts Council to launch an art competition to rehabilitate the area under the bridge. Now they can say for sure that a troll has taken up residence on the Aurora Bridge’s north end. Designed by Steve Badanes and inspired by the folktale Billy Goat’s Gruff, this unique sculpture is made from rebar steel and 2 tons of ferroconcrete. At 18 feet tall, the Troll looms large over any passersby. But this Troll only chomps down on mechanical morsels, as his metal eye scrutinizes a petite Volkswagen Beetle in his left hand. Both a legend in Fremont and a celebrity on the silver screen, the Fremont Troll has been featured in films like The Twilight Saga, Death Note, and Sleepless in Seattle.
Troll
Fremont12.
Photo by S-F
13. Museum of Pop Culture
Established by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 2000, the Museum of Pop Culture makes creative expression a life-changing force by offering experiences that inspire and connect their communities. Designed by Frank Gehry, MoPOP’s exterior resembles a smashed electric guitar and is known as “the Blob” by locals. Made up of 21,000 stainless steel and aluminum shingles, 3,000 individual panels encase the building’s exterior–which appear to change when viewed from different angles and reminds audiences that music and culture is constantly evolving. Opened in 2000 as the Experience Music Project to celebrate Jimi Hendrix, Allen added the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame to the building’s south wing in 2004. After changing its name to EMP|SFM and then to the EMP Museum, the venue rebranded itself in 2016 as MoPOP with a vision for curating, exploring, and supporting the creative works that shape and inspire people’s lives. Today, MoPOP features exhibits spanning diverse areas like science fiction, fantasy, horror, fashion, sports, video games, and music.
Photos by Another Believer
n' Boots
Designed by Lewis Nasmyth in 1953 as part of Buford Seals’ planned Frontier Village, Hat n’ Boots is something that you might find in Texas rather than in the sleepy Seattle neighborhood of Georgetown. Consisting of a giant cowboy hat and two bathrooms shaped like giant cowboy boots, the gas station opened in 1954 as Premium Tex since it sold Texaco gas and gave away premiums like drinking glasses or toasters. A blend of American gun-slinging and gas-guzzling, Premium Tex grabbed motorists' attention and quickly became Washington state’s busiest gas station. Unfortunately, the rest of Frontier Village was never built, and Seals ran out of money. Even after the gas station changed its name to Hat n' Boots and stopped giving away toasters, by 1988 the gas station was abandoned. However, Allan Phillips and the Georgetown community were not going to let Hat n' Boots fade into obscurity. Thank to their dedicated efforts and some good fortune, these quirky sculptures were saved from demolition and were fully resorted by 2010.
Hat20.
Color Seattle is filled to the brim with the town's most iconic settings, like the Space Needle, the Museum of Pop Culture, Pike Place Market, and the Museum of Flight, among many others.
Through its 24 beautiful black-and-white line drawings and detailed descriptions, “Color Seattle” masterfully highlights what makes the Emerald City so special to its residents and visitors. www.colorourtown.com
