Rainier Square Tower is a

mixed-use Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to some ...

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

in the Metropolitan Tract of

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

. The tall, 58-story tower is located at Union Street between 4th and 5th Avenues adjacent to the existing

Rainier Tower Rainier Tower is a 41-story, 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 ...

; 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 The Columbia Center, formerly named the Bank of America Tower and Columbia Seafirst Center, is a skyscraper in downtown Seattle, Washington, United States. The 76-story structure is the tallest building in Seattle and the state of Washington, r ...

in 1985.

History

The

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

, which owns the Metropolitan Tract, announced their intent to redevelop the Rainier Square shopping center in late 2013. The shopping mall opened in 1978 and occupied three-fourths of the block around the existing

. The university's board of regents had previously proposed demolishing the mall for a 26-story hotel in 2000, but the proposal was shelved. In May 2014, the board of regents selected Wright Runstad to develop the property. In November 2015, Wright Runstad raised the tower's proposed height from 800 to 850 feet, with an additional eight stories of luxury apartments. On December 3, 2015, the city approved the master use plan, paving the way for construction to begin. The Rainier Square shopping center was closed in August 2017 and site demolition began the following month.

Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...

was announced as the sole lessee of the office portion in October 2017, occupying . In February 2019, Amazon announced that it would sublease the tower while considering other options. Steel core erection began in October 2018 and the building was

topped out In building construction, topping out (sometimes referred to as topping off) is a builders' rite traditionally held when the last beam (or its equivalent) is placed atop a structure during its construction. Nowadays, the ceremony is often parlaye ...

ten months later in August 2019. It was originally scheduled to be completed in August 2020, and was completed in September 2020. The retail portion was planned to be occupied by an

Equinox Fitness Equinox Group is an American luxury fitness company which operates several lifestyle brands: Equinox, Equinox Hotels, Precision Run, Project by Equinox, Equinox Explore, Equinox Media, Furthermore, PURE Yoga, Blink Fitness, and SoulCycle. Withi ...

club and a

PCC Community Markets PCC Community Markets is a food cooperative based in Seattle, Washington. With over 58,000 members, it is the largest consumer-owned food cooperative in the United States. Both members and non-members may shop at the retail locations, but membe ...

store. PCC opened their store in January 2022. The 169-room hotel was originally planned to be operated by Equinox under their hotels division, but the building was replaced with an eight-story office building (named "400 University") in October 2019. 400 University was topped out in January 2021.

Design

The tower, designed by

NBBJ NBBJ is an American global architecture, planning and design firm with offices in Boston, Columbus, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, Portland, Pune, San Francisco, Seattle, Shanghai, and Washington, D.C.. NBBJ provides services in archi ...

, features nearly 200 luxury apartment units, of office space, and of retail space. Six levels of below-grade parking can accommodate up to 1,000 vehicles. The tower has a "sloping" appearance, starting with a wide base and gradually becoming slimmer at higher floors. Early designs had the taper beginning at a higher floor, but it was lowered so as not to obscure views of the unique "pedestal" base of

Minoru Yamasaki was an American architect, best known for designing the original World Trade Center in New York City and several other large-scale projects. Yamasaki was one of the most prominent architects of the 20th century. He and fellow architect Edward D ...

's adjacent Rainier Tower. The tower uses a "radical"

shear wall In structural engineering, a shear wall is a vertical element of a system that is designed to resist in-plane lateral forces, typically wind and seismic loads. In many jurisdictions, the International Building Code and International Residential Co ...

core system that used steel plates in lieu of traditional

rebar Rebar (short for reinforcing bar), known when massed as reinforcing steel or reinforcement steel, is a steel bar used as a Tension (physics), tension device in reinforced concrete and reinforced masonry structures to strengthen and aid the concr ...

and

formwork Formwork is Molding (process), molds into which concrete or similar materials are either precast concrete, precast or cast-in-place concrete, cast-in-place. In the context of concrete construction, the falsework supports the shuttering mold ...

between concrete elements. This method reduced the amount of time needed to erect the floors of the tower. A separate, ten-story building on the southwest corner of the site, 400 University, will have and is set to open in 2021. The building will have a rooftop deck and of retail space.

References

External links

* {{Seattle skyscrapers NBBJ buildings Skyscraper office buildings in Seattle Skyscrapers in Seattle

History

Design

See also

References

External links