1200 Fifth, formerly the IBM Building, is a 20-story office building in the

Metropolitan Tract The Metropolitan Tract is an area of land in downtown Seattle owned by the University of Washington.Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

. The building was designed by

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 ...

, who also was architect of

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 ...

on the corner diagonally opposite, and the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Construction on the building began in May 1963 and it was completed in October 1964.

Nard Jones Nard Jones (1904–1972) was an American writer, best known for his novels set in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Life According to Jones' self-description in "Puget Sound Profiles", he was born in Seattle and graduated with honors from Whitman ...

wrote in 1972 that "There is an architectural poetry about

he building He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

that is at variance with the endless jibes at computerization and the alleged sober pragmatism of IBM personnel." The building's crown has a series of 191 "fins" that measure tall and surround the machinery floors. The corner of the complex at 5th Avenue and University Street was the site of the

Seattle Ice Arena The Seattle Ice Arena was a 4,000-seat multi-purpose arena in Seattle, Washington, United States. It was home to the Seattle Metropolitans Pacific Coast Hockey Association franchise from 1915 to 1924. Built in 1915 at the cost of $100,000, the ...

from 1915 to 1963.

References

External links

*
Building profile
at Unico Properties {{DEFAULTSORT:1200 Fifth (Seattle) Downtown Seattle Office buildings in Seattle Skyscraper office buildings in Seattle Minoru Yamasaki buildings NBBJ buildings Office buildings completed in 1964 1963 establishments in Washington (state)