Grand Award Winner
Cast-in-Place Structures

Location: 305 Harrison St., Seattle

Owner/developer: City of Seattle/Seattle Center

Project team: Howard S. Wright, general and concrete contractor; The Miller|Hull Partnership, architect; AKB Engineers, structural engineer; and Cadman, ready-mix supplier

Through the efforts of a public-private partnership, the city of Seattle redeveloped the southern half of Seattle Center’s International Fountain Plaza. Seattle Center’s 2000 Master Plan identified the importance of enriching the open space surrounding the fountain, the centerpiece of a two-city-block green space in the heart of the development.

The old Flag Pavilion and plaza, which this project replaced, sat as an isolated object along the southern edge of the green space and blocked the view of the fountain from the nearby Charlotte Martin Children’s Theater. Opening this view, along with the desire to not only replace but also to add square footage for Seattle Center events, led to a “subterranean” design in which the building was essentially pushed down into the ground and a new rooftop belvedere/plaza created on top.

The northern facade of the new pavilion is glazed, and opens onto the new green space with a series of roll-up garage doors, while the rooftop plaza above serves as a new vantage point looking out to the fountain and green. The green space itself was re-graded into a nearly two-acre bowl to accommodate the frequent large-scale festival gatherings hosted by Seattle Center.

Photos copyright Steve Keating Concrete “pylons” with glazed canopies contain elevators and mechanical equipment. They also mark the entries into and onto the building.

The new pavilion is over 14,000 square feet of flat floor exhibition space with nearly 20 feet clear height intended for a wide variety of festivals, conferences, exhibitions and catered events. The unit pavers covering the 19,000-square-foot rooftop plaza, which is accessible on grade from the adjacent street, are designed in a pixilated matrix pattern to simulate an image of water droplets in a pond when viewed from the Space Needle above.

Two concrete “pylons” with glazed canopies — designed to accommodate elevators and mechanical equipment — mark the entries into and onto the building.

Finalists in the category included the Pierce County Environmental Services Building and The Olympus residential tower in Seattle’s Belltown.