Columbia Center

Columbia Center (formerly Bank of America Tower and Columbia Seafirst Center) is the tallest skyscraper in the downtown Seattle skyline and the tallest building in the State of Washington. At 287.4264 m (943.000 ft) it is currently the second tallest structure on the West Coast (after Los Angeles's 73 story U.S. Bank Tower).^[2] The tower has the tallest public viewing area on the West Coast and west of the Mississippi. It occupies most of the block bounded by Fourth and Fifth Avenues and Cherry and Columbia Streets.^[2] It contains 76 stories of class-A office space above ground and seven stories of various use below ground, making it the building with the most stories west of the Mississippi.^[3] Construction of this building began in 1982 and finished in 1985. It was designed by Chester L. Lindsey Architects who also designed the Fourth and Blanchard Building in the Belltown neighborhood, and was built by Howard S. Wright Construction.

Design

Columbia Center was designed by Washington architect Chester L. Lindsey.^[8] The base of the building is clad in Rosa Purino Carnelian granite. The building's structure is composed of three geometric concave facades with two setbacks, causing the building to appear like three towers standing side by side.^[9]

Ground level elevation on the Fifth Avenue side of the building is higher than on the Fourth Avenue side; the part of Cherry Street it faces was identified as one of the steepest streets in the Central Business District with a slope of 17.1%.^[10] The tower was originally designed to be about 306.5 m (1,006 ft), but federal regulations by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) would not allow it to be that tall so close to the nearby Sea-Tac Airport. Although city land use regulations at the time were intended to limit skyscrapers to about 50 stories, the developer, Martin Selig, obtained the necessary permits for a 76-story skyscraper due to a part of the law that allowed bonus height for providing retail space with street access. Because three separate stories could access the street on the sloped site, the developers were allowed a bonus for each of the three stories they set aside for retail, which was reportedly an unintended loophole in the law.^[11][12] There is an observation deck on the 73rd floor which offers views of Seattle and environs. The top two floors of the building (75th and 76th) are occupied by the private Columbia Tower Club, which houses a restaurant, bar, library, and meeting rooms. An underground concourse connects the building to the nearby Seattle Municipal Tower and Bank of America Fifth Avenue Plaza.

The tower, originally proposed as Columbia Center, opened under the name Columbia Seafirst Center after its largest tenant and financier, Seafirst Bank, and then changed to the Bank of America Tower, when Seafirst, which had been owned by Bank of America since 1983, was fully integrated into Bank of America. That name gave it the nickname "BOAT" (Bank of America Tower). In November 2005, the building's name was changed back to Columbia Center after the bank reduced its presence in the building. Bank of America still maintains office space within the building, but has since closed the bank branch at the base of the tower.^[13]

Columbia Center plays host to the largest firefighter competition in the world, the Scott Firefighter Stairclimb. About 1,900 firefighters from around the world yearly make the trek up 69 floors and 1,311 steps wearing their full firefighter gear. This event benefits the local chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma society.

History

Development and Construction

2 years before the start of construction, in 1980, Howard S. Wright construction company began to become involved with the planning phases of the Columbia Center.^[9] Martin Selig, a prominent Seattle developer, borrowed $205 million in 1981 to develop the property.^[12] The Columbia Seafirst Center, as it came to be known, was constructed by Howard S. Wright starting in 1982 with a 120 feet deep excavation hole that required 225,000-cubic-yards of dirt and soil to be removed. This was among one of the largest foundations for a building in Seattle along with concrete footings extending 134 feet below street level. However, the structural steel of the building was built at a rate of 2 floors per week. Then, the building itself was completed on January 12, 1985,^[9] and opened on March 2 of that same year.^[8] U.S. Steel Corporation was contracted to provide 16,000 short tons (15,000 t) of steel for construction.^[14] It was approximately 50% taller than the previous tallest skyscraper in Seattle, the 630-foot (190 m) Seattle First National Bank Building (now Safeco Plaza) that opened in 1969.

The Columbia Center (then Columbia Seafirst Center) under construction circa 1983.

Financial Problems and Controversy

Selig continued to own and manage the building until 1989, when financial problems forced him to sell it to Seafirst Corporation for $354 million.^[15] Management was taken over by the Tishman West Company of Los Angeles.^[16]

Controversy regarding the skyscraper's size contributed to the passage of a 1989 law called the Citizen's Alternative Plan (CAP) that enforced more stringent restrictions on the size of buildings in Downtown Seattle.^[17] In 1990, after rejecting earlier plans for 300-foot (91 m) antennas,^[18] Seattle and the FAA granted permission to erect two 192-foot (59 m) antennas on top of Columbia Center, which were expected to be used for broadcasting radio and television throughout the region.^[19] Though the FAA was originally worried about the tower's height encroaching the airspace, they deemed the addition of the antennas not problematic.^[19] The antennas were not built before the permits expired in 1994, however.^[20]

Overtime Purchases of the Building

Equity Office Properties bought Columbia Center from Seafirst in 1998 for $404 million.^[21] The New York State Common Retirement Fund bought a 49.9% stake in the building and then several years later sold its share back to Equity Office.^[22][23] In 2007, Columbia Center was sold by Equity Office to Boston-based Beacon Capital Partners for $621 million;^[24] Beacon later defaulted on a loan in 2010, the height of the Great Recession, at a time when vacancies reached 40%.^[25] On August 7, 2015, Hong Kong-based Gaw Capital Partners purchased the building for $711 million.^[26][27]

On July 1, 2013, the Columbia Center's observation deck, known as the Sky View, was remodeled from 270 degrees to a 360 degree viewing area.^[28]

September 11 attacks

On June 16, 2004, the 9/11 Commission reported that the original plan for the September 11, 2001, attacks called for the hijacking of ten planes, to be crashed into targets including the "tallest buildings in California and Washington State," which would have been the Columbia Center and the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles.^[29]

Gallery

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  Columbia Center

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  Columbia Center when it was called the Bank of America Tower

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  Columbia Center from below

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  The Space Needle from the observation deck

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  Downtown Seattle from the observation deck

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  Beneath Columbia Center

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  Panorama from the observation deck

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  Inside the observation deck

See also

• List of tallest buildings in Seattle
• List of tallest buildings in the United States
• List of tallest buildings by U.S. state
• Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park
• List of buildings

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Columbia Center.

• Columbia Center Official Website
• Columbia Center Sky View Observatory Website
• Columbia Center on CTBUH Skyscraper Center
• Columbia Center construction photographs