Metropolitan Tract (Seattle)

Edit links
Coordinates: 47°36′30″N 122°20′04″W / 47.6084°N 122.3344°W / 47.6084; -122.3344 (Metropolitan Tract)
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Cobb Building, 1301–1309 Fourth Avenue, is the only remaining building whose design conforms to the original Howells & Stokes plan for the Metropolitan Tract.
A 1915 advertisement welcoming vistors to what was then known as the "University Tract", but already managed by the Metropolitan Building Company.
Entryway of Fifth Avenue Theater, in the Metropolitan Tract.
Lobby of the Fairmont Olympic Hotel, in the Metropolitan Tract.

The Metropolitan Tract is an area of land in

Olympic Hotel[2] expanded the plot to 11 acres (45,000 m2). The Metropolitan Tract is primarily located in a rectangle formed by Seneca St., Third Ave., Union St., and Sixth Ave.[3]

History

The tract includes the original site of the University of Washington campus. In 1895 the university moved to its present site.

Edmond Meany to move it to the new campus and rehabilitate it was unsuccessful.[4]

The state legislature had authorized the university regents to lease or sell the downtown tract. On December 9, 1902, the regents voted to lease rather than sell, although one strip on the northwest corner of the site was sold to the

U.S. government for a federal building, on the assumption that this building would increase the value of the rest of the tract.[4]

The initial 1902 lessee, the University Site Improvement Company, began construction on the building for the

Moore Theatre and Hotel, Moore transferred the remaining 47 years of his lease to the Metropolitan Building Company[4] who engaged the New York firm of Howells & Stokes to assemble a master plan for integrated development. Howells & Stokes intended to create a "city within a city." At the time, it was the largest development of a downtown site undertaken in the United States.[2]

Howells & Stokes' design included a department store, offices, a hotel, housing, and a small plaza, all to be built in a similar style and scale. All buildings in the tract were to be 11 stories tall, with terracotta ornamentation at the top and street levels and brick in between. Their decoration would combine elements of the Beaux Arts and commercial (Chicago school) styles, such as symmetry and a clearly marked storefront. Ten structures were proposed; of these, five were actually built.[2]

Howells & Stokes employed

Howells & Albertson.[5] As of 2007, the Cobb Building is the only one of the original buildings to survive.[2]

Currently, the Metropolitan Tract contains over 1.4 million square feet (130,000 m2) of rentable office space, over 200,000 square feet (19,000 m2) of rentable commercial space, some 450 hotel rooms, and access to over 2,000 parking spaces. The tract is managed and operated through two long-term leases: one with Legacy Hotels for The

Fairmont Olympic Hotel and garage, and the other with UNICO Properties, Inc., for all the other buildings in the Tract.[6]

Buildings of note in the Metropolitan Tract

The following buildings in the Metropolitan Tract are on the National Register of Historic Places

  • Cobb Building - 1305 Fourth Avenue, Seattle 98101
  • Fairmont Olympic Hotel
    - 411 University Street, Seattle 98101
  • Skinner Building - 1326 Fifth Avenue, Seattle 98101
  • 5th Avenue Theatre - 1308 5th Ave, Seattle, WA 98101, in the Skinner Building

Other buildings of note in the Metropolitan Tract are:

  • Financial Center - 1215 Fourth Avenue, Seattle 98161
  • 1200 Fifth - 1200 Fifth Avenue, Seattle 98101
  • Puget Sound Plaza - 1325 Fourth Avenue, Seattle 98101
  • Rainier Square
    - 1301 Fifth Avenue, Seattle 98101

Former buildings of the Metropolitan Tract include:

Recent development

In 2013, the

Rainier Square shopping mall, adjacent to the Rainier Tower, at the expiration of the long-term lease signed with Unico Properties in 2014.[9] The resulting project replaced the mall with the Rainier Square Tower, a 58-story mixed-use skyscraper that included 710,000 square feet (66,000 m2) of office space, 220 residential units, and a 165-room hotel.[10] Construction began on the Rainier Square Tower in 2017 and was completed in 2020.[11]

Rainier Square Tower, May 2020 from 4th Avenue and Union Street

Notes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Metropolitan Tract, Seattle, Washington.
  1. ^ a b History of the Metropolitan Tract, University of Washington Real Estate Office. Accessed online 26 September 2007.
  2. ^ a b c d Cobb Building, Seattle, A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary, National Park Service. Accessed 24 September 2007.
  3. ^ Map of the Metropolitan Tract, University of Washington Real Estate Office. Accessed online 17 January 2012.
  4. ^ a b c IX. The Metropolitan Tract (the original campus), part of No Finer Site: The University of Washington's Early Years On Union Bay on the site of the University of Washington Library Special Collections and Preservation Division. Accessed online 26 September 2007.
  5. ^ "Abraham Horace Albertson". washington.edu. Pacific Coast Architecture Database. Retrieved January 1, 2020.
  6. ^ The Metropolitan Tract, University of Washington Real Estate Office. Accessed online 17 January 2012.
  7. ^ "White-Henry-Stuart Buildings". Emporis. Archived from the original on July 29, 2021.
  8. ISBN 0-295-95779-4
    .
  9. ^ Bhatt, Sanjay (October 3, 2013), "UW has big plans for its prime downtown Seattle real estate", The Seattle Times
  10. ^ Levy, Nat (August 2, 2017). "Amazon poised to lease iconic new Seattle office tower, dramatically expanding footprint again". GeekWire. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  11. ^ "Rainier Square - The Skyscraper Center". www.skyscrapercenter.com. Retrieved 2023-05-02.

47°36′30″N 122°20′04″W / 47.6084°N 122.3344°W / 47.6084; -122.3344 (Metropolitan Tract)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Metropolitan_Tract_(Seattle)&oldid=1199760126"