Columbia Center

Columbia Center

Columbia Center from Smith Tower, August 2007.
Former names Bank of America Tower
Columbia Seafirst Center
Record height
Tallest in Seattle and Washington state since 1985[I]
Preceded by Safeco Plaza
General information
Type Commercial offices
Location 701 Fifth Avenue
Seattle, Washington,
United States
Coordinates 47°36′16″N 122°19′50″W / 47.60453°N 122.33069°W / 47.60453; -122.33069Coordinates: 47°36′16″N 122°19′50″W / 47.60453°N 122.33069°W / 47.60453; -122.33069
Construction started 1982
Completed January 12, 1985
Opening March 2, 1985
Cost US$200 million (c. $440 million today[1])
Owner Gaw Capital Partners
Height
Architectural 294.8 m (967 ft)
Roof 287.4 m (943 ft)[2]
Observatory 275 m (902 ft)
Technical details
Floor count 76
(76 & 7 below ground)
Floor area 1,538,000 sq ft (142,900 m2)
Lifts/elevators 48
Design and construction
Architect Chester Lindsey Architects
Developer Martin Selig
Structural engineer Magnusson Klemencic Associates (formerly Skilling Helle Christiansen Robertson)
Main contractor Howard S. Wright Construction
References
[3][4][5][6][7]

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, 1,018-foot 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 1984.

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

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved November 10, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 http://skyviewobservatory.com/
  3. 1 2 Columbia Center at Emporis
  4. ↑ Columbia Center at Glass Steel and Stone
  5. ↑ Columbia Center at SkyscraperPage
  6. ↑ Columbia Center at Structurae
  7. ↑ "Columbia Center". The Skyscraper Center. Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
  8. 1 2 Susan Phinney (August 18, 2003). "Chester Lindsey dead at 76: Architect changed look of Seattle's skyline". Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
  9. 1 2 3 "Bank of America Tower (formerly Columbia Seafirst Tower)". Howard S. Wright. Retrieved June 13, 2012.
  10. ↑ "Steep Streets in Seattle". Seattle Department of Transportation. Retrieved June 11, 2012.
  11. ↑ Terry Finn (May 3, 1984). "Building towers over Seattle". Anchorage Daily News. UPI.
  12. 1 2 Timothy Egan (June 29, 1986). "Creating An Office Empire". The New York Times.
  13. ↑ Tom Boyer (November 22, 2005). "Region's loftiest building renamed". Seattle Times.
  14. ↑ "U.S. Steel Move Draws Fire". The New York Times. AP. February 26, 1983.
  15. ↑ Bill Dietrich (November 20, 1989). "Selig Undaunted After Selling His Seattle Skyscraper". Los Angeles Times.
  16. ↑ "Tishman West To Manage Columbia Seafirst Center". Seattle Times. February 2, 1990.
  17. ↑ Harriet King (November 26, 1989). "Project Tailored To Space Limits". The New York Times.
  18. ↑ "Height plan reduced on Seattle towers". UPI. August 7, 1984.
  19. 1 2 Robert T. Nelson (January 5, 1990). "Tallest Building To Reach Higher -- City Issues Permit For Seafirst Antennas". Seattle Times.
  20. ↑ "Taller antennas sought for Columbia Center". Puget Sound Business Journal. August 6, 1999.
  21. ↑ Andrea James (October 13, 2006). "Interested in share of 76-story tower?". Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
  22. ↑ Amy Martinez (October 13, 2006). "Pension fund puts stake in Columbia Center up for sale". Seattle Times.
  23. ↑ Jillian Ambroz (January 9, 2007). "EOP Pares Portfolio Before Sale To Blackstone". CoStar.
  24. ↑ Kiran Umapathy (May 2, 2007). "Blackstone Completes Seattle Sale to Beacon". CoStar.
  25. ↑ Eric Pryne (March 24, 2010). "Columbia Center misses mortgage payment". Seattle Times.
  26. ↑ Stiles, Marc (August 7, 2015). "Columbia Center sells to Hong Kong company for $711 million". Puget Sound Business Journal. Retrieved August 8, 2015.
  27. ↑ Bhatt, Sanjay (August 7, 2015). "Columbia Center sold to Hong Kong investors". The Seattle Times. Retrieved August 8, 2015.
  28. ↑ "Columbia Center renovates observatory, views will span 360 degrees".
  29. ↑ "Outline of the 9-11 Plot, Staff Statement No. 16," (PDF). National Commission on Terrorist Attacks. June 16, 2004: 13. Retrieved June 10, 2012.

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