The Seattle Central Library is a striking, eleven-story structure defined by its faceted, diamond-shaped glass and steel skin. Occupying the entire city block at one thousand Fourth Avenue, the building appears to shift and tilt, with…
Essential Seattle Sights
This tour highlights Seattle's most celebrated landmarks, from iconic skyline viewpoints to masterfully designed cultural and architectural hubs. It is the perfect introduction to the city's unique spirit, engineering wonders, and stunning natural backdrops.
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1. Seattle Public Library - Central Library
2. The Seattle Great Wheel
The Seattle Great Wheel rises one hundred seventy-five feet above the surface of Elliott Bay, where it stands at the edge of Pier Fifty-seven. It is the only Ferris wheel in the United States built over water, extending forty feet out…
3. Olympic Sculpture Park
The Olympic Sculpture Park is defined by a continuous, Z-shaped path that descends from the edge of the downtown street grid down to the Elliott Bay waterfront. This nine-acre site, operated by the Seattle Art Museum, functions as an…
4. Chihuly Garden and Glass
Chihuly Garden and Glass is distinguished by its central Glasshouse, a forty-foot tall steel and glass structure that houses an expansive, one-hundred-foot-long sculpture made of over one thousand individual red, orange, yellow, and amber…
5. Space Needle
The Space Needle is defined by its slender, tripod-like steel legs that flare out toward a wide, flying saucer-shaped observation deck six hundred and five feet in the air. Built as the centerpiece for the nineteen sixty-two World's Fair,…
6. Museum of Pop Culture
The Museum of Pop Culture is identifiable by its shimmering, distorted exterior of multicolored metal, which appears to fold, twist, and ripple across the Seattle Center landscape. Locals often call the structure the Blob, though architect…
7. Kerry Park
Kerry Park is defined by a low concrete wall stretching along West Highland Drive, where a constant line of people leans over to photograph the city skyline below. This one-acre park sits on the southern slope of Queen Anne Hill and…
8. Fremont Troll
The Fremont Troll is a colossal, eighteen-foot-tall sculpture of a creature from folklore, crouching under the north end of the George Washington Memorial Bridge. It is made of steel rebar, wire, and two tons of concrete, and it is most…
9. Ballard (Hiram M. Chittenden) Locks
The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, or Ballard Locks, are a complex of concrete chambers and a massive spillway stretching across Salmon Bay. They separate the saltwater of Puget Sound from the freshwater of Lake Washington and Lake Union. By…