Portal:Seattle/Selected article/8

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The Smith Tower, located in Pioneer Square, is the oldest skyscraper in Seattle, Washington. It is named after its builder, firearm and typewriter magnate Lyman Cornelius Smith. It was the tallest building on the West Coast from its completion in 1914 until the Space Needle overtook it in 1962. It remained the tallest office building west of the Mississippi River until the Kansas City Power & Light Building was built in 1931. The Smith Tower contains 42 floors.^[1]

In 1909, Smith planned to build a 14-story building in Seattle. His son, Burns Lyman Smith, convinced him to build instead a much taller skyscraper to steal the crown from rival city Tacoma's National Real Estate Building as the tallest west of the Mississippi. Construction began in 1910. Although Smith did not live to see it, the building was completed in 1914 to a height of 159 m (522 feet) from curbside to top of tower finial. At its ribbon cutting July 3, 1914, it was the 4th tallest building in the world and the tallest in the world outside Manhattan. Read More...