Rainier
Tower
1301
5th Ave. at University St.
Seattle,
Washington
Architect: |
Minoru
Yamasaki |
Construction: | 1972-1977 |
Style: | International / New Formalism |
Name
history: |
Construction
of the Rainier Tower completed in 1977. The building and the plaza are
named after Rainier Bank, its original tenant. Rainier Bank later
merged into Security Pacific in the 1980s, and eventually into
BankAmerica. In 1989, the name of the tower was changed after Security
Pacific until UW chose to rename it back to the more familiar "Rainier
Tower" in 1995. |
Height: | 121 foot concrete base is
equivalent to eleven stories. 32 stories above. (40 stories?,
42 stories?) |
Exterior: | Aluminum-clad office tower on
steel framing |
Interior: |
830,000 SF (635,824 gross
square feet, 538,529 net?) |
Neighbor: | IBM Building, which is on
the corner across the street from Rainier Tower to the southeast. |
Rainier Square: |
Beneath the tower is Rainier
Square, an underground shopping mall connecting with One Union Square,
which is owned by the University of Washington |
Neighbor: | Rainier
Square Tower: In 2015, the University of Washington proposed an
850 ft
office tower to occupy space next door to the Rainier Tower. The
project also includes a twelve-story hotel. Construction began in
September of 2017 with completion projected in 2019. |
Photos taken March 1, 2019 View from University St. - back of the building ... "... the most bizarre thing he
[Minoru
Yamasaki] ever created was the Rainier
Bank Tower.
This twenty-nine-story office block is hoisted atop an upwardly
flaring, windowless eleven-story concrete pedestal that at its base is
only half the width of the superstructure it supports. Although a tour
de force of engineering, the precarious-looking building remains deeply
unsettling, especially in the earthquake-prone Pacific Northwest." - Martin Filler, Review
of Minoru Yamasaki: Humanist Architecture for a Modernist World
(online March 2019) ...
Left:
Rainier
Square Tower: In 2015,
the University of Washington proposed an 850 ft office tower to occupy
space next door to the Rainier Tower. The project also includes a
twelve-story hotel. Construction began in September of 2017 with
completion projected in 2019.
View from Yamasaki's kitty-corner IBM Building .. Details below, starting at the top: Aluminum spandrel panels ... Detail below: Aluminum spandrel panels View from Yamasaki's kitty-corner IIBM Building ... "...upwardly flaring, windowless eleven-story concrete pedestal that at its base is only half the width of the superstructure it supports." Rainier Square: In 2015, the University of Washington proposed an 850 ft office tower to occupy space next door to the Rainier Tower. The project also includes a twelve-story hotel. Construction began in September of 2017 with completion projected in 2019. Retail space on University St. (left) and 5th Avenue (right) Entrance ... Left of entrance: Attached retail space ... Right: Rainier Square: In 2015, the University of Washington proposed an 850 ft office tower to occupy space next door to the Rainier Tower. The project also includes a twelve-story hotel. Construction began in September of 2017 with completion projected in 2019. |
Minoru Yamasaki designed the
complex with the primary intent of retaining as much of the site for
outdoor public use as possible. Positioning the building on a pedestal
located at the corner of the site achieved maximum land area for
low rise commercial development and open green area. Appearing to taper
toward the ground like an inverted pyramid, the skyscraper’s 121
foot concrete base is equivalent to eleven stories.
Reminiscent of a felled tree, the building has attained the nickname of
“the beaver building”. The base carries the thirty two
story aluminum-clad office tower on steel framing. The tower’s perimeter acts as a Vierendeel truss, transferring wind loads to the pedestal while also making the building earthquake resistant. Results of the successful completion of 3 environmental tests prior to construction proved Rainier Tower as one of Seattle’s safest buildings. Rainier Square underground shopping mall ... - Yamasaki, Inc. - official website (online March 2019; Yamasaki and Associates continued to operate until closing business on December 31, 2009.) |
The unusual tapered base
was selected for multiple reasons. First, its form proved highly
effective in resisting huge seismic jolts that could affect
Seattle. Second, Yamasaki wanted to preserve the "green" character of
Downtown Seattle, and therefore wanted to minimize the building's
footprint on the site. Third, he wanted to devote much of the ground
space to a retail shopping plaza. Fourth, clearly, Yamasaki also
was enamored of the base's soaring, curved form.- PCAD (online March 2019) |
Downtown two Minoru Yamasaki high-rises
face off across Fifth Avenue and
University Street, each with a gigantic gesture at its base that tries
to solve the problem of how to make a skyscraper hit the street with
something other than a colossal thud and also humanize the plaza space
around it. He encircled the 1964 Union Bank Building (originally the IBM Building) with a loggia of gigantic arches, and in 1977 positioned the Rainier Tower atop a concrete base tapering like a wineglass stem, seemingly defying gravity and the quakes of our future. But, in both cases, the towers themselves are so routinely ordinary, and the public spaces under their grand gestures so oppressively bleak, that the buildings are difficult to like. - Lawrence W. Cheek, What modern architecture is worth saving in Seattle? (online March 2019) |
See also: M&T, Buffalo |