BACKGROUND INFORMATION

“The auditorium building will be a place where the citizenry of Seattle can foregather to discuss civic problems, share ideas and ideals and learn both to think together and to speak a common language.”

- Mayor Bertha Landes Knight, May 18, 1928, at the dedication of Seattle’s original Civic Center

Natural and Cultural Origins

Located on the shore of Puget Sound in the Pacific Northwest, Seattle is a city named after a Suquamish and Duwamish Chief. Now and for thousands of years, before the first European settlers arrived in 1851, the region has been inhabited by Coast Salish peoples, a group of Indigenous tribes living here in Seattle and across present-day southwestern British Columbia and Western Washington and centered around the Salish Sea, or the Puget Sound. Coast Salish tribes are related through shared life-ways centered around land, water, and salmon protection, as well as leaders in economic development and gatherings like the annual Canoe Journey.

Today Seattle contains thousands of acres of parkland and the city is surrounded by water, mountains and evergreen forests on all sides. It is a city in nature in the midst of its largest growth period to date. People come to Seattle from places all over the world and the city is becoming an increasingly international urban metropolis. Current and future demographic waves and shifts will continue to shape and transform Seattle’s identity in the years to come.

Innovations in Industry

Seattle possesses an independence that influences its unique culture and which has resulted in groundbreaking movements in technology and music. Seattle is Washington’s largest city and has long been an innovator and incubator of developments in commerce and industry, beginning with the sustainable land management practices of Coast Salish tribes who inhabited the area for centuries prior to European contact. Timber production and outfitting of gold explorations to Alaska characterized the modern city’s early mid-late nineteenth-century economy. Seattle’s position as an international shipping port, major fishing terminal, and headquarters for Boeing’s aircraft manufacturing began in the early twentieth century. In recent years, developments in technology have characterized Seattle’s business environment. Companies headquartered in the urban region, such as Amazon, Microsoft, Starbucks and Weyerhauser, have helped to build Seattle’s reputation as one of the most innovative cities in the world.

Seattle’s sense of place and spirit are derived from an overlay of indigenous and modern culture and industry onto the region’s exquisite natural environment. At the corner of the country, Seattle is an everchanging frontier of possibility that attracts people stimulated by adventure, exploration, experimentation and innovation.

Seattle, with iconic structures and greenery of Seattle Center in the foreground right; Denny regrade area with low development in the foreground left; Elliott Bay, downtown and the Kingdome in the mid-ground; and Lake Washington,

Seward Park peninsula, Mercer Island and the base of Mount Rainier in the background, 1977 (Courtesy Seattle Municipal Archives)

Present-Day Uptown Uptown Arts and Cultural District

Uptown describes itself as an historic place, a On the east edge of Uptown is the campus of the “In 2017, Uptown became Seattle’s third official center for the performing arts, a destination for Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which works Arts & Cultural District. Since the 1962 World’s Fair, local, national, and international visitors, a place for locally and internationally to help all people lead Uptown has been a hub of Seattle arts and culture, families, and a home for many of Seattle’s urbanite healthy, productive lives. The campus includes art drawing audiences and performers locally, national population and workforce. The commercial heart installations by Janet Echelman and Marie Watt. and internationally. Uptown’s rich concentration of of Uptown is the intersection of 1st Avenue N. and diverse arts and cultural spaces and activities includes Mercer Avenue, northwest of Seattle Center and Seattle Center is Uptown’s primary open space. The independent artists, internationally renowned classical two blocks north of the Arena’s west plaza. Seattle Uptown Urban Design Framework envisions streets arts, innovative theater and visual arts, ethnic festivals Center and the Arena influence the economic health and pedestrian trails to increase the neighborhood’s from around the world, and major music concerts. of Uptown, which includes over 100 restaurants and public open space system and endorses the Uptown is a stage to celebrate the international diversity bars. Residential areas are located in the northeast implementation of “Green Streets” according to the that is represented throughout Puget Sound. People and northwest corners of the neighborhood. The City’s Streetscape Design Guidelines. come to the neighborhood to share the richness of largest demographic living in Uptown are young, music, dance, art and food found around the world.” single professionals. Housing is characterized by The neighborhood is currently served by Metro bus (from www.seattle.gov/arts/arts-and-cultural-districts) a rich collection of early-mid twentieth-century lines and the Seattle Center Monorail and regional apartment buildings and a rapidly growing number transit agency Sound Transit is engaged in planning The majority of supporting Uptown coalition arts of mixed-use apartments and condominiums. One GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONSa Seattle Center Light Rail Station to open in Uptown organizations are located at Seattle Center. The list is of its greatest assets is Seattle Center’s Theater in the 2030s. long and diverse: District, which reaches out into the neighborhood to include cultural organizations such as On the Boards. Academy of Interactive Northwest Print Center Entertainment On the Boards AEG Live One Degree Events “A Framework for Uptown’s Future,” Uptown Urban Design Framework (2016), with Arena site colored red: Art Not Terminal Art-In-A-Box One Reel Pacific Northwest Ballet ArtsED Washington Pacific Science Center ArtsFund Pottery Northwest Bill & Melinda Gates Prima Vera Arts Center Foundation Visitor Center Queen Anne Historical Blaine Center - Compass Society Housing Alliance Seattle Center Book-It Repertory Theatre Seattle Children’s Museum Canlis Glass Seattle Children’s Theater Chihuly Garden and Glass Seattle Opera Institute for New Connotative Seattle Repertory Theatre Action Seattle Shakespeare G. Gibson Gallery Company KCTS 9 Seattle Storm KEXP SIFF Film Center KING FM 98.1 SIFF Cinema Uptown MarQueen Hotel’s Tin Lizzie Space Needle Lounge St. Paul’s Episcopal Church McCaw Hall Teen Tix Museum of Pop Culture Ten Mercer (MoPOP) The Vera Project Music4Life Theatre Puget Sound Northwest Folklife Uptown Alliance

Macklemore at KeyArena (photograph by Greg Nissen)

Music in Seattle

Many types of live music venues exist in Seattle. Highlights of Seattle’s popular music over the years have included periods of vaudeville, jazz, blues and grunge rock.

Music at the Arena

The list of performers who have played rock shows at the Coliseum, later KeyArena, is long and storied. One of the first shows at the Coliseum, in 1964, was by the Beatles who played to 14,300 fans. Other performers have included: the Who, Pink Floyd, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, James Brown, KISS, Grateful Dead, Elvis Presley, David Bowie, Queen, Linda Ronstadt, Heart, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Metallica, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, and many many others. Arena renovations will improve acoustics and overall concert experience at the stadium as well as draw significantly more acts.

Seattle SuperSonics (photograph by Two Gypsy Hearts)

Basketball

In 1967, the National Basketball Association (NBA) expanded to seven new cities, including Seattle. Just a few years on the heels of Seattle’s “Space Age” World’s Fair, and in reference to Boeing’s jet industry, the new team was called the SuperSonics. They played most of their seasons in the Seattle Coliseum, later renamed KeyArena, except during times when the arena was either in need of repairs or being renovated. The SuperSonics won three Western Conference titles in 1978, 1979, and 1996; and the NBA championship in 1979. The uniforms changed over the years, but the main team colors were green and gold.

The Seattle Storm is a professional basketball team founded in 2000 and playing in the Women’s National Basketball Association. They won the WNBA championship in 2004, 2010 and 2018. The Storm’s home games will be played at the New Arena following renovations. Team colors are green, maroon, bronze, and white.

Seattle Metropolitans (photograph from Collection of David Eskenazi)

Hockey

The inception of professional ice hockey in Seattle came by way of Lester and Frank Patrick, sons of a wealthy Canadian lumberman. The Patrick brothers owned, managed, coached and even played on their team, the Seattle Metropolitans. The team was part of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association league which the family also started. The Patricks built a state-of-the-art arena in downtown Seattle, at 5th and University, called Seattle Ice Arena. The arena included plush “opera chairs” and the ice was kept cool using eight miles of piping under the floor and a 75-ton refrigeration plant. The Metropolitans played between 1915 and 1924 and were the first American team to win the Stanley Cup, in 1917, against the Montreal Canadiens. The team uniforms were green, red, and white striped woolen jersey and leggings, with white ribbed shorts and a green hat. The team influenced hockey rules by innovating the “blue line” and “crease line” and by legitimizing the forward pass versus the lateral pass used by most other teams. Their last attempt at the Stanley Cup, in 1919, was canceled due to an influenza outbreak.

In 1927, just a few years after the Metropolitans ended their team run, the City completed construction of Civic Ice Arena, later called Mercer Arena, which stood at 4th and Mercer for ninety years. In addition to being a place for the community to ice skate, the Arena was home to many hockey clubs: The Eskimos, Sea Hawks, Olympics, Ironmen, Bombers, Americans, Totems, Breakers, and Thunderbirds. Seattle’s early ice hockey dominance paves the way for the city to, again, embrace ice hockey as a civic passion.

Seattle Siwashes at Yesler Way Park (photograph from Collection of David Eskenazi)

Baseball

From 1903 to 1906, the Denny farmland at 3rd and Republican, the site of today’s Seattle Center, was home to Recreation Park Base Ball Grounds. This was the first stadium of Seattle’s first Pacific Coast Baseball League team, the Seattle Siwashes, a team named for a Chinook word meaning Indians. The team played until 1968, changing names and fields over the years. They became Rainiers when the brewery of that same name acquired the team and were called the Indians in the 1920s-1930s. They played their final season only under the name Angels. The Seattle Mariners, started in 1977, are a current Major League Baseball team that plays at T-Mobile Park in SODO.

Football

The Seattle Seahawks are a National Football League team started in 1976 that plays at CenturyLink Field in Seattle’s SODO neighborhood. The Seahawkswon the Super Bowl in 2014 and have a huge fan base of “12”s in the Seattle region and beyond.

Soccer

Reign FC, founded in 2012, is a member of the National Women’s Soccer League. The team previously played at Seattle Center’s Memorial Stadium but are now based in Tacoma.

Seattle Sounders FC is part of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer. The Sounders play at CenturyLink Field, and won the MLS Cup in 2016.

Denny’s meadow, 1896 (Photo by C. L. Andrews, courtesy Paul Dorpat)

Historic Landscape

Seattle Center, where the Arena is located, occupies much of Seattle’s Uptown neighborhood, at the base of Queen Anne Hill. Grasslands similar to the one which previously occupied Seattle Center were maintained by indigenous people as places for innovation, game hunting and foraging. In 1853, founding Seattle family, the Dennys, made a claim on the land and settled there. They called it “the prairie” and farmed the land for decades, primarily as forage for livestock. Later in the 19th century, after the Dennys moved closer to Lake Union, the land was farmed by Chinese immigrants and called “China Gardens.” It was use used briefly as a corral for the U.S. Army at the turn of the century. In 1903, the Dennys donated the property to the City of Seattle, whose citizenry used it for recreational purposes such as baseball games, horse shows, rodeos, circuses and other temporary events. The current site was shaped primarily by the development that occurred with the World’s Fair of 1962, which established Seattle Center.

Century 21 Vision

In the mid-1950s, the City of Seattle began an undertaking to plan and fund a World’s Fair on the grounds of the former Denny Farm, which the Denny family had earlier donated to the City and on which already stood the Civic Auditorium, Ice Arena, Memorial Stadium, and Armory. Warren Avenue School stood at the site of the current Arena and was torn down to make room for the Fair. This was to be the Seattle’s second World Fair, following the AlaskaYukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909, held on the current University of Washington grounds.

In 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world’s first satellite. This prompted increased international interest in science and engineering and caused the vision for Seattle’s World Fair to take a turn toward science. The Fair was dubbed “Century 21” and was to present an optimistic vision of a future improved through science and technology. The overarching message was one of nations working together toward the peaceful use of science, particularly space technology. The Fair focused on art, education, music, and science to convey its theme of idealism. Fairgrounds were divided into five Worlds: • World of Science • World of Commerce and Industry • World of Art • World of Entertainment • World of Tomorrow

A Show Street, Gayway, Food Circus, and other boulevards and exhibits activated the grounds.

Publicity for the Fair was creative, including a commemorative coin, postage stamps, “World of Tomorrow” cards,” postcards, a pop-out trailer that traveled around the state, and tickets printed with the promise of “A Ticket to Tomorrow.”

Design

In 1958, Paul Thiry was named the primary architect of the Seattle World’s Fair. Clayton Young was the site planner. Together, they coordinated compatibility of Fair and post-Fair uses of the site and its structures. Concepts for the futuristic Space Needle, Coliseum, and Monorail ensured an iconic Modernist design presence at the Fair.

above: Seattle World’s Fair postcards (originally published by C.P. Johnson Co.)

Groundbreakings

The Washington State Pavilion (current Arena) was the first World’s Fair structure to begin construction on the site. Its groundbreaking was a major celebratory event in Seattle, creating a new paradigm as “space breaking.” It was accompanied by reenactment of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Expo’s Atlantic-to-Pacific road race, putting a Model T, a 1959 Ford, and an experimental Levicar that was said to operate by “magnetic levitation” into competition. When the cars crossed the finish line in downtown Seattle, a rocket carrying dirt from the Pavilion site was launched.

The 1961 groundbreaking for the Space Needle’s foundation had its own fanfare, with an accompanying display of objects that might be obsolete by the year 2000, including: a typewriter, a telephone, cigarettes, false teeth, a mouse trap, Seattle city map, a ukulele, a diet formula, and a federal income tax form. It is curious to reflect on which of these items have remained, which have changed, and which (if any) have become obsolete.

Opening Ceremony

On April 21, 1962, President Kennedy announced the use of a 10,000 year old sound from space to open the Fair. From a desk in Florida, where he was spending Easter weekend, Kennedy pushed a telegraph key that previous presidents had used to open fairs, and with that, it is said that a telegraph closed a circuit that sent an impulse to the Andover Earth Station in Maryland, which directed it toward the supernova Cassiopeia 10,000 light years away. At the same time, the Station captured a signal that had left the star 10,000 years earlier at a speed of 186,000 miles per second. Once it was captured, AT&T relayed that impulse to Seattle. And so, the Fair began with the sound of ancient space activity. Nearly 10 million people attended the Fair over the course of its six-month span.

Closing Ceremony

Joe Gandy, Fair director and the face of Century 21, dedicated the Fair’s closing ceremony to the “world of tomorrow.” With his final words, “I now officially commit the Seattle World’s Fair to history,” the Fair’s visions of the future instantly became a part of the past. People returned to the twentieth century and time marched slowly onward toward the twenty-first century.

Exhibits

The Exposition included pavilions representing countries from all over the world and exhibits showcasing the latest developments in technology and engineering. Extensive documentation exists about Seattle World’s Fair displays, with the following anecdotes only a very small sampling.

A miniature replica of Washington’s state-ofthe-art waterworks, used for damming rivers, demonstrated the production of hydroelectric power. The Fine Art Pavilion featured five galleries, with the art displayed inside reported as “shattering” to people who had never seen modern art like paintings by Jackson Pollock or Robert Rauschenberg. This exhibit is said to have made a difference in fostering art appreciation in Seattle. The television show “Candid Camera” hid cameras all over the fairgrounds and did a stunt where they created an “upside-down room” with chairs, tables, lamps, and trash baskets fastened to the ceiling. Show creator Allan Funt’s teenage son was strapped into the upside-down chair. A sign saying “Information” was place on the outside of the door and the television show filmed the reactions of people who came into the room. The fair introduced Seattle to new foods, including the popular Belgian waffle. Even today, Seattleites who attended the fair recall eating the waffles. Golden keys were sold that operated talking storybook machines placed throughout the grounds, to provide exhibit narratives. The fair’s popular Gayway, with its “galaxy rides” and carnival midway with sideshows and oddities, provided a similar diversion for children and adults alike. Colors of the Fair were described as “gay” and “kaleidoscopic.”

top: Alweg Monorail Station (C.P. Johnson Co. postcard) middle: Belgium waffle stand (photographer unknown) bottom: Thailand pavilion (Courtesy Seattle Municipal Archives - 77821)

top: GM driverless car at World of Tomorrow (MOHAI) top: Bubbleator operators (MOHAI) middle: House of Flowers (photographer unknown) middle: Bubbleator controls (photographer unknown) bottom: Gladys visits the World’s Fair (photographer unknown) bottom: Candid Camera at C21 (photographer unknown) New Arena at Seattle Center PUBLIC ART PLAN October 2019, page 37

Architectural Inspiration

In 1959, Paul Thiry, widely recognized as one of the “fathers” of Modernism in Seattle architecture and the primary architect of the Seattle World’s Fair, unveiled his design for the building that would become the Arena. His inspirations for its iconic, parabolic roof line are said to have included Mount Rainier, woven hats of Haida people of the Pacific Northwest, and the circus tents which in years past had been set up at the site. The parabolic roof shape also bears some resemblances to the tilted plane of landscape on which it was built and which can still be felt in the public spaces around the Arena building.

Iconic Roof Structure

Thiry’s design was also looking to the future and trying to achieve something significantly modern and engineering driven. From the beginning, the design was conceived with flexibility of program in mind, with the intent that following the Fair, the State of Washington would convert the building into a sports and entertainment arena.

Thiry’s iconic hyperbolic-paraboloid roof structure swoops 110 feet into the air at its apex and covers 130,000 square feet of clear span space, using no internal columns or beams. It is supported by four steel compression trusses rising from sculptural concrete abutments. More than 5 ½ miles of steel cable were laced from the trusses on 8’ centers to support the original aluminum roof panels.

History of Renovations and Landmark Status

The structure has undergone several renovations that have affected its interior and roof surfacing, but its roof line, abutments, columns, exterior structure, and glazing have not and will not be changed.

1962: opens for the World’s Fair Century 21 Exposition; called the Washington State Pavilion 1962: after the World’s Fair closes, remodeled as a sports and event venue with its floor elevation at ground level; renamed the Washington State Coliseum 1967: renovation for professional basketball; renamed the Seattle Center Coliseum 1995: floor lowered to 38’ below ground, ceiling panels refurbished; renamed KeyArena 2017: building granted landmark status by Seattle’s Landmarks Preservation Board 2021: floor to be lowered to 53’ below ground and widened out, south atrium to be added; new name to be determined

top: KeyArena and Mount Rainier (Peter West Carey) middle: Haida hat, c. 1900 (Kwii.aang and Da.axiigang) bottom: Coliseum trusses in construction, 1961 (Courtesy Seattle Municipal Archives - 77337)

top: Circus tents at site, 1912 (Lawton Gowey) middle: Coliseum roof with cables, 1962 (Frank Shaw, courtesy Paul Dorpat) bottom: Rendering of proposed structure, 1961 (Paul Thiry)

top: Coliseum entry, 1960s (photographer unknown) middle: Ski jump, 1966 (Frank Shaw, courtesy Paul Dorpat) bottom: Seattle Storm banner, 2010s (seattlestormbasketball.com)

top: George Harrison, Beatles concert, 1964 (MOHAI) middle: Fans at Beatles concert, 1964 (MOHAI) bottom: SuperSonics game, 1978 (Sports Illustrated) top: “World of Tomorrow” exhibit, 1962 (MOHAI ) middle: Century 21 “Bubbleator,” 1962 (MOHAI) bottom: Teens climbing buttress, 1962 (Photo by Werner Lenggenhager, Seattle Public Library Special Collections)

World of Tomorrow and Bubbleator

At the Century 21 World’s Fair, the Washington State Pavilion was the location of the impressive and futuristic, “World of Tomorrow” exhibit. 3,500 interlocking 4’-square aluminum cubes were stacked so they extended into the upper spaces of the building, appearing to float like a cloud. Visitors rode a spherical glass elevator, called “The Bubbleator,” into the cloud and during the ride experienced a 21-minute multimedia spectacle called “The Threshold and the Threat.” Sounds and sites surrounded the Bubbleator on all sides, with images both envisioning and warning about the future projected onto the cubes and over 100 speakers incorporated into the installation in different locations. A bombastic prologue compressed the next 38 years of the twentieth century into 40 seconds and the projections included images of nuclear war, automated factories, and office machinery; as well as images featuring the industry and technology of Washington state, such as jetports, monorails, and interlacing highways. The exhibit was something like a crystal ball for society. The Bubbleator operator, dressed magically in a futuristic silver lame uniform, would beckon to people, “Step off into the future! We all have to do that some time.”

Several other exhibits were housed in the Washington State Pavilion, including: the Library of the Future’s computer and microfilm systems, General Motors’ driverless car, Pan Am’s globe and flight sculpture, and the French exhibit which took a different stance on technology, warning about its potentially damaging effects and offering art and nature as an antidote, concluding, “intelligence without love is nothing.” (Gaston Bergers)

Post World Fair Programming

The roof and walls of the Arena building and the memories of the people who have gathered there hold an epic history. The iconic buttresses of the Coliseum structure have been a backdrop for various unique civic events over the years, including a ski jump off the Coliseum roof that drew nearly 50,000 spectators. Since the World Fair, the Coliseum, later KeyArena, has hosted thousands of events, including basketball and hockey games, rock concerts, political speeches, memorials, gaming conventions, circuses, ice capades, and many other family events.

Seattle’s Civic Soul

Seattle Center is a 74-acre public parkland that was built upon the grounds of the 1962 World’s Fair. In times of both joy and grief, Seattle Center is the city’s community gathering place. Seattle Center is permeable and accessible on all its edges. It welcomes all residents and visitors. A showcase of diversity through culture and the arts is its hallmark strength.

While being the place where Seattleites gather to mourn loss, celebrate victory, or enact protest, Seattle Center is also the city’s “rec room.” In addition to large public open spaces with fountains and gardens, Seattle Center houses performing arts organizations, museums, schools, lecture halls, playhouses, playgrounds, restaurants, public broadcasting stations, auditoriums, amphitheaters, stadiums, and performance venues – with the Arena by far its largest.

Home of the city’s trademark structure, the iconic, futuristic Space Needle, Seattle Center represents the civic soul of Seattle. In our age of digital information and experience, Seattle Center remains a place of physical, interactive experience. Here, people have tangible, unmediated, often unexpected experiences of performance, people, recreation, art, and place.

The Center’s indoor and outdoor spaces are linked and combined along an internal street grid, with east-west (vacated) Thomas Street being the spine that connects the Space Needle, Monorail, Armory, Mural Amphitheater, Museum of Pop Culture, and many other attractions, including the Arena.

right: 1893 Sanborn map of Uptown and South Lake Union, with Arena site outlined in red; shows original streets named after trees, and two streets called Thomas below left: International Fountain after the 2017 Women’s March, with Armory, Space Needle, and Pacific Science Center in the background and Arena to the right (photograph by John Feher) below right: Arena with Uptown neighborhood and Elliott Bay in the background; view from Space Needle (photograph by Elaine Thompson)

Cross-pollination of art, sports, recreation and entertainment can ignite “culture by osmosis.”

Culture by osmosis was a phrase coined by Minoru Yamasaki, architect of the World’s Fair U.S. Science Pavilion, as a key principle for developing post-fair uses of the site.

Recreation and “Culture by Osmosis”

Through the public art program, people who come to the Arena for a game or concert may also have an aesthetic encounter that enriches their awareness, experience, and understanding of the place, event, and community. This objective is aligned with Seattle Center’s mission and purpose “to create exceptional events, experiences and environments that delight and inspire the human spirit to build stronger communities.”

Lawrence Halprin, the esteemed landscape architect who helped plan the transition of the fairgrounds into what is now Seattle Center, echoed Minoru Yamasaki’s idea of “culture by osmosis” through the inclusion of an amusement park whose entertainment value would bring revenue and help support non-revenue producing uses, like the fine arts. This sentiment gave rise to the much beloved “Fun Forest,” a carnival and arcade that stood for nearly fifty years on the location of the World Fair’s Gayway carnival midway. The Fun Forest is often mentioned when people are asked about their fondest memories of Seattle Center.

Uptown Urban Design Framework Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development

Century 21 Master Plan

The Seattle Century 21 Master Plan, adopted in 2008, is a plan for Seattle Center’s future development. Its primary agenda is to form a network of connections, with goals including: • Unifying open space • Making connections within the campus and to surrounding neighborhoods • Connecting the Center’s historic past with its dynamic future The plan’s strategies are deeply sustainable, elevating ecological systems, energy conservation, green building technology, and public education. Maintaining and expanding free public open space (the city’s “outdoor living room”), increasing transportation options to and from the Center, and incorporating flexibility for change over time are also important to the master plan.

2011 Seattle Center Master Planleft top: Seattle Center Master Plan with Arena building named Key Arena

left bottom: Page 35 Seattle World’s Fair visitor map with Arena building named the Washington State Coliseum, housing the “World of Tomorrow” and other exhibits about commerce and industry

Existing Public Art at Seattle Center

Public art has been integral to the Seattle Center campus since the 1962 World’s Fair. The Century 21 Master Plan includes a corollary document,“Century 21 Public Art Plan and Guidelines,” that states the importance of public art in shaping our experience at Seattle Center and the need to make art that is integral and adaptable:

“The Seattle Center art ’collection’ needs to respond to the living, changing nature of the Center. Art, landscape, architecture, signage and lighting all become intertwined to create a unique sense of place at Seattle Center that makes it the region’s best gathering place... The artworks express the excellence and unique quality of this environment and provide a range of emotional and intellectual experiences: joy, enlightenment, illumination, puzzlement, provocation and wonder.”

Nearly 40 permanent works of public art, with an emphasis on sculpture, are incorporated throughout Seattle Center’s campus. This artwork is part of the City of Seattle’s civic art collection.

Significant pieces include: • Paul Horiuchi’s Seattle Mural (1962) at the Mural

Amphitheater • Everett Dupen’s Fountain of Creation (1962) in the Arena North Court • Duane Pasco, Victor Mowatt and Earl Muldon’s

Seattle Center Totem (1970) outside the Center

House • Tony Smith’s Moses (1975) in the Broad Street

Green • Doris Chase, Moongates (1991) at Broad Street

Green • Alexander Liberman’s Olympic Iliad (1984) in the

Broad Street Green • Stephen Antonakos’s Neon for the Bagley Wright

Theatre (1983) at Bagley Wright Theater • Gloria Bornstein’s Neototems Children’s Garden (1995) east of Children’s Theater • John Fleming and Susan Zoccola’s Grass Blades (2002) at 5th and Harrison east entry into Seattle

Center • Sarah Sze’s An Equal and Opposite Reaction (2005) suspended in McCaw Hall • Dan Corson’s Sonic Bloom (2013) at Pacific

Science Center • Gerard Tsutakawa’s Fountain for Seseragi (2002) north of the International Fountain • George Tsutukawa, Medallion for World’s Fair, plaque at Founders Court as a replica of 1962 medallion

Medallion for World’s Fair by George Tsutakawa

Seattle Mural by Paul Horiuchi, shown in 1962 (photograph from Jim Skinner Collection, Courtesy Seattle Municipal Archives - 77813)

Neototems Children’s Garden, by Gloria Bornstein

New Arena at Seattle Center PUBLIC ART PLAN October 2019, page 42 JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER Bite of Seattle BrazilFest Seattle Center Festál Festivals B umb ersh oot Northwest Folklife Festival Women ’s National Basketball Season Pridefest H ot Ch ocol a t e R un S t . P at ri ck ’s Race for the Cure Color RunConcerts & Movies at the Mural SeaFair Torchlight Fanfest NaturalizationCeremony F r ee Sea tt le / KC Me d ica l Cl in ic Têt: Lunar New Year I ri sh F est i va l F rench F est i v a l Cherry Blossom F e s t Asian Pacific Islander Celebration Spirit of Afr ica Chinese Culture & Arts Festival Pagdiriwang Black Arts FestPhilippine Festival Spirit of Indigenous People Polish Festival I ranian Festival TibetFest Seattle International Film Festival H a wai i an F esti val F i est as P at ri as I t a l i an F esti val C r oa t ia Fes t Tu r k fes t D iwa l i L ig h ts o f In dia D ia de Muer tos Hmong New Year WinterFest Nutcracker Sea tt le Center Theater, Ballet, and Opera P erf o r mance Seasons New Years Eve Fireworks National Hockey League Season National Basketball Association Season NBA Finals NBA Conferece Finals WNBA Fina ls NHL Stan ley Cup P lay o f f s B e g i n NHL Stanley Cup Finals March 3 rd : N ati onal H o ck e y D a y A ra bFes t K orean F esti val Festival Sundiata D a y

Annual Visitors

Seattle Center attracts 12 million visitors each year to its campus and hosts more than 5,000 arts, sporting, educational, and cultural events. Annual festivals generate the largest individual audience numbers but, until recently, KeyArena events as a whole drew the largest number of people to the Center annually. The renovated Arena will hold more than 18,000 audience members for certain events.

While intermittent and not reflected on the cylical time line, major marches and running races through Seattle often terminate at Seattle Center and can deliver tens of thousands of people to the grounds.

Annual Festivals

Festál Cultural Festivals are held on weekends throughout the entire year. This series presents ethnic communities who share their culture and build community through music, dance, hands-on exploration, exhibits, food and children’s activities.

Northwest Folklife Festival, founded a year after Bumbershoot, has a mission to “celebrate and sustain the vitality of folk, ethnic and traditional music and arts into the future.” Folklife is held every Memorial Day weekend and also last three days. It is free with a small suggested donation and draws 50,000-75,000 people per day.

Seattle International Film Festival runs for more than three weeks in May and June and features a diverse assortment of predominantly independent and foreign films. Films are shown at theaters across the city as well as at SIFF’s headquarters at Seattle Center where films are also shown throughout the year.

PrideFest, a one-day event in June, attaracts 50,000 people to Seattle Center.

Bite of Seattle, a three-day weekend food festival in July, draws 40,000-50,000 visitors per day.

Bumbershoot, founded in 1971, is a pay-to-enter three-day festival held every Labor Day weekend that celebrates music and the arts. Attendance is about 30,000 people per day.

New Year’s Eve Fireworks, shot off the top of the Space Needle ,attract around 60,000 people.

Festál, Vietnamese Lunar New Year (photograph from www. nwfolklife.org)

Northwest Folklife Festival (photograph from www.nwfolklife.org)

Bumbershoot at Memorial Stadium (photographer unknown)

HONK Fest! (photograph by Lindsey Wasson)

Northwest Folklife Festival (photograph by Jim Dyer)

Live Gaming at KeyArena (photographer unknown)

PRE-1900 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940

Circus setting up tents at current Seattle Center, 1912

(photo courtesy Paul Dorpat)

1903 RECREATION PARK

First baseball stadium for the Pacific Coast Baseball League’s Seattle Siwashes, built on old Denny farmland 1927 CIVIC ICE ARENA built

1915 METROPOLITANS 1924

In the 70-plus years the Civic Ice Arena, later Mercer Arena, stood at Fourth and Mercer it was home to many hockey clubs: The Eskimos, Seahawks, Olympics, Ironmen, Bombers, Americans, Totems, Breakers and Thunderbirds.

The Seattle Metropolitans, a team in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, played in the downtown Seattle Ice Arena

1917 SEATTLE METROPOLITANS become first American hockey team to win the Stanley Cup

At least 5 circuses set up on the old Denny Farm site at 4th Ave & Republican Street

1904 CIRCUS

1910s

“The cleared land between Harrison and Mercer was filled with entertainment. . . the chances were good that either a circus was performing or carnival sideshow.”

Seattle Eskimos, 1929-1930 (unknown photographer, http://www.seattlehockey.net)

1909 ALASKA -YUKON-PACIFIC EXPOSITION World’s Fair held on the current site of the University of Washington

1911 GOLDEN POTLATCH FESTIVAL 1914

Civic carnival celebrating the arrival of Klondike gold, with parades, concerts, and demonstrations; named for a Chinook word for a gift-giving ceremony and celebration; 300,000 people attend

Seattle Ice Arena (from Queen Anne Historical Society https://qahistory.org/)

Seattle Golden Potlatch Festival, 1912 (Seattle Public Library Special Collections)

Denny farmland with cable car approaching, 1890s Denny Regrade, c. 1908 (photo by Webster & Stevens, Warren Avenue School (from Queen Anne Historical Center of photo is site of current International Fountain Seattle Public Library Special Collections) Society https://qahistory.org/) (photo by A.J. McDonald, courtesy Paul Dorpat) 1900 DENNY REGRADE urban earthwork project south of Seattle Center

1880s CHINA GARDENS

1902 COUNTERBALANCE cable cars operate on Queen Anne

Armory building in 1939 (photo by Werner Lenggenhager, Seattle Public Library Special Collections) Civic Auditorium with bunting, 1940s (Courtesy Seattle Municipal Archives)

1939 ARMORY BUILDING built for National Guard

Chinese immigrants lease and farm “The Prairie” after the Dennys move closer to Lake Union 1903 WARREN AVENUE SCHOOL located at current Arena site, opened for children with cerebral palsy, hearing impairment, and blindness

1853 DENNY LAND CLAIM

David Denny dies 1903 1903 DENNY FARMLAND donated to the city and cleared for recreational activities

The Dennys, whose house was at 3rd and Republican, called their farm “The Prairie”

PRE-1850s “POTLATCH MEADOWS” swale with willows, most likely used for duck hunting by Duwamish Indians, later by Settlers for farming, later for civic events

1927 CIVIC AUDITORIUM built on land donated by Denny family

1898-1901 ARMY CORRAL Denny farmland used by U.S. Army to supply horses and mules for wars in foreign lands

David and Louisa Denny made several donations of land to the City, including parts of Seattle Center as well as, in 1861, a plot east of the Arena on Thomas Street that in 1883 became Seattle’s first park, called Denny Park 1880s CIVIC HALL David and Louisa Denny donate land and James Osborne donates money to the City for construction of a civic hall

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020

1989 SEATTLE THUNDERBIRDS WHL team, play hockey in KeyArena 2009 2018 NHL SEASON TICKET DRIVE sells out

1995 Civic Ice Arena renamed MERCER ARENA; Arena demolished for OPERA HOUSE EXPANSION 2017 2021 NHL TEAM inaugural season at Arena

1967 SUPERSONICS NBA basketball team, play in the Seattle Center Coliseum, later KEY ARENA, until team is sold and moves to Oklahoma City 2008

2018 Seattle Storm win WNBA Championship again 1964-5 TOTEMS hockey team plays a season in the 2000 SEATTLE STORM WNBA team, play in Key Arena 2018 2022 SEATTLE STORMThe Seattle SuperSonics, a professional team in the National Basketball Association’s Western Conference, named after a fast and high-flying jet Sonics beat Bullets in a 4-1 series; one game was played at the Kingdome, 1979 SEATTLE SUPERSONICS WIN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP 2004 SEATTLE STORM WIN WNBA CHAMPIONSHIP for first time return to Arena Coliseum while Ice Arena is being renovated one at the Coliseum, and three in Maryland including the final game 2010 Seattle Storm win WNBA Championship again and meet President Obama 1947 MEMORIAL STADIUM built for Seattle schools 1986 SONICS GAME RAINED OUT due to leaky Coliseum roof 2009 RAT CITY ROLLERGIRLS roller derbies held at Key Arena 1974 NBA ALL-STAR GAME at Coliseum In addition to presenting shows like ice follies and circuses, the Coliseum, later Key Arena, has hosted hundreds of musical acts, 1996-98 SEATTLE REIGN ABL team, play in Mercer Arena 2009 SEATTLE CENTER SKATEPARK collaboration with skateboard community including: The Rolling Stones, James Brown, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Grateful Dead, David Bowie, Queen, Linda Ronstadt, Heart, Pearl 2007 VERA PROJECT moves to Seattle Center all-ages music venue Jam, Macklemore and many many others 1970 ELVIS PRESLEY PLAYS THE COLISEUM 1996 KCTS non-profit television station, moves to Seattle Center 1964 BEATLES PLAY THE COLISEUM to 14,300 fans, and again in 1966 1998 TEATRO ZINZANNI circus cabaret launched by One Reel

1962 GAYWAY World’s Fair midway and sideshows; 1962 becomes FUN FOREST carnival l& arcade area; demolished 2011 and replaced with CHIHULY GARDEN AND GLASS exhibit 2012

1962 SHOW STREET World’s Fair adult entertainment section, with night clubs and burlesque 2007 PRIDEFEST 1962 WORLD OF TOMORROW AND BUBBLEATOR World’s Fair signature exhibit in Washington State Pavilion 1996 FESTÁL cultural celebrations SEATTLE WORLD’S FAIR CENTURY 21 EXPOSITION April 21-October 21, 1962 1992 NEW YEAR’S EVE FIREWORKS at the Space Needle

2015 KEXP non-profit radio station moves to Seattle Center’s former Northwest Rooms 2010 CONCERTS AT THE MURAL KEXP summer series launches 2012 THE NEXT FIFTY 50-year anniversary of Seattle World’s Fair

1972 NORTHWEST FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL debuts

1971 BUMBERSHOOT debuts as mayor’s arts and music festival; 1980-2010 ONE REEL shapes Bumbershoot into a cultural institution and Seattle Center’s largest event

1955 CENTURY 21 EXPOSITION planning begins

1987 INTIMAN THEATER moves to the Playhouse

1966 POTTERY NORTHWEST opens in Armory Building; 1970s moves to current location on 1st Avenue near the Arena

1964 SEATTLE OPERA inaugural season; 1972 PACIFIC NORTHWEST BALLET forms as part of Seattle Opera; both now housed in McCaw Hall

1963 SEATTLE REPERTORY THEATER opens in the Playhouse, part of World’s Fair; 1982 moves to current location at Bagley Wright Theater

Dozens of public artworks, most of which are part of the City of Seattle’s collection, are integrated in and around Seattle Center. The pieces listed here do not comprise the full collection. 1962 Seattle Mural by Paul Horiuchi

1970 Totem by Pasco, Mowatt, Muldon 1962 Fountain of Creation by Everett Dupen

1975 Moses by Tony Smith

1962 Medallion by George Tsutakawa 1983 Neon by Steven Antonakos 1984 Olympic Illiad by Alexander Liberman 1993 SEATTLE CHILDREN’S THEATER moves to Seattle Center 1995 Neototems by Gloria Bornstein 2003 Dreaming in Color by Leni Schwendinger 1995 Hydraulis by Trimpin and Clark Wiegman

2005 An Equal and Opposite Reaction by Sarah Sze

1995 Play Ray Plaza by Vicki Scuri 2002 Grass Blades by John Fleming and Susan Zoccola

1976 CHERRY TREES are planted at Kobe Bell for Cherry Blossom Festival

1999 Moon Gates by Doris Chase

2013 Sonic Bloom by Dan Corson, for the Pacific Science Center

1959 80 TREES are moved from future I-5 pathway to World’s Fair site 1995 Bronze medallions adapted from George Tsutakawa’s 1962 World’s Fair coin, The Spirit of Century 21, installed in the Founder’s Court

1960s LAWRENCE HALPRIN oversees transition of fairgrounds to Seattle Center 1962 SPACE NEEDLE, MONORAIL, INTERNATIONAL FOUNTAIN, U.S. SCIENCE PAVILION completed for World’s Fair Exposition 1962 PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER opens immediately following World’s Fair in the U.S. Science Pavilion 2000 Fountain of Seseragi by Gerard Tsutakawa 2009 Focus by Perri Howard, at Skatepark

2000 EXPERIENCE MUSIC PROJECT opens; now MoPOP

located at current Arena site, opened for children with cerebral palsy, hearing impairment, and blindness WARREN AVENUE SCHOOL demolished 1959

1962 WASHINGTON STATE PAVILION opens for World’s Fair and renamed COLISEUM after fair; 1967 renovation; 1995 KEYARENA renaming and remodel, expanded 38 feet below ground; 2018 NEW ARENA renovation project begins

1959 WASHINGTON STATE PAVILION design by Paul Thiry is unveiled 1958 WORLD’S FAIR site preparation and clearing gets underway 2035 SOUND TRANSIT

Light Rail comes to Seattle Center

1962 OPERA HOUSE conversion from Civic Auditorium;

2003 MCCAW HALL OPERA HOUSE renovation; 2018 OPERA HOUSE expansion underway 1951 MEMORIAL WALL at 1962 CENTURY 21 WORLD’S FAIR is opened by President Kennedy. A golden button with 538 bells, 2000 balloons, and a 10,000 year old sound from Space. Memorial Stadium dedicated to honor 1962 SEATTLE CITY LIGHT presents the Pavilion of Electric Power at World’s Fair 2008 BARACK OBAMA at KeyArena rally with overflow turnout students killed in WWII 2001 9/11 MEMORIAL 2012 BERNIE SANDERS at KeyArena rally with overflow turnout 1955 WORLD’S FAIR COMMISSION formed “The International Fountain became the impromptu heart of our community” -Sally Bagshaw 1957 $7.5 MILLION BOND passed by Seattle voters for World’s Fair development 1957 SPUTNIK satellite launched by Soviet Union, prompting interest in forward-looking science 1994 KURT COBAIN MEMORIAL 2017 UPTOWN named an Arts & Cultural District 1961 SEATTLE CENTER arts, education, tourism and entertainment center replaces Civic Center