Seattle Center has seen many changes 24

Since its futuristic debut in the 1962 World’s Fair, the Seattle Center, http://www. seattlecenter.com/, has hosted Elvis, the SuperSonics and Seattle Storm, official huggers at Folklife, the Zipper Ride, the Pacific Northwest Ballet and Seattle Opera, a monorail and the largest collection of Jimi Hendrix memorabilia in what some call the “world’s ugliest building.” Oh, and the 605-foot Space Needle. When we lost icons like John Lennon and Kurt Cobain, this is where Seattle came to heal. It’s been home to many protests. Seattle Center takes on many roles but is still a central gathering hub for residents.

On 74-acres in the heart of downtown, the Seattle Center campus is a home for art, film, theater, music, culture, sports and science, offering 14,000 events each year. There are too many attractions to list.

The Jetsons-style appeal of the Pacific Science Center, https://www. pacificsciencecenter.org/, remains — as does the monorail and the central bowl-shaped International Fountain ready to douse you to music daily — but much has changed. The Washington State Coliseum became KeyArena. The Opera House became Marion Oliver McCaw Hall. The beloved few-frills Fun Forest, an amusement park thrilling kiddos of all ages for 48 years, was dismantled in 2009, and many basketball fans still grieve the Sonics decamping to Oklahoma City in 2008.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen created the museum formerly known as Experience Music Project in 2000. Redubbed the Museum of Pop Culture or MoPOP, https:// www.mopop.org/, it highlights the cult in culture — like rock music, science fiction and horror genres. The building’s architect, Frank Gehry, said the bloblike building was based on a smashed Stratocaster. A New York Times critic said it looked like "something that crawled out of the sea, rolled over and died.”

Dale Chihuly’s trippy glass art pieces look a lot like sea creatures, too. 2012 saw the opening of Chihuly Garden and Glass, https://www. chihuly.com/exhibitions/ chihuly-garden-and-glass/ chihuly-garden-and-glass, where they erupt from lush plantings outside and dangle from the ceiling inside. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's visitor center, https://www. gatesfoundation.org/, opened the same year, educating on addressing societal inequity worldwide.

Seattle summers are bracketed by dancing at Folklife and Bumbershoot festivals — since 1972 and '71 — respectively, indulging at Bite of Seattle, playing at the skate park, watching evening Movies at the Mural or picnicking at one of the many fountains and gardens. Indoors, the center offers a parade of multicultural holiday festivals at the Armory — which long-timers still call the Food Circus — year-long.

What’s next for Seattle Center? The circa 1960 Washington State Coliseum/ KeyArena/Climate Pledge Arena underwent a $660 million renovation in 2021, doubling its size, adding a glass atrium, a four-tiered bowl, a tree-lined plaza and a viewing deck called the “Space Needle Club.”

Designed by several architects, the Space Needle was inspired by — among other things — a cocktail napkin squiggle drawn by World’s Fair Commission Eddie Carlson, a rotating Hawaiian bar and a curvy sculpture called “The Feminine One.”

After being called the Century 21 Center for two years, some failed contenders for naming the Seattle Center were “Pacifica,” “Pleasure Island” and “Needleland”

The Washington State Coliseum, then KeyArena and now Climate Pledge Arena, hosted the Beatles’ first Seattle concert for $5 a ticket, among many others.

During the 1962 World’s Fair, the popular Bubbleator carried 100 people at a time to the World of Tomorrow exhibit in the Washington State Coliseum. It was eventually donated to Seattle Children’s Hospital and then bought by a Seattle Post-Intelligencer writer, who planted the sphere on his Des Moines lawn.

Seattle's contributions to the Space Race

By Ruairi Vaughan

Photo courtesy MOHAI, Robert D. Ashley Century 21 Collection A Century 21 Exposition poster, Seattle, April 21 – Oct. 21, 1962.