Architecture

Minoru Yamasaki: Shaping Seattle's Skyline

Before the World Trade Center, Yamasaki helped define Seattle's softer side of modernism.

Puget Sound Plaza, 1960

An early downtown office tower, Puget Sound Plaza arrived as Seattle was beginning to look upward. Its clean vertical rhythm showed how modernism could feel measured instead of cold.

Pacific Science Center, 1962

Built for the World's Fair, Pacific Science Center turned modern architecture into something graceful and public, with white arches, reflecting pools, and a civic sense of optimism.

IBM Building / 1200 Fifth, 1964

The IBM Building's vertical rhythm pointed toward what came next. Its design language later echoed in ideas Yamasaki carried into the World Trade Center.

Rainier Tower, 1977

Rainier Tower gave Seattle the pedestal it never stopped noticing. The bold concrete base made the building unforgettable, and made Yamasaki's local legacy impossible to miss.