Exchange Building
- Architect
- John Graham & Company
- Year
- 1930
- Style
- Art Deco
- City
- Seattle, WA
- Collection
- seattle deco
The Exchange Building rose in 1930 at 821 2nd Ave to house the Seattle Stock Exchange, designed by John Graham & Company in a bold Art Deco idiom for the young city's financial ambitions. At 23 stories and 275 feet, it was, on completion, the second-tallest reinforced concrete skyscraper in the United States. Architect John Graham, an English immigrant, was already reshaping downtown Seattle with the Frederick & Nelson and Bon Marché department stores and the Dexter Horton Building.
the building
Reinforced concrete skeleton. Rather than steel, the tower's 23 stories are carried on a reinforced concrete frame, a choice that made it, at completion in 1930, the second-tallest reinforced concrete skyscraper in the country.
Built for the trading floor. The building was designed expressly to house the Seattle Stock Exchange, giving downtown Seattle a dedicated home for its financial trading as the city's economy grew before the Depression reshaped the industry.
A rotating tenant roll. Early tenants included General Electric, Standard Oil, Edison Lamp Works, and Underwriters Laboratories; later the offices held Pacific Northwest Bell and King County Metro, and by 2016 tenants included Slalom Consulting, Deloitte Digital, and Nuance Communications, a running record of Seattle's changing economy under one roof.
the style
The Exchange Building is a Seattle example of Art Deco, its 1930 facade on 2nd Avenue built to project the confidence of a financial institution through the geometric, vertically emphasized detailing typical of the style's American office towers of that decade.
More on Art Decothe architect
John Graham, an English-born architect who made his career in Seattle, designed the Exchange Building as John Graham & Company in 1930. He was responsible for several other downtown landmarks, including the Frederick & Nelson department store (now Nordstrom), the Bon Marché (now Macy's), and the Dexter Horton Building.
significance
The Exchange Building was designated a Seattle City Landmark (#148) on April 16, 1990. It won the "Office Building of the Year" award from the Building Owners and Managers Association in 2002.
nearby
- Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
- Schoenfeld Building
- Arctic Building
- Pioneer Building
- Lyon Building
- Seattle Central Library