Smith Tower observation deck
— the Sound, in a frame of cast iron.
Not only on a wall.
“The elevator is run by an operator in a uniform and the cage is brass. It lets out on the 35th floor, into the Chinese Room and out onto an open-air parapet that wraps the building. Pioneer Square is straight down. Elliott Bay and the ferries lean to the west, and on clear days Rainier sits to the south as if someone hung it there. The room itself has carved blackwood chairs that came from the Empress Dowager of China in 1909.
Smith Tower observation deck, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Smith Tower stands at 506 Second Avenue in Pioneer Square, Seattle. It opened on July 4, 1914, financed by typewriter and firearms magnate L.C. Smith, and at 462 feet across 38 stories it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River for seventeen years, until the Kansas City Power and Light Building surpassed it in 1931. The Observation Deck and Chinese Room sit on the 35th floor and are reached by one of the last manually operated brass elevators still in regular service in the United States.
The exterior is steel-framed and clad in white terra cotta and granite, capped by a pyramidal copper roof that has weathered to verdigris green. The lobby is finished in Alaskan marble and Mexican onyx. The Chinese Room on the 35th floor was decorated with carved teak and porcelain furnishings, including a wishing chair gifted by Empress Dowager Cixi's household in 1909. The exterior was restored in 2016, and the building is on the National Register of Historic Places under a 1984 listing.
The Observation Deck is open to the public most days, with timed tickets sold through smithtower.com; the standard adult admission is around $23. The elevator ride is included and is run by a uniformed operator. The Chinese Room functions as a bar and event space, and the open-air parapet around the floor gives full views of Elliott Bay, the ferry terminal, Pioneer Square, and Mount Rainier on clear days. The nearest light-rail stop is Pioneer Square Station, one block away.