Downtown is the central business district of Seattle, Washington. It is relatively compact compared with other city centers on the U.S. West Coast due to its geographical situation, being hemmed in on the north and east by hills, on the west by Elliott Bay, and on the south by reclaimed land that was once tidal flats. It is bounded on the north by Denny Way, beyond which are Lower Queen Anne (sometimes known as “Uptown”), Seattle Center, and South Lake Union; on the east by Interstate 5, beyond which is Capitol Hill to the northeast and Central District to the east; on the south by S Dearborn Street, beyond which is Sodo; and on the west by Elliott Bay, a part of Puget Sound. Bed Bug Exterminator Seattle
Belltown, Denny Triangle, the retail district, the West Edge, the financial community, the government district, Pioneer Square, Chinatown, Japantown, Little Saigon, and the western flank of First Hill west of Broadway make up downtown Seattle’s top neighborhoods. Near the center of downtown is the Metropolitan Tract, which the University of Washington owns; before 1895, it served as the location of the university’s campus. Downtown is Seattle’s financial and commercial maritime hub and its nightlife and shopping center. Westlake Center’s downtown shopping mall is connected to Seattle Center by a monorail.
Landmarks
Downtown Seattle’s Columbia Center has 76 floors, a more significant number than any other building west of the Mississippi River (although there are taller buildings in Texas and California). Smith Tower, in the Pioneer Square area, once held the title of tallest American building west of the Mississippi. Other notable buildings are the 1201 Third Avenue (formerly the Washington Mutual Tower), Two Union Square, Nordstrom’s flagship store, Benaroya Hall, the Seattle Central Library designed by Rem Koolhaas, and the main building of the Seattle Art Museum (built in 1991, expanded 2007), the main facade of which was designed by Robert Venturi. Downtown parks include Westlake Park, Freeway Park, and Victor Steinbrueck Park. The Olympic Sculpture Park was completed on the Belltown waterfront in January 2007. Downtown is also home to the landmark Pike Place Market, the oldest continually operating farmers’ market in the United States and the core of activity in the area.
History
After abandoning “New York Alki,” the Denny Party moved across the then-named Duwamish Bay in April 1852 to a low-level marsh with a safe deep-water harbor, located roughly in the city’s Pioneer Square district. They named this new frontier “Duwamps.” In the late 1850s, present-day Downtown Seattle, WA became the main residential outskirts of the city. After the Great Seattle Fire, the business district was moved to the area. Several of the city’s hills around downtown were regraded starting around 1876.
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