Metropolitan Tract (Seattle) - History

History

The tract includes the original site of the University of Washington campus. In 1895 the university moved to its present site. Initially, the University's new law school used one of the old university buildings and the main, original building was leased first to Seattle Public Schools and then to the Seattle Public Library. As construction of commercial buildings began, this original building was moved a few blocks to a site along Fifth Avenue. However, the building fell into increasing disrepair, and an effort led by Edmond Meany to move it to the new campus and rehabilitate it was unsuccessful.

The state legislature had authorized the university regents to lease or sell the downtown tract. On December 9, 1902, the regents voted to lease rather than sell, although one strip on the northwest corner of the site was sold to the U.S. government for a federal building, on the assumption that this building would increase the value of the rest of the tract.

The initial 1902 lessee, the University Site Improvement Company, began construction on building for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, but the lease was soon forfeited. Next, the land was leased on November 1, 1904 by James A. Moore, who completed the P-I building and oversaw the continuation of Fourth Avenue through the old campus. In 1907, the same year he opened the Moore Theatre and Hotel, Moore transferred the remaining 47 years of his lease to the Metropolitan Building Company who engaged the New York firm of Howells and Stokes to assemble a master plan for integrated development. Howells and Stokes intended to create a "city within a city." At the time, it was the largest development of a downtown site undertaken in the United States.

Howells and Stokes' design included a department store, offices, a hotel, housing and a small plaza, all to be built in a similar style and scale. All buildings in the tract were to be 11 stories tall, with terracotta ornamentation at the top and street levels and brick in-between. Their decoration would combine elements of the Beaux Arts and commercial (Chicago school) styles, such as symmetry and a clearly marked storefront. Ten structures were proposed; of these, five were actually built; as of 2007, the Cobb Building is the only one of these that survives.

Currently, the Metropolitan Tract contains over 1,400,000 square feet (130,000 m²) of rentable office space, over 200,000 square feet (19,000 m²) of rentable commercial space, some 450 hotel rooms and access to over 2,000 parking spaces. The tract is managed and operated through two long-term leases: one with Legacy Hotels for The Fairmont Olympic Hotel and garage, and the other with UNICO Properties, Inc., for all the other buildings in the Tract.