AKA: Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition Master Plan, Seattle, WA

Structure Type: built works - exhibition buildings - exposition buildings

Designers: Howard and Galloway, Architects and Engineers (firm); Olmsted Brothers, Landscape Architects (firm); John Debo Galloway (structural engineer); John Galen Howard (architect); John Charles Olmsted (landscape architect)

Dates: constructed 1907-1909

University of Washington Campus, Seattle, WA 98195

OpenStreetMap (new tab)
Google Map (new tab)
click to view google map
The location of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition is the current site of the University of Washington.

Building History

Following the success of Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, many cities across the US, seeking good publicity and commercial growth, staged large-scale fairs: California Midwinter International Exposition, San Francisco, CA, 1894; Cotton States and International Exposition, Atlanta, GA, 1895; Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition, Nashville, TN, 1897; Trans-Mississippi Exposition, Omaha, NB, 1898; Greater America Exposition, Omaha, NB, 1899; Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, NY, 1901; Louisiana Purchase Exposition, Saint Louis, MO, 1904; Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, Portland, OR, 1905. Seattle's Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition fell into this category, memorializing the prosperity brought into the city following the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897.

The architecture and engineering firm, Howard and Galloway of San Francisco, CA, and the landscape architects, the Olmsted Brothers of Brookline, MA, laid out this exposition, considered one of the most beautiful of its day, that ran between 06/01/1909-10/16/1909. A local newspaper, The Interlaken, announced the hiring of Howard and Galloway in mid-02/1907: "Howard & Galloway, architects, of San Francisco, have been engaged by the management of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition as chief architects for the exposition. Prof. John Galen Howard...is to come to Seattle in the near future to confer with the fair management regarding his work. Negotiations were opened with these architects several weeks ago, when they were here and took a look over the grounds. Mr. Galloway has charge of the engineering end of the work, and Mr. Howard, the designing." (See "Architects Selected for A.Y.P. Building," The Interlaken, old number 7, new number 46, 02/16/1907, p. 1.)

PCAD id: 1608