Structure Type: built works - commercial buildings - office buildings

Designers: Grant Smith and Company, Building Contractors (firm); Howells and Albertson, Architects (firm); Metropolitan Building Company, Developers (firm); Unico Properties, Incorporated (firm); Abraham Horace Albertson (architect); John Francis Douglas Sr. (developer); John L. Hall (engineer); John Mead Howells (architect); Paul David Richardson (architect); Grant Smith (building contractor)

Dates: constructed 1923-1925, demolished 1972

7 stories, total floor area: 126,598 sq. ft.

1215 4th Avenue
Downtown, Seattle, WA 98161-1004

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This was one of a group of buildings designed by architects Howells and Albertson completed in the Metropolitan Tract, a large parcel set in Downtown Seattle occupied by the University of Washington until 1895. The Stimson Building had 240 feet on its 4th Avenue frontage, 107 feet on both the University Street and Seneca Street sides.

The Stimson Building had Georgian Revival Style ornamental details applied to a 7-story skyscraper. Architect Howells and Albertson created a front facade divided into three parts, with long central section (slightly recessed) flanked by two end bays. These bays were topped by gables at the roofline. The architects utilized a reinforced concrete frame, with brick and terra cotta covering the exterior. The Stimson Building, in 1950, had 126,598 rentable square feet and a 20,200-square-foot underground parking garage, space enough for 110 cars. Office space contained 76,638 square feet. A.C. Goerig--with offices in the nearby Pantages Buidling-- excavated the foundations of the Stimson Building. A pedestrian tunnel existed under University Street, connecting the Cobb Building with the Stimson Building, both medical/dental office blocks. (See Neal O. Hines, Denny's Knoll: A History of the Metropolitan Tract of the University of Washington, [Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1980], p. 173.)

Demolished; Unico Properties had the Stimson Block removed in 1972.

PCAD id: 14968