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Washington State Senator William Cassius Goodloe, III, (1919-1997), Chairman of the State of Washington World's Fair Commission, held the group's first meeting on 08/19/1955 at Seattle's Olympic Hotel to consider the basic parameters of a fair planned to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Seattle's Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909. In 02/1956, Goodloe created a sub-committee that would consider each of seven locations submitted to host the 1959 Seattle World's Fair (subsequently postponed to 1962). These locations included: Fort Lawton, Fort Lawton's Waterfront, Duwamish Head, First Hill, Sand Point, University of Washington's Union Bay and the Civic Auditorium. Members of the Sub-committee included architect John S. Detlie (1908-2005), President of Allied Arts of Seattle and Chair of the Seattle Art Commission, architect James Chiarelli (1908-1990), another member of Allied Arts, architect Lloyd J. Lovegren (1906-1989), President of the American Institute of Architects, Washington Chapter, and Robert F. Hintz (1914-2008), Chief Planner for the Seattle Planning Commission. The fair was laid out on 74 acres north of downtown and south of Queen Anne Hill. It operated for 184 days from 04/21/1962 until 10/21/1962, attracting a total of 9,609,969 people. Each state, a number of foreign countries and a few organizations had special event days in their honor. The A-Y-P Exposition was commemorated on 06/22/1962. The Seattle World's Fair closed in 10/1962, one of the most profitable world's fairs in U.S. history. Noted Seattle architect, Paul A. Thiry, Sr., (1904-1993), and San Francisco landscape architect, Lawrence Halprin (1916-2009), designed the fair's master plan.

After the fair, this area was utilized by the City of Seattle as a cultural center, renamed the "Seattle Center." Landscape architect Richard Haag (b. 1928) was instrumental in redesigning the center's layout after the fair.

PCAD id: 5968