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Overview

The one-time head of the Bauhaus, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, designed a highrise building for Seattle's long-time NBC television affiliate on northern shore of the Montlake Cut in 1968-1969 for a local patron of the arts, Stimson Bullitt. Unfortunately, Bullitt did not advance with the project beyond preliminary design phases.

Building History

KING Broadcasting's President, Stimson Bullitt (1919-2009), commissioned the Bauhaus architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) to design this 18-story headquarters building. There were two design phases for this project, the first occurring in 1968, the second in 1969. The highrise element would have been located to the east on the long, narrow site as per the 1968 preliminary site development plan. Surface parking was arrayed to the west of the building. In the 1969 design scheme, Mies situated a new parking structure on the western periphery. From a visibility standpoint, this position probably should have been reversed, as views of the campus are critical as one approaches from the south over the University and Ship Canal Bridges. The tower might have screened the parking garage as seen from these spans.

The Seattle newspaper, The Stranger, said of this proposed tower: "By far the most haunting absence in the Seattle landscape is the 1967 Mies van der Rohe headquarters for KING Broadcasting. Commissioned by restless visionary Stimson Bullitt (then-president of KING), the slim 18-story box tower was a simple reworking of Mies's Chicago high-rises of the 1940s and 1950s. It was sited at the foot of Brooklyn Avenue, on the shore of Portage Bay, on land the UW regents ultimately claimed for their ever-expanding health-sciences center." (See Matthew Stadler,The Stranger.com, "Negative Seattle," published 07/27/2006, accessed 05/31/2018.)

Building Notes

It was unbuilt.

PCAD id: 6600