The original doors were latticed scissor gates, so a rider could see into each hallway and through the glass walls in front of each office. The Otis Elevator Company provided the elevators, which have brass surfaces. The building was one of the last on the West Coast to employ elevator operators. The exterior has been washed only once in 1976. Its outer skin is granite on the first and second floors, and terracotta on the rest. Smith Tower is an example of neoclassical architecture. Looking north from the observation deck, August 2007 The building was sold to Goldman Sachs in October 2018 as part of a $750 million package of Unico properties in Seattle and Denver. A new retail store on the ground floor was also opened following the renovation. Access to the bar without paying for the tour requires a cover charge of about half that price. A discount is offered with a Washington State Driver's License. Parts of the Chinese Room decor and furniture, such as the Wishing Chair and carved teak ceilings, were used in this new restaurant.Ī revised Smith Tower self-guided visitor tour, with new exhibits, resumed on August 25, 2016, along with the opening of the Observation floor bar, open to tour ticket holders at a cost of $19.14 - the price being a reference to the date of the building. A new speakeasy-themed restaurant, with Prohibition era-inspired food and drink was built on the Observatory floor, in the same space as the Chinese Room, which was permanently closed. Later that year, the new owners stopped the visitor tour and began remodeling the public areas, including the Chinese Room, which had been closed since 2014. In January 2015, Seattle-based real estate investment and operating company Unico Properties bought Smith Tower for $73.7 million. In the spring of 2012 Smith Tower experienced a brief revitalization in the form of new companies moving into some of its empty floors including Portent, Inc., Aukema & Associates, Push Design, and Rialto Communications. Smith Tower was sold to CBRE at a public foreclosure auction on March 23, 2012. When CBRE stepped-in, the building was 70 percent vacant, its rental income was not covering its operating expenses, and its value was assessed by the county to be less than half of its 2006 mortgage. The loan recipient was building owner Walton Street. In 2011, CBRE Group reported that it had purchased a 2006 $42.5 million mortgage in default on the Smith Tower. Smith Tower looking north on 2nd Avenue, 1914 The legend came true for Smith's daughter, who married in the Chinese Room itself. According to folklore, any wishful unmarried person who sits in it would be married within a year. The chair incorporates a carved dragon and a phoenix, which, when combined, portends marriage. Furnishings include the famous Wishing Chair. The room was furnished by the last Empress of China, Cixi. The Chinese Room, whose name was retired following the 2016 renovation, derived from the carved teak ceiling and blackwood furniture that adorned the room on opening. Over 4,000 Seattleites rode to the 35th floor on opening day. Smith Tower opened to the public on July 4, 1914. Although Smith did not live to see it, the building was completed in 1914 to a height of 143 m (469 ft) from curbside to the top of the pyramid, with a pinnacle height of 159 m (522 ft). His son, Burns Lyman Smith, convinced him to build instead a much taller skyscraper to steal the crown from rival city Tacoma's National Realty Building as the tallest west of the Mississippi River. During a trip to Seattle in 1909, Smith planned to build a 14-story building in Seattle.
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