Rainier Square Tower

Rainier Square Tower is a tall building called a skyscraper in downtown Seattle, Washington. It stands 850 feet tall and has 58 floors. This makes it the second-tallest building in the whole city. The tower is located between 4th and 5th Avenues, close to another famous building called the Rainier Tower.

People built the Rainier Square Tower in 2020, and it cost about $600 million. It is the tallest building that has been built in Seattle since another tall building, the Columbia Center, was finished in 1985. The tower is used for many purposes, like offices and homes, which is called mixed-use.

History

The University of Washington wanted to update the Rainier Square shopping center in 2013. The shopping mall opened in 1978 and was around the Rainier Tower. In 2014, they chose Wright Runstad to help build the new tower. By 2015, they made the tower taller and added more homes. The city approved the plans in December 2015.

The old shopping center closed in 2017, and Amazon.com agreed to rent part of the new building. Construction started in 2018 and finished in September 2020. Some stores opened in the following years, like PCC Community Markets in 2022. In 2024, Russell Investments decided to move their offices to the tower. Plans for a hotel changed to more office space instead.

Design

The tower, designed by NBBJ, has nearly 200 fancy apartment units, lots of space for offices, and areas for shops. It also has parking for many cars underground. The tower looks wider at the bottom and gets thinner as you go up. Early plans had it getting thin higher up, but they changed it to keep the view of the special base of the nearby Rainier Tower.

The tower uses a special strong wall made with steel plates instead of some usual building parts. This helped build the floors faster. There is also a smaller building nearby that will open soon and will have space for shops and a special area on the roof.