Must-see attractions in Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

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June 17, 2011: a crowd of people at Seattle's Pike Place market.

    Pike Place Market

    Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

    A cavalcade of noise, smells, personalities, banter and urban theater sprinkled liberally around a spatially challenged waterside strip, Pike Place Market…

  • Seattle Art Museum building

    Seattle Art Museum

    Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

    While not comparable with the big guns in New York and Chicago, Seattle Art Museum is no slouch. Always re-curating its art collection with new…

  • Gum Wall

    Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

    Seattle's famous gum wall is one of those cultural monuments you can smell before you even see it. The sweet aroma of chewed gum wafts from this strip of…

  • Seattle Public Library.

    Seattle Central Library

    Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

    Rivaling the Space Needle and the Museum of Pop Culture for architectural ingenuity, Seattle Central Library looks like a giant diamond that's dropped in…

  • Seattle Aquarium

    Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

    Though not on a par with Seattle's nationally lauded Woodland Park Zoo, the aquarium – situated on Pier 59 in an attractive wooden building – is probably…

  • Corner & Sanitary Market Buildings

    Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

    Across Pike Place from the Main Arcade are the 1912 Corner & Sanitary Market Buildings, so named because they were the first of the market buildings in…

  • Hammering Man

    Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

    Although not unique to Seattle, Hammering Man, the 48ft-high metal sculpture that guards the entrance to the Seattle Art Museum on the corner of 1st Ave…

  • Columbia Center

    Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

    Everyone rushes for the iconic Space Needle, but it's not the tallest Seattle viewpoint. That honor goes to the sleek, tinted-windowed Columbia Center at…

  • Arctic Building

    Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

    Like the psychedelic Beatles' song, the unique Arctic Building, completed in 1917, is celebrated for its walruses. Their heads (25 of them), surrounded by…

  • Seattle Great Wheel

    Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

    This 175ft Ferris wheel was installed in June 2012 with 42 gondolas, each capable of carrying eight people on a 12-minute ($14!) ride. The wheel sticks…

  • Main & North Arcades

    Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

    The Main & North Arcades, sandwiched between Pike Pl and Western Ave, contain some of the most quintessential Pike Place Market ephemera: flower stands,…

  • Victor Steinbrueck Park

    Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

    When you’ve had enough of Pike Place Market and its crowds, wander out the end of the North Arcade and cross Western Ave to Victor Steinbrueck Park, a…

  • 1201 Third Avenue

    Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

    The beauty of the Seattle skyline is reflected in the 55-story 1201 Third Avenue building at 3rd and Seneca, which changes colors with the clouds and…

  • Rainier Tower

    Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

    With its inverted base that looks like a tree that's been nibbled by a beaver, this urban behemoth was finished in 1977, after which it quickly acquired…

  • Cobb Building

    Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

    Look up at the beaux-arts style Cobb Building (1910) and see remnants of an older Seattle. Peering out from the 11-story edifice you'll see several stern…

  • Safeco Plaza

    Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

    Built in 1969 and originally known as 1001 Fourth Avenue Plaza, this was one of the city’s first real skyscrapers. At the time, it was a darling of the…

  • Washington State Convention Center

    Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

    It’s hard to miss this gigantic complex decked out with ballrooms, meeting rooms, space for exhibitions and the Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau. An…

  • Seattle Tower

    Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

    Formerly the Northern Life Tower, this 26-story art deco skyscraper, built in 1928, was designed to reflect the mountains of the Pacific Northwest. The…

  • Three Piece Sculpture: Vertebrae

    Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

    These three large pieces of the human anatomy recreated in bronze are the work of British sculptor Henry Moore. They stand guard at the entrance to the 50…