Must-see attractions in Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

  • Top Choice
    Pike Place Market

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

  • Top Choice
    Seattle Art Museum

    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

    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 Central Library

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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…