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Seattle | |
Key Attractions |
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Seattle,
Key Attractions Opened in 2000, the Experience Music Project (EMP) celebrates American popular music, for which Seattle is famous. Beginning with the 1970s and Jimi Hendrix right up to the 90s grunge scene, EMP includes blues, jazz, hip hop, funk, punk, country and rock music from around the USA and elsewhere. It combines technologically advanced interactive and interpretative exhibits, as well as more than 80,000 music artefacts, including the world’s largest collection of Hendrix memorabilia, an extensive recorded sound archive, film, photographs and stage costumes. The Guitar Gallery’s Quest for Volume exhibit explores the origins of amplified instruments, while the Sound Lab contains the latest in musical gear and audio technology. The unique architecture by Frank O Gehry has been described as ‘the Jacket of the Space Needle dropped on the ground’ with an unmistakable purple and red metallic exterior. 325 Fifth Avenue North, Seattle Center Tel: (206) 367 5483. Fax: (206) 770 2727. E‐mail: experience@emplive.com Transport: Bus 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 24 or 33; or monorail. Opening hours: Sun–Thurs 1000–1800, Fri and Sat 1000–2300. Admission: US$19.95; prices might vary according to event; concessions available. Seattle Center Built for the ‘Century 21’ exhibition at the 1962 World’s Fair, the 30‐hectare (74‐acre) Seattle Center is home to the city’s most recognisable landmark – the 185m (605ft) Space Needle. The Needle was designed by architect Edward E Carlson as a tribute to the vision of spaceship culture during the Cold War era. The underground foundation was so huge – at 91m (30ft) deep and 366m (120ft) wide – that it required 467 cement trucks and an entire day to fill the hole, in what became the largest continuous concrete ‘pour’ in the West. Once completed, the foundation weighed as much as the Needle itself. The steel construction followed, using massive spiky legs to hold the spaceship observation deck and revolving restaurant on top. It takes 45 seconds in a glass elevator for one to reach the pinnacle. The Seattle Center is also home to the Pacific Science Center, which offers hands‐on exhibits of lasers and holograms and includes the Seattle IMAX Dome Theater and the Children’s Museum, designed for the energy and imagination of younger visitors. Numerous civic festivals, such as Bumbershoot, Folklife and Bite of Seattle, take place here. The Marion Oliver McCaw Hall (tel: (206) 684 7200), is a state‐of‐the art performance venue and the newest addition to the centre (open June 2003). 305 Harrison Street Tel: (800) 964 7695, toll free in the USA and Canada or (206) 443 9800 or 684 8582 (events information). Transport: Bus 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 24, 33 and 74; or monorail. Space Needle 400 Broad Street Tel: (206) 443 2111 or 905 2100. Fax: (206) 905 2107. E‐mail: info@spaceneedle.com Opening hours: Sun–Thurs 0900–2300, Fri–Sat 0900–2400. Admission: US$12; concessions available; free for restaurant patrons. Pacific Science Center 200 Second Avenue North Tel: (206) 443 2001. Opening hours: Mon–Fri 1000–1700, Sat and Sun 1000–1800. Admission: US$9 (exhibit or IMAX only); US$7.50 (IMAX only); US$14.50 (exhibit and IMAX). The Children’s Museum Tel: (206) 441 1768. E‐mail: tcm@thechildrensmuseum.org Opening hours: Mon–Fri 1000–1700, Sat and Sun 1000–1800. Admission: US$6. Seattle Art Museum ‘Hammering Man’, a massive sculpture of a manual worker, stands at the entrance to the Seattle Art Museum (or SAM), a striking post‐modern building designed by Robert Venturi. Upstairs are noteworthy permanent exhibits of art from Africa and Native American Northwest, as well as touring international exhibitions. Future projects include a new Olympic Sculpture Park on the downtown waterfront. 100 University Street Tel: (206) 654 3100. Transport: Bus tunnel stop University Street; bus 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 13, 14 or 16 to University Street. Opening hours: Tues–Wed and Fri–Sun 1000–1700, Thurs 1000–2100. Admission: US$7; concessions available; special exhibitions may cost more. Pike Place Market The Pike Place Market is the oldest continually operating Farmers’ Market in the USA. Situated just above the Waterfront, it features abundant fresh seafood and produce, as well as local handcrafted items. There are marvellous views of ferries and freighters passing on the bay below, street performances and a variety of unique pubs and restaurants. The original Starbucks, which brought the words espresso and latte into the American lexicon, is located here, as well as several small Mexican and other speciality groceries. First Avenue and Pike Street Tel: (206) 682 7453. Transport: Waterfront Streetcar; bus 15, 18, 22, 23 along First Avenue to Westlake Mall. Opening hours: Mon–Sat 0900–1800, Sun 1100–1700. Admission: Free. Waterfront Centred on Waterfront Park, above Pike Place Market (see above), the promenade and piers that line Elliot Bay are in constant action, with maritime industries, shops and restaurants jostled together, ferries and freighters docking and the occasional seaplane flying overhead. An investment of US$300 million aimed at waterfront development includes the Bell Harbor International Trade Center and the recently opened World Trade Center complex. Many new condominiums and piers are also being planned to attract passenger cruise liners and private pleasure boats. Harbour tours, island cruises and fishing excursions are easily available from here. On Pier 59, the Seattle Aquarium has sea otters, a Pacific coral reef and other marine life on display, as well as a new exhibit dedicated to the tide‐pool life of the Washington coast. Right next door, the Seattle IMAX Dome Theater provides numerous big‐screen experiences, the most popular being the ongoing film of the 1980 eruption of Mount St Helens, shot from a helicopter. Pier 66 is home to the new Bell Street Pier Cruise Terminal (see Getting There By Water), where world‐class cruise liners dock, amid other attractions, such as a state‐of‐the‐art international conference centre, restaurants and a marina. Also at Pier 66 is Odyssey, The Maritime Discovery Center, with hands‐on exhibits where visitors can pilot a virtual container ship through Puget Sound or haul in plastic fish on a fake factory trawler. Nearby, the bare wood deck of Pier 62/63 becomes a concert venue every summer, where artists perform amid an expansive setting of skyscrapers, boats and sunsets. Waterfront Park Transport: Pedestrian bridge from Downtown Seattle and all major bus routes to the Waterfront; the Waterfront Streetcar runs from Pioneer Square. Seattle Aquarium Pier 59 Tel: (206) 386 4320. Opening hours: Daily 1000–1700 (winter); daily 1000–1900 (summer). Admission: US$11; US16.50 (combination ticket with IMAX Dome Theater); concessions available. Seattle IMAX Dome Theater Pier 59 Tel: (206) 622 1868/9. Fax: (206) 622 5837. Opening times: Regular shows daily between 1000 and 1900. Admission: US$7; US$16.50 (combination ticket with Aquarium); concessions available. Bell Street Cruise Terminal Pier 66, 2225 Alaskan Way Tel: (206) 728 3337 or 615 3900, E‐mail: cruise@portseattle.org Odyssey, The Maritime Discovery Center Pier 66, 2225 Alaskan Way Tel: (206) 374 4000. Fax: (206) 374 4002. E‐mail: education@ody.org Opening hours: Tues–Sat 1000–1700, Sun 1200–1700. Admission: US$7 (concessions available). Pioneer Square Pioneer Square is situated south of the main downtown area, a National Historic District that showcases Seattle’s early history with the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park and the unique Underground Tour of the sunken storefronts. This was the home of the original ‘Skid Road’, a term born when timber was slid down Yesler Way to a steam‐powered mill on the Waterfront. Seattle’s oldest neighbourhood, Pioneer Square is full of restored redbrick buildings containing numerous shops, with everything from antiques to handmade toys, as well as bookstores and art galleries. At 42 storeys (159m/522ft), Smith Tower, 506 Second Avenue, at Yesler Way, which overlooks the square, was the tallest building in the world outside of NYC when it was completed in 1914. By night, especially on the weekend or after a baseball game at Safeco Field, crowds jam the many restaurants, bars and nightclubs. Pioneer Square Tel: (206) 667 0687. Fax: (206) 667 9739. Transport: Bus or Waterfront Streetcar to Pioneer Square. Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park 117 South Main Street Tel: (206) 553 7220. Fax: (206) 553 0614. E‐mail: klse_ranger_activities@nps.gov Opening hours: Daily 0900–1700. Admission: Free. Underground Tour 608 First Avenue Tel: (206) 682 4646. Opening hours: Daily 0930–1800 (ticket office); daily 1100–1600 (tour). Admission: US$9. Chinatown/International District This neighbourhood was settled by Chinese immigrants in the mid‐1800s. Today, a broader Asian community includes Japanese and Filipino residents and such cultural offerings as a thriving restaurant district, a Buddhist temple, herbalist shops, antiques stores and Karaoke bars. Hing Hay, the ‘park for pleasurable gatherings’, has a bright pagoda donated by the City of Taipei and Kobe Terrace, named for Seattle’s sister city in Japan) displays a 3600kg (8000lb) stone lantern. The popular Uwajimaya Market is the Northwest’s largest Asian store, with services including a grocery, bookshop, sushi bar and cookery events. The small Wing Luke Museum is the USA’s only museum devoted to Asian‐American history, with displays on immigration, the arts and traditional medicine. Built in 1909, the Nippon Kan Theatre, 628 South Washington Street, was the cultural heart of Seattle’s Japanese community until the internment of Japanese‐American citizens during World War II. The building was ‘rediscovered’ in 1978 and is now a designated historic landmark, hosting myriad events. Across Fourth Avenue, uphill from Pioneer Square Transport: Buses to International District stop. Uwajimaya Market Sixth Avenue South and South King Street Tel: (206) 624 6248 or (800) 889 1928. Opening hours: Daily 0900–2200. Admission: Free. Wing Luke Asian Museum 407 Seventh Avenue South Tel: (206) 623 5124. Fax: (206) 623 4559. Opening hours: Tues–Fri 1100–1630, Sat and Sun 1200–1600. Admission: US$4 (concessions available). Museum of Flight At Boeing Field, south of Downtown, towards Sea‐Tac airport, the Museum of Flight has a collection of more than 130 aircraft, largely vintage – some hanging from the glass ceiling of Boeing’s original factory, the Red Barn. This permanent exhibit is unquestionably a tribute to the airline giant but nonetheless covers the entire history of flight, from Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings to the NASA space programme. 9404 East Marginal Way South Tel: (206) 764 5700 or 5720 for recorded information. Fax: (206) 764 5707. E‐mail: info@museumofflight.org Transport: Bus 174 south from Downtown. Opening hours: Daily 1000–1700. Admission: US$11 (concessions available). Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture This museum on the University of Washington campus has a special focus on paleontological history, with dinosaur skeleton displays and fossils and cultural exhibits of the Pacific Northwest, covering more than 30 Native American tribes and including the controversial 9000‐year‐old skeleton of Kennewick Man. Travelling exhibits have included Sir Ernest Shackleton’s doomed exploratory voyage to Antarctica in 1914. 17th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 45th Street, University District Tel: (206) 543 5590. Transport: Bus 70, 71, 72 or 73 north from Downtown Seattle to the U‐District. Opening hours: Fri–Wed 1000–1700, Thurs 1000–2000. Admission: US$6; US$8 (including special exhibitions). Museum of Glass This new 6968sq‐metre (75,000sq‐ft) international museum of glass art, designed by Arthur Erickson, is notable for its 27m (90ft) tall and 30m (100ft) wide amphitheatre, which tilts at a 17‐degree angle and contains a hot glass studio where artistic teams blow and cast glass. The museum is surrounded by reflecting pools and installations. Works include a 703kg (1883lb) glass angel and a 152m (500ft) ‘bridge of glass’ – designed by the Northwest’s most celebrated glass artist, Dale Chihuly – linking the museum to newly fashionable downtown Tacoma. The inaugural exhibition included work by John Cage, Mark Tobey and Morris Graves, all of whom were contemporaries at one time in the Pacific Northwest. 1801 East Dock Street, Tacoma Tel: (253) 396 1768 or 284 4750 (Pierce County only). Fax: (253) 396 1769. E‐mail: info@museumofglass.org Transport: From downtown Seattle, take Pierce Transit’s Seattle Express (tel: (800) 562 8109). Opening hours: Tues–Sat 1000–1700, Sun 1200–1700. Admission: US$10. Woodland Park Zoo The 36.8‐hectare (92‐acre) Woodland Park Zoo, considered among the top ten zoos in America, is a world leader in freeing animals from cages and letting them roam free in a natural setting. Among new habitats are a butterfly exhibit, the ‘Trail of Vines’, ‘Northern Trail’, a tropical rainforest, the African savannah and an elephant habitat reminiscent of Thailand. 5500 Phinney Avenue North Tel: (206) 684 4800. Fax: (206) 684 4854. Transport: Bus 5 north from Third Avenue and Pine Street (Downtown) to Westgate. Opening hours: Daily 0930–1700 (15 Mar–30 Apr and 15 Sep–14 Oct); daily 0930–1800 (1 May–14 Sep); daily 0930–1600 (15 Oct–14 Mar). Admission US$10 (concessions available) |