Bank of America Tower
Seattle, USA

HEIGHT: 285m/931 feet
FLOORS: 76 floors
COMPLETION: 1985
ARCHITECT: Chester Lidsey Architects

The 76-story Columbia Seafirst Center was a first in several categories, including tallest building (by number of stories) west of the Mississippi River. As with many other tall buildings in Seattle and around the world, SWMB continued to refine the structural engineering of skyscrapers in Columbia Seafirst Center.

It began in 1982 on the block bounded by Fourth and Fifth and Columbia and Cherry with the deepest excavation in the city, and rose to twice the height of the Space Needle (943 feet). Columbia Seafirst Center commanded attention for tens of miles around the city. Designed by Chester Lindsey for developer Martin Selig and built for $285 million by Howard S. Wright Construction, the height and expansive floor plates of Columbia Seafirst Center were made possible by the structural engineering of Skilling Ward Magnusson Barkshire (SWMB).

The floors, which range from 21,500 square feet of rentable space in the low-rise section to 12,500 square feet in floors 61 to 76, are accessible through no less than 49 elevators. The elevators are zoned to service a maximum of seven to 10 floors per bank of four cars, and travel at a speed of up to 1,200 feet per minute. The building functions as a self-contained town for 4,000 occupants and up to 5,000 visitors per day. The 6,000-square-foot public arcade is lively.

Columbia Seafirst Center's structure is triangular in plan. Three seven-foot by 10-foot mega-columns were formed on the ground with high-strength concrete around steel members, then lifted into place, floor by floor. The most important breakthrough in engineering represented by Seattle's tallest building is the damper system. This system, developed by SWMB and first used in the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center, was designed to conquer one of the most significant challenges to modern, braced-core skyscrapers: swaying. SWMB's 260 visco-elastic dampers absorb the energy of wind gusts so that the resulting vibrations do not build to large amplitude. The dampers mean that the skyscraper need not be stiff enough to completely resist the forces of wind, resulting in considerable construction savings.

Wind force on the structure, which has been calculated to reach 15 million pounds, also threatens to drive water through the seams of the glass curtain wall. To make sure moisture barriers were tight enough; they were subjected to a "dynamic water test" in which an airplane engine was used to create hurricane force winds against a mock-up of the Columbia Center window wall system. During storms, occupants with sensitive stomachs must leave the top floors of modern skyscrapers -- not for safety, but for solid ground. In Columbia Seafirst Center, they can stay put in all but the most violent winds.

The dark, curving curtain walls of the top of Columbia Center can easily be viewed from surrounding cities and even counties. Seattle's highest landmark rose to its great heights with few visible traces of the progressive energy or adventurous spirit of the century's first skyscrapers.

It nevertheless succeeded in exploding the bubble of innocence that had kept Seattle complacent about rapid development. This skyscraper -- and others that rose to somewhat lesser heights in the 1980s -- so alarmed citizens about the dangers of "Manhattanization" that they responded with a hastily crafted initiative -- the Citizen's Alternative Plan, or CAP -- to place restrictions on the height of new office buildings in downtown Seattle. The initiative also required building proposals go through a stringent design review process at an early stage in development. They needn't have bothered. The 1980s boom fizzled before the CAP was actually in place. So far, no building has been built under its defensive terms.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v627/skyscraperrot/boasea02.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v627/skyscraperrot/boasea01.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v627/skyscraperrot/boasea03.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v627/skyscraperrot/boasea04.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v627/skyscraperrot/boasea05.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v627/skyscraperrot/boasea06.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v627/skyscraperrot/boaseabase.jpg

Thank you for recreating the thread. I would have done it, but really didn't have time...

Oh, and thanks for modifying the thread to put .5 iterations. The polls only go up to 15 choices so I couldn't think of how to do it. Now I see you're idea - good way to do it.

8.5/10

Nice and black with an unusual shape. Looks pretty on Seattle's skyline.
Thing is, I heard Seattle has a height limit which this building far exceeds. Special permission?

http://homepages.luc.edu/~hsubaci/graphics/skyline2.jpg

Yeah I really like this one. Curves and straight plains. Cool combination. 9.0.

I love this building!

It looks great in SC3K unlimited!

10!!!!!

I can't vote though because it won't let me...>(

This is my favorite skyscraper west of the mississippi!


10/10

Originally posted by RafflesCity
8.5/10

Nice and black with an unusual shape. Looks pretty on Seattle's skyline.
Thing is, I heard Seattle has a height limit which this building far exceeds. Special permission?
No, this was built before the height limits were imposed. The building was finished in 1981 or 82 and the height limits weren't imposed until 1989.

I like it. Sleek and not too boxy 8/20

9/10 - it is the best building in the Pacific Northwest. A strong message of sleekness, strength, and height pervades the viewer's eyes. Not quite a masterpiece - it could be in a decade or two.

Beautiful.

G

9/10 just beautiful

9.5/10. Stunning structure.

I like this one. 9/10 :)

I really like this building, one of my favorites in NA.:)
I voted 9/10, but after second thoughts i think my final vote is 9.5/10...:D

9/10. Nice curve and setback, yet still very vertical.

This is a great skyscraper. The only thing I dislike about it is the horizontal stripes on the curved part of the façade. 9.5/10

Very basic, not boxy, and it looks very good.

9.5/10

i love this tower. . . it gives such a beautiful balance to Seattle especially with Rainier in the background .. . plus i love the all black facade. . . 9.5/10

I love this tower -9.5- !!!:cheers: :cheers::cool: :eek: :master:

http://www.albatrossmedia.com/images/Buildingslrgsamples/Seattle%20sunrise%20lrgsample.jpg


post more pics!!

9/10

my ABSOLUTE Modern American favourite

9.5 / 10

cant get enough of it, and I want it ;)

cheers

tays

I LOVE IT!...
9.5

i didnt give it a 10 cos its black.. i hate black

10/10 Strange, but sleek design

I ran across this old pic of mine.......back in the disposable camera days! ;)

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/photopost/data/500/426fghnfghnfghngf.jpg

Love this one and I get to see it everyday on the way home. 9-10

Sleek and dark. 8.5/10. Isn't this building 297 m? I heard somewhere it was just over 300 m but that was due to a small antenna on the roof.

Ominous.

8.5

8/10. Generally I'm not a big fan of ominous dark black boxes, but this is a nice one and it is helped out by the contrasting horizontal banding.

High-class on a downtown Seattle hill! The architect was considered such a 'maverick' back in the day. Good for him.

9.

8/10

A little confused looking, but I love those sheer, curved facades!

yeah its pretty nice, nothing amazing though so 7/10.

10/10, THE best skyscraper out of the '80s, and one of the best all time!

8.5/10

beautiful!

I don't like it enough to give it much more than a 7.5/10

I gave this buliding a 9/10.

I love it! The perfect signature skyscraper for Seattle's skyline! It looks powerful and looming with its black color, and at the same time calm and mild-mannered with its smooth, well-rounded curves. Not to mention an original design, IMO. The Columbia Seafirst (or BofA, whichever one you prefer) is a good-looking building indeed!

8/10 - Takes to the sky well, nice, sleek shape (not a box!), and the facade dances with the light - also, unlike certain other buildings *ahem*, such as US Steel in Pittsburgh, this one can pull off the all black number quite nicely because it's slim enough not to make black look oppressive.

I tend to agree with DMac about the horizontal stripes, however - they probably should have been vertical...

unusually shaped buildings usually are overbearing in their designs but this one manages to pull it off...it's sleek & towering and has a commanding presence on the Seattle skyline..one of the best BofA towers in the country by far!....9/10.

i give it a 10.0. this is my favorite building ever. seattle is known as the US's futuristic city and i think this building represents that ideology perfectly. it is the only building i have ever known to look completely different from every single angle.

I hope this building could be built in our city.

9.5/10

Great design. I love the black color, nice and sleek. It looks amazing in person.

great design. i like 8.5

Realy awesome!

8/10

amazing! an example of a well resolved desing, elegant and simple.

I love this building! It loses .5 rating points only because it messes with my mind. :D

I'd really like to know the names of the forumers that gave it a 3 or less! They should also tell us why they gave it a low score!


:rant: :mad: :bleep: >(

Tall, nice, and powerful.

9

a bit boxy
but still is the top20 building in my list
8/10:cool:

How could you call this building boxy??Then what isn't boxy in your opinion?? And how would you call a typical international style building?? The boxiest of the boxes??

This building has curves. A box doesn't have curves.

is not that boxy...... but nothing special for me
6/10:baaa:

10/10 :master:

just great,ecpecially with this curve.i always build this in sim city:D
i give 8

10/10 :) No box = Good.

7 Not a huge fan of this one... but the curve is interesting

Looks like an arbitrary combination of shapes/elements. The unity is solely derived from the fact that each of these shapes/elements go a long way from bottom to a height where few people can judge the randomly chosen ending(s).

8/10

Plain elegant :cool:

Perfect for Seattle's skyline! I like the curves in this design.. Really elegant.. :D The black facade makes it look very majestic.. even mysterious.. :)

10/10

Here are a few pics I took.

http://www.cyburbia.org/gallery/data/6087/1376boaa.jpg
http://www.cyburbia.org/gallery/data/6087/1376boab.jpg
http://www.cyburbia.org/gallery/data/6087/1376boac.jpg

8/10.

I like the shape.

A perfect 10. What a skyscraper. Many don't know this but this tower has an observation area on the 72nd floor. Don't go to the Space Needle, go here. Towers over everything. I can see my house near Lake Washington from up there. Beautiful lobby during the holiday season. First class all the way.

<table cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0 width=98% class="quoteBox">
<td align=left valign=center> <smallfont> <b>Quote</B> <I>originally posted by pwright1 </i></b> </smallfont> </td>
<tr><td align=left valign=top>A perfect 10. What a skyscraper. Many don't know this but this tower has an observation area on the 72nd floor. Don't go to the Space Needle, go here. Towers over everything. I can see my house near Lake Washington from up there. Beautiful lobby during the holiday season. First class all the way.</td></tr>
</table>
They closed the observatory. :(

I'm taking a vertical panorama of the building tomorrow. Will post here when stitching is complete. Perfect weather tomorrow here in Seattle, still. (Yes, the photo will be a bit large.)

nice, 9, heres a photo of it i found:http://www.djc.com/special/century/7.jpg

Ok, came through... But, it took 3 tries. Weather in the AM wasn't cooperating - and I was miles away on the other side of town when the blue skies overwhelmed the marine layer! :)

http://seattle.dallasmetropolis.com/bofa-vertical3photopan-edit.jpg

Regular photo from the next street corner up the hill:

http://seattle.dallasmetropolis.com/P1010075-sea1-1024.jpg

nice photos, u should put them on the urban photos contest

Heh! Actually, I decided I'm not interested in the photo contest - but, thanks.

One last one, another vertical shot:

http://seattle.dallasmetropolis.com/2bofa-vertical5photopan-edit.jpg

9. very nice tower.

You are all too kind. And I mean that. Nine out of ten weather days I am afraid of this edifice.

Beautiful! 9.0/10

Wow, I like this one! The shape is very nice, 9/10

10/10

One of my favorites in the West Coast. It is so sleek and simple. The curves are amazing. Finally, the color fits it perfect.

my fav in SC3000, it deserves 10/10

btw: Why does this poll have 16 choices?

10/10

Tall and nice !!

One of my favourite buildings in the USA. I love the curvature!
I am jealous, I want it in my city 10/10

5.5/10 :)

Nice 9/10

8.5/10, nice and interesting curve

9.5/10


Great tower.

9.5/10

10/10 elegant, modern, tall, great building :master:

Dont know this one much
Looks sorta bland in the first few photos
Glass and a few corners so could be worse

8.5/10
Very tall ! Nice design & colour.
Looks really great from some angles and very different from other angles.

9.5/10

too black, I like the undulated part 7/10

On a recent trip to Seattle I was quite impressed by this building. I couldn't take my eyes off of it the whole time I was downtown. I love this building.

9

I first knew of this building playing Simcity, and never knew it was so "old". Looks fantastic and sleek, especially from a distance, and the black facade is perfect for this building. Probably has to be one of the best buildings to come out of the 80's.

Construction picture
http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/583/4fig__1_boa84.jpg

Cross-section
http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/583/4boaelev.jpg

I gave it a 10.

The Bank of America Tower has always been a favorite of mine. It is the one building that sparked my interest in skyscrapers. I remember driving past it on I-5 when I was a young boy, and just leaning my head back in the back seat, staring up at it in Awe. And here I am in my 20's and I still do it everytime I pass it along I-5!

9.5 for the curves! really anchor seattle's skyline well.

There's something about the darkness of the building which makes it look eerie yet beautiful at the same time. I think it fits in extremely well with the rest of Seattle's skyline. Love the curves and different shapes that make up this great tower.

8/10

9/10

One of my favourite skyscrapers in America, it kicks some serious ass.
I love the dark, sleek, almost menacing appearance. Very cool :cool:

great shapes 9/10

I've been in it. It is very nice. I always though that it was a rather new tower, I had never imagined that it was from the 80's. I always feel stupid when I am driving in dt Seattle, i can't stop staring, and then I stray out of my lane on the freeway. I'm sure that because of it's beauty, that many other unfortunate victims have done this same thing when on I-5. Have caution.

8.5/10

9/10

My favorite on the west coast. Like the shape, not drastically different, but still unusual enough to catch your eye. Like the mix of the curves and the corners, nice combo. The design is not flawless, the color a little odd, but its nice and glassy. Fits in ok with surroundings. Really nice building

9.5, truly spectacular for North American architecture.

9.5/10

Slick :)

Nice modern creative design. 9

wow... nice 9/10

wow ...10/10

Wow, this is one very fantastic very tall black building. 9.5/10

wow amazing a beautifull skyscraper 10/10 :eek2:

Without a doubt my favourite American skyscraper outside New York.

This building is amazing. 9.5.

definitely don't like this one! looks a bit boring. 4

8 very pretty design!

very nice, j votes 9/10

looks very gothic...i like it :eek2:

one of the best in the world!!! 9.5/10

9/10. Dark black facade and the inward curvature. By the way, was it originally called Columbia Center when they finished the building 17 years ago?

very very great 9.75. Near the perfection

9,5/10 - Beautiful!

10/10

Now thats just class. 10/10

I like it, very dramatic in the Seattle skyline. 8/10

Uhmm I think thats its an 7,5. ;)

8.5

Very distinctive.... one of the best on the West Coast

7.5/10

9.5 its like seattles answer to sears tower

10 :cheers:

One of my favourite !!
I love its shape & pretty high !!

but looks werid in some angle . 18/20

one of the best american scrapers - 9.5/10

I love this building :master:

very beautiful tower...especially for a 1980's one 9/10

8.5 - Positives : Great height, nice inverted cuvature on the facade
Negatives: I'm not wild about color. It's a bit stark in the Seattle skyline.

Personally, the WAMU tower is my Seattle favorite.

No question 9.5/10

9/10!!

Fantastic building. complex and various interesting views. I like it!

9 out of 10

This is the equivalent of JHC in Chicago. PERFECT, almost. This is one of my favorite buildings in the world.

9.5/10

Best skyscraper of the 1980s!

7.5/10

8.5/10

Best,scraper,in,Washington,State.
9.5/10

I love this one!! dark glass. Looks so cool in the Seattle skyline. Really nice and tall
9.0

:gunz: Now this is WTF I'm talkin' bout! Dark facade and soaring height
give this one a menacing-almost spooky-appearance, especially when
viewing the entire skyline from certain angles. A perfect 10! The best
on the West Coast, hell-to-tha-yeah!!!!

I don't know why, but I always liked this building.

9,5

sleek and tall

say no more

9/10

There's a reason this was voted best 80's skyscraper :D. I give it a 9.5/10. :)

Interesting design. At first I didn't really like it, but it sort of grew on me.

9/10.

100000/10 I think this skyscraper belongs in my top 3 I just loved it from the first time I saw it

OMF, 9.5/10:)

10/10 ... impressive structure ... brilliant !

8,5/10
Very nice.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/pwright1/DowntownSeattle164.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/pwright1/DowntownSeattle156.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/pwright1/DowntownSeattle155.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/pwright1/seattle2/seattle4066Small.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/pwright1/seattle2/seattle4067Medium.jpg

9.10 This building is realy nice but color is kinda dull.

Nice, 8

9/10!!!!

Tall, Dark and sleek curves

I love this tower 10/10

It does have some good angles for a black international-style tower. The glass is good quality. Well, it also has some very bad angles :-/
In the end, just a little bit better than average.
5.5

If this building was occupied by a company a little less large than Bank of America (which already has their names on countless large buildings around the country), it'd be something for them to be really proud of. Manages to avoid the box without being offensive.

9.

love the building...10

8.5

9 for the curves. This would been of been way better if this building was a 1000 footer

9/10. Neat!

9/10
One of the most original buildings ever built.

that building is sleek and sinister, perfect for the Puget Sound landscape 10/10

Outstanding skyscraper love it! 9/10

9/10 Great building, looks newer than it really is.

Really good one. Unusual, interesting shape and very nice dark colour :cool: The best in Seattle. 9/10

very very cool ! 10

I love this towers. 9.5/10.

Very stylish and has originality.

Like it a lot!! 9/10

It's impact on the Seattle skyline is undeniably strong. A very recognizable building. I like the shape, though I wish it weren't black because from certain angles and under certain lighting conditions, the black obscures some of the building's contours.

9/10.

Tall and sleek. 9.5/10

10/10

9/10

9/10, lovely tower

I quite like this. It's plain but interesting at the same time. 7/10.

Good shape. 8.5/10

9/10

Gotta go with a 9.5 I love this building and im from seattle. :righton:

7/10.

Nice lines 9/10

i love this tower
9 :)
Peace

Nice, thanks

One of the best on the west coast, I really like it. Well done Seattle.
9.5/10

I love this tower

9/10. Sleek facade and a fantasticlly unique shape. I don't really like the green apearance of the facade strips and also in some photos the shadows detract from the building. But all up one awesome skyscraper.

Wow. 10/10 for me.

:cheers: looks good 9/10

8/10

9/10

10/10 one of my favorites, and because i grew up in seattle

What a beaut. 9/10

I adore this building.... 10/10

BRILLIANT!
10/10

Love it. Great curved reflective glass and high!

9/10

Cheers,

Adam

I live in an exurb of Seattle, and when approaching the Seattle skyline by highway this tower looks about as graceful as an injured hippopatamus. No grace, no elegance, nothing spectacular at all. Like the Sears Tower in Chicago, this ugly behemouth was built as a sheer statement of size for size sake. It is essentially a hideous black box marring and dominating the skyline. :tiasd:

It is a bit too dark for my preference bu nontheless a lovely shape. 9 out of 10 points.

Amazing, one of my top 10. 10/10

Love it 9/10.

8.5/10

9/10

9/10.
one of my favorites ;)

7.5/10 its okay

Deserves respect as the west coast's 2nd tallest, plus it's nice too. 9/10

Absolutely love this scraper - one of my favourites. I've been up the to the top of it aswell, before it became the Bank of America tower - I've never felt a building sway so much in my life! There was some serious movement going on!

Took these July '05

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y124/the_boy_david/boa1.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y124/the_boy_david/boa2.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y124/the_boy_david/boa3.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y124/the_boy_david/boa4.jpg


Lovely stuff - 10/10 :)

9.5 a complete stunner. Just not that happy with the facade. Doesn't have the smooth curtain wall black glass that would have made it better

10/10

I can see the Columbia Center from my patio.

10/10...this one put Seattle on the map.

9/10 - a bit too dark for me, but still awesome!

8/10 :cheers:

I love this one, it's just a 10!!

really excellent 9,5/10

4,5/10

If I could give it a 9.8 or 9.9 I would, because I love it, but I only give a very few 10s. Great shape, and on this building, the black works really well. Not that many good skyscrapers out west, and this is just about the best.

9.5/10

very uniqe scraper its good 9 10

Would be nice to have more height for this tower

Love this tower, it makes a bold statement for Seattle's skyline. 9/10 for me.

Very nice. I like its color and shape a lot. Definitely one of the best West Coast skyscrapers. 8.5

8/10

beautiful. 9.5/10

8/10

9/10;)

10/10

10/10.

10/10

My favourite North American skyscraper. Bold. Sleek. Black. Perfect in its shape.

9.0/ nice building and has stood up well for being 20 years old!!

It looks so sleek...

8/10

9/10.

9/10

sincerely one of the best tower of the USA

slim ,high ,elegant and great facade 9/10

8/10

This tower is amazing! 10/10

one of the greatest tower I've ever seen. 9.5/10

9.5/10 impressive

8/10

a clean, stylish cut. not sure about the top though.

I like the design :drool: 9.5/10

decent, but nothing really special.

8.5/10

This is a very nice tower. Love a good, dark tower. 9.5

9.5

9 for interesting shape

9.5/10! Quality!

7/10

10/10

Not as big! But is one of my favorites!

http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/1097/seattlewd6.jpg

9/10

9.5/10 I like alot

I like it...very nice!!

9/10. Nice Tower!!

10/10

one of my all time faves!! 10

classic ;)

8.5/10

8.5/10 Very nice building.

9/10

They could have done better just by clearing those distracting things and structures from the roof.

good shape, although a little bit to complicated
8.5/10

10/10 beautiful, love this building and the city