1411 Fourth Avenue Building

1411 Fourth Avenue Building
  1. About the 1411 Fourth Avenue Building in Seattle
    1. Building Catalogations
  2. Architect and team
  3. Architectureal style
  4. Spaces and uses
  5. Structure and materials

The 1411 Fourth Avenue Building is an Art-deco skyscraper designed by Robert C. Reamer and built between 1928 and 1928, for a reported $1.10 million dollars, in Seattle, WA.

Its precise street address is 1411 Fourth Avenue, Seattle, WA. You can also find it on the map here.

The 1411 Fourth Avenue Building is a structure of significant importance both for the city of Seattle and the United States as a nation. The building embodies the distinctive characteristic features of the time in which it was built and the Art Deco style. Because of that, the 1411 Fourth Avenue Building was officially declared as a national landmark on July 14th 1989, and was included in the National Register of Historic Places on April 22nd 1991.

At the time of its completion in 1928 the 1411 Fourth Avenue Building incorporated solutions that were quite advanced at the time, these included automatic elevators and water springs in the floors to reduce fatigue in the office staff.

Building's timeline

Construction completed
1928
96
Declared NL
1989
35
Added to the NRHP
1991
33
years ago
2024

Architect and team

Robert C. Reamer was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.

Robert C. Reamer was in charge of the architectural design, however, architecture is a complex discipline, which usually involves many professionals from different fields, without whom this building would have not been possible. We will surely be leaving out a lot of names here, but at the very least we know that there was one other part involved, that was Teufel & Carlson as the Main Contractor.

Architectural Style

The 1411 Fourth Avenue Building can be categorized as an Art-deco building.

The Art Deco movement flourished during the 1920s and 1930s, with many historians marking the outbreak of World War II as its final decline. Even though a couple of decades might not seem as much, the Art Deco movement had a great impact on architecture, and it's widely represented in many American cities due to the development boom that happened during that time.

Art Deco marked the abandonment of traditional historicism and the embracement of modern living and the age of the machine. In architecture, that meant leaving behind the ornaments of Beux-Arts and Neo-Gothic buildings and instead favoring simplicity and visual impact through geometric shapes, clean lines, and symmetrical designs. Ornaments were still an important part of the design, but they became bold and lavish, and were often inspired by ancient cultures or industrial imagery, instead of nature.

The 1411 Fourth Avenue Building was completed in 1928, right when the Art Deco movement was at its peak, so it kind of went with the trend at that time.

Spaces & Uses

It has a total of 16 floors, 15 above ground and 1 basements, served by 4 elevators. In total, it has a built-up area of 151,039 sqf (14,032m2) offering 136,411 sqf (12,673m2) of usable space.

Ever since opening its doors to the public in 1928, the 1411 Fourth Avenue Building has mainly been used as Commercial space.

Materials & Structure

The 1411 Fourth Avenue Building uses a frame structure made of steel columns and concrete slabs.

A frame structure uses a combination of beams and columns to sustain the building's weight. The walls in this case are non-load bearing, which allows for more flexibility when distributing the interior spaces.

The facade is non-load bearing either, as it is common in frame structure type buildings.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features a main entrance door with gold chevrons, recessed window spandrels that create vertical pillars along the facade and some delicate ornamientation at the base and top of the building.

Other materials found at the 1411 Fourth Avenue Building include, polished bronze, found in the entrance vestibule, storefronts and elevator doors, and Honduran mahogany, a dark green, creamy-veined marble used to decorate the lobby's walls.

Sources

  • www.seattle.gov
  • npgallery.nps.gov