Exchange Building

The Exchange Building is an Art-deco skyscraper designed by John Graham & Associates, and built between 1929 and 1930 in Seattle, WA.

Exchange Building is not the only name you might know this building by though. The building is, or has also been known as United Exchange Building.

Its precise street address is 821 Second Avenue, Seattle, WA. You can also find it on the map here.

The Exchange 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 Exchange Building was officially declared as a national landmark on April 20^th 1990.

The building has been restored 2 times over the years to ensure its conservation and adaptation to the pass of time. The main restoration works happened in 2000 and 2013.

John Graham & Associates was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.

That being said, architecture is a complex discipline involving 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 here is a list of the people we do know also played their part in making the Exchange Building a reality:

• Graham, John and Company in charge of Structural Engineering
• Turner Construction as the Main Contractor

The Exchange Building can be categorized as an Art-deco building.

The Exchange Building was completed in 1930, right when the Art Deco movement was at its peak, so it kind of went with the trend at that time.

The Exchange Building uses a frame structure made of reinforced concrete columns and beams.

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.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features polished Morton gneiss marble on the base of the building, which then continues on with Romanite Stone in ochre color. Traditional Art Deco motifs are also part of the facade.

Other materials found at the Exchange Building include, dark marble, used on the lobby's walls and pilasters , bronze, seen in ornamental details throughout the lobby, letter boxes and elevators cast grilles, stained glass, used in tow, fan-shaped windows over the main door, and carved wood , found in telephone booths.