U.S. Bank Center

The U.S. Bank Center is a Postmodernist skyscraper designed by Callison Architecture, with Gerry Gerron as lead architect, and built between 1987 and 1989 in Seattle, WA.

U.S. Bank Center is not the only name you might know this building by though. It is common for companies to want to attach their names to iconic buildings when they move in, or for the general public to come up with nicknames, and this one is no exception. The building has changed names several times over the years, and is also known as:

• Pacific First Centre between 1989 and 1993.
• U.S. Bank Centre from 1993 until this day.

Its precise street address is 1420 Fifth Avenue, Seattle, WA. You can also find it on the map here.

The U.S. Bank Center has received multiple architecture awards for its architectural design since 1989. The following is a list of such prizes and awards:

• Engineering News Record (ENR) Northwest Best Projects Award in 2023
• Northwest Wall and Ceiling Bureau Award in 2023

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 2023 and 2010.

Callison Architecture, with Gerry Gerron as the lead architect, 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 U.S. Bank Center a reality:

• Sellen Construction as the Main Contractor
• Prescott as the Main Developer

The U.S. Bank Center can be categorized as a Postmodernist building.

The U.S. Bank Center was completed in 1989. At that time Postmodernism was the prevailing style. Fresh, bold and daring, architects were exploring the freedom of designing without having to follow the strict, sometimes arbitrary rules of a specific architectural movement (which ironically became a movement itself). The U.S. Bank Center was therefore every much in line with what the architecture community, and the people liked and wanted at the time.

The U.S. Bank Center uses a frame structure made of steel columns and concrete, steel 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 uses a non-load bearing curtain wall system. This means the curtain wall modules are anchored to the building's structural frame, typically by being attached to the edge of the floor slabs. The curtain wall system connects to the slabs using brackets, anchors, and mullions, which transfer the loads imposed by wind and temperature changes, to the building's primary structural elements.

This setup allows the curtain wall to accommodate differential movement between the facade and the structural frame, such as thermal expansion, floor deflection, or sway from wind forces. This system's integration with the slab edges also allows for continuous insulation and weatherproofing layers.

The building uses a structural solution similar to the tube-in-tube, only in this case the core is not made of structural walls. Instead, 8 mega-columns create a central core, while smaler columns are placed at the perimeter, just inside the facade plane.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features a repetitive pattern made of dark-tinged glazed surfaces with metal frames and light-colored stone vertical lines that emphasize its height.

The main entrance is framed by columns and a circular stone dome, while the upper section features a stepped design with angular and semicircular sections leading up to the truncated pyramid that forms the roof.