Washington Athletic Club vs Pacific Tower

Comparing the Washington Athletic Club and the Pacific Tower is interesting because they both stand in Seattle, WA, and were completed within 3 years of each other, but they were designed by different architects.

This offers a unique glimpse at how rival designers approached projects in the same city during the same era.

The Washington Athletic Club is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 249ft (76m) with 21 floors above ground, while the Pacific Tower reaches 220ft (67m) with 16 floors above ground.

Of course, each project may have faced different briefs or regulatory constraints, which we don't really know about and could also explain the outcome.

Both the Washington Athletic Club and the Pacific Tower were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Art Deco style.

At the time, this style was at the height of its popularity. So both Sherwood D. Ford and Bebb & Gould followed what was in many ways expected of them, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms, rather than breaking with convention.

The Washington Athletic Club is primarily sports, while the Pacific Tower is primarily education.

Originally, the Pacific Tower was designed for medical, but over time it was converted to education. The Washington Athletic Club by contrast has maintained its original role.

These two towers illustrate the many possible ways to combine structure and enclosure in skyscraper design.