Walking Seattle. Clark Humphrey

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Cross kitty-corner at 6th and Seneca. At this intersection’s northwest corner stands Plymouth Church Seattle, a stunning example of a modern Protestant church, all white and asymmetrical. At the southwest corner, the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza Hotel’s developers promised a public open space in return for getting to build a taller hotel. They built a tiny windswept plaza atop a very obscure flight of stairs (just try to find it). Go southeast on 6th one block to the University Women’s Club, a brick Georgian Revival building. • Turn southwest on Spring St., passing the Nakamura Courthouse. Turn southeast on 5th to the Seattle Central Library, a postmodern masterwork. Opened in 2004 and designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, its asymmetric “stacks” allow different square footage for different uses, leading to a spectacular reading room on the tenth floor. Enter at the library’s southeast side. Take the escalator down to the first floor; exit the library at 4th Ave. • Cross 4th at Madison St. to Safeco Plaza. This 50-story black box was Seattle’s tallest building when built in 1968 (downtown’s first big privately-funded building in nearly 40 years). It opened as the headquarters of Seattle-First National Bank, the state’s largest bank until it decided to speculate in Oklahoma oil leases in the 1980s. Seafirst was sold to Bank of America for pennies on the dollar. The building’s now headquarters to a homegrown insurance company, itself sold to Liberty Mutual. Pass Henry Moore’s Vertebrae sculpture, enter the main lobby, take the elevators or escalators down, and exit onto 3rd Ave. • Cross kitty-corner at 3rd and Madison. Walk through the lobby of the trapezoidal Wells Fargo Center. At its western end, take a covered outdoor escalator down to 2nd and Marion St. • Cross kitty-corner at 2nd and Marion, passing the Henry M. Jackson Federal Building (with the entry arch and other pieces of the stone midrise it replaced, the Burke Building, now used as plaza art). At this intersection’s southwest corner, the 1929 Exchange Building is another art deco masterpiece. Enter its dark marble lobby with a gilt ceiling; take its elevators to, and exit through, its 1st Ave. level. • Cross 1st at Marion to the Colman Building. This block-long midrise was built in stages between 1889 and 1904, and has been remodeled several times since. Walk one block southwest on Marion back to Western, or take a skybridge at the Colman Building’s north side to the Washington State Ferry Terminal.

      BACK STORY: THE WTO

      In their eternal obsession with being seen as “a world class city,” Seattle’s civic leaders successfully lobbied to host the World Trade Organization’s 1999 ministerial conference. Despite the presence of many Sixties Generation vets in the City Council and other official bodies, nobody seemed to think mass protests could occur against the WTO; even though it was widely reviled for, among other things, ordering national governments to change their laws to appease corporations.

      On what the protesters called “N30” (November 30, 1999), more than 40,000 demonstrators took to the downtown streets, blocking Convention Center access. A smaller team of black-clothed anarchists, meanwhile, spray-painted and threw rocks at chain store windows. Police used pepper spray, tear gas, and rubber bullets to force the demonstrators out of the immediate area. The daylong Battle in Seattle was later fictionalized in a movie of the same name–mostly filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia.

      CONNECTING THE WALKS

      This walk connects easily to five other walks. It crosses Walk 2 at several points, starts and ends two blocks northeast of Walk 7, and crosses Walk 4 at 1st Ave. At 1st and Marion you’re three blocks northwest of Walk 1. At 6th and Seneca you’re two blocks southeast of Walk 27.

      POINTS OF INTEREST

      Harbor Steps harborsteps.com, Western Ave. and University St.

      Seattle Art Museum seattleartmuseum.org, 1300 1st Ave., 206-654-3100

      Seattle Tower 1218 3rd Ave.

      Rainier Square rainier-square.com, 4th Ave. and University St.

      ACT Theatre acttheatre.org, 700 Union St., 206-292-7676

      Freeway Park seattle.gov/parks, 700 Seneca St.

      Plymouth Church Seattle plymouthchurchseattle.org, 1217 6th Ave., 206-622-4865

      Seattle Central Library spl.org, 1000 4th Ave., 206-386-4636

      Safeco Plaza safeco.com, 1001 4th Ave.

      Colman Building 811 1st Ave.

      Eagles Auditorium

      ROUTE SUMMARY

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1.		Start at Western Ave. and University St. Climb the outdoor stairs, or take the elevator, to 1st Ave.
2.		Cross 1st at University. Take the steps outside the Seattle Art Museum to 2nd Ave.
3.		Cross kitty-corner at 2nd and University to the 1201 Third Avenue Building. Take the escalator to, then exit through, the 3rd Ave. lobby.
4.		Cross 3rd and enter the Seattle Tower lobby. Take the elevators to the fifth floor. Take a right and leave through the skybridge to the Financial Center. Descend that building’s plaza stairs.
5.		Cross kitty-corner at 4th and University. Take the south entrance into Rainier Square; turn right at the signs for the pedestrian concourse. Take this passageway to its end.
6.		Take the escalator up to Two Union Square’s food court. Walk toward a small fireplace, then take a left and a right to another escalator. Take it up into the building’s upper plaza level. Walk ahead to a pedestrian skybridge.
7.		Take the path to the Convention Center’s second floor.
8.		Take the escalator or elevator to the fourth floor; exit the exterior doors to your east into Freeway Park.
9.		Zigzag through Freeway Park to the outdoor plaza at 6th Ave. and Seneca St. Cross kitty-corner.
10.