One of the most used buildings on the Seattle Center campus, the temporary Flag Pavilion was built to last for the six months of the1962 World's Fair and has been held together with band-aid repairs.
The new approximately 24,000-square-foot Fisher Pavilion will be built into the natural slope where the Flag Pavilion now resides, creating additional space for events on the building's rooftop plaza and opening up views across the Seattle Center campus.
Fisher Pavilion is named for Fisher Communications, a Seattle-based communications and media company that owns the KOMO television station and donated $3 million to the pavilion project.
At the hub of the 74-acre Seattle Center campus, the pavilion is used for cultural festivals, community celebrations and commercial events more than 251 days each year.
Construction of Fisher Pavilion will begin in September, immediately following Bumbershoot. The goal is to have the new building completed by August 2002, in time for next year's Bumbershoot.
Among the problems that plague the aging Flag Pavilion are a leaking roof, carpenter ants, a plumbing system that is finally beyond repair and falling ceiling tiles. Even simple electrical tasks, such as the use of small appliances, can blow an entire electrical circuit.
The Flag Pavilion also obstructs views between the north and south parts of the Seattle Center. To open up the Seattle Center campus - a focus of the recent redevelopment of the center - the Flag Pavilion's sloping site will be excavated so the new building can be tucked into the hillside.
The roof of the new pavilion, which sits at approximately the height of the old Flag Pavilion's floor, will provide an approximately 19,000-square-foot landscaped plaza that can be used for a performance and gathering space.
At the roof's edge, a balcony will offer seating and views of the International Fountain, Key Arena and other buildings across the campus. The new pavilion's architects, the Miller/Hull Partnership of Seattle, have planned a paved design for the rooftop plaza suggesting raindrops, according to Bonnie Pendergrass, the Seattle Center's project manager for construction of the Fisher Pavilion.
A one-acre lawn in front of the pavilion's tiled entranceway will be landscaped in a subtle bowl-like shape to create a form of amphitheater where performances and events could be staged.
Floor-to-ceiling glass doors and windows will allow visitors to look out onto the lawn. Almost two acres of gardens will extend to the International Fountain.
Pendergrass said that Seattle artist Deborah Mersky is designing a mosaic for the building's exterior to reflect humanity branching out from common stock into different nationalities. Mersky is also creating art for the back wall inside the pavilion.
Inside the building, plans call for 14,000 square feet of exhibition space that will be divided by a movable partition into two rooms that could hold different events.
A clock tower, still being designed, will mark the southeast corner of the site at Thomas Street and Third Avenue North, according to Pendergrass.
"It was a design feature first proposed by Fisher Communications," Pendergrass said. "They felt it was something that was conspicuously missing from the Seattle Center grounds."
Although the international flags that fly in front of the Flag Pavilion will move to Magnuson Park at Sand Point, Pendergrass believes the annual Fourth of July ceremony at the Flag Pavilion to swear in newly naturalized United States citizens will remain at the Seattle Center.
The excavation to install the building into the hillside will result in a minimum of 1,500 double dump trucks carrying at least 22,000 cubic yards of dirt from the site from October through December, according to Pendergrass. She said that dirt-hauling operations will likely be scheduled around rush hour traffic.
Besides the donation from Fisher Communications, the new pavilion will be paid for with $7 million from the passage of Proposition One in 1999, plus another approximately $333,333 in funds being sought by the Seattle Center Foundation.
The foundation has kicked off a community campaign to circle the new green lawn with paving stones featuring names, children's drawings and other messages. For information about the paver campaign, call the foundation at 684-7345.
Among the properties owned by Fisher Communications are 26 radio stations in Washington, Oregon and Montana and 12 network-affiliated televisions located principally in the Northwest.
Photo by Bradley Enghaus
Sheilah Murphy and John Gessner are responsible for the unexpected display of beauty at Third Avenue North and Valley Street.
(Week of June 27, 2001)[[In-content Ad]]
