Columbia Tower 

My sister Vicki and I are going to visit the Columbia Tower to check out the view from there.  I need to do it within the next couple of weeks before heading to California for a memorial service, going to a business meeting with my husband in St Louis and then having knee replacement surgery.

Because we are going to check out the view from this building, I went online to find out what I could about the building.

Columbia Tower as seen from Smith Tower

Columbia Center which houses the tower is the tallest skyscraper in the downtown Seattle skyline, as well as the tallest building in the state of Washington. It occupies most of the block bounded by Fourth and Fifth Avenues and Cherry and Columbia Streets. At 932 ft it is currently the second tallest structure on the West Coast (after Los Angeles' 72 story US Bank Tower). It contains 76 stories of office space above ground and seven stories of various use below ground, making it the building with the most stories west of the Mississippi. Construction of this building began in 1982 and finished in 1985. It was designed by Chester L. Lindsey Architects who also designed the Fourth and Blanchard Building in the Belltown neighborhood, and was built by Howard S. Wright Construction.

Looking up at Columbia Tower from the ground

The base of the building is clad in Rosa Purino Carnelian granite. The building's structure is composed of three geometric concave facades with two setbacks, causing the building to appear like three towers standing side by side.  There is an observation deck on the 73rd floor which offers views of Seattle and environs. The top two floors of the building (75th and 76th) are occupied by the private Columbia Tower Club, which houses a restaurant, bar, library, and meeting rooms. An underground concourse connects the building to the nearby Seattle Municipal Tower and Bank of America Fifth Avenue Plaza.

Looking north from Columbia Tower

The tower, originally proposed as Columbia Center, opened under the name Columbia Seafirst Center after its largest tenant and financier, Seafirst Bank, and then changed to the Bank of America Tower, when Seafirst, which had been owned by Bank of America since 1983, was fully integrated into Bank of America. That name gave it the nickname "BOAT" (Bank of America Tower). In November 2005, the building's name was changed back to Columbia Center after the bank reduced its presence in the building. Bank of America still maintains office space within the building, including a bank branch.

Columbia Center plays host to the largest firefighter competition in the world. About 1,500 firefighters from around the world yearly make the trek up 69 floors and 1,311 steps wearing their full firefighter gear. This event benefits the local chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma society.

On June 16, 2004, the 9/11 Commission reported that the original plan for the September 11, 2001, attacks called for the hijacking of ten planes, to be crashed into targets including the "tallest buildings in California and Washington State," which would have been the Columbia Center and the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles.