It educates some 35,000 students a year, making it one of the largest institutions of higher learning on the West Coast. Two excellent museums are located on the campus grounds, designed in the early 20C by landscape architect John Olmsted.

The 3.5-acre garden was designed in 1960 by Juki Iida, a respected Japanese landscape architect who had created more than 1,000 such gardens before being commissioned for this one. Iida personally chose over 500 granite boulders from the nearby Casca..

On the lower level are artifacts and photographs that highlight cultures of the Northwest Coast, the Pacific Islands, and East and Southeast Asia. The main floor examines geologic history through dinosaur skeletons, mineral specimens and an exhibit o..

Appropriately situated in the Ballard neighborhood where many Scandinavian immigrants settled at the turn of the century. In 1979 the museum leased the 1907 Webster Elementary School from the Seattle school district, and its exhibits now fill three f..

Actually a single longhouse of Kwakiutl style, it was built in the 1960s on small Blake Island in Puget Sound. Visitors are treated to a traditional salmon bake, with the whole fish splayed open on cedar stakes and cooked over an alder-wood fire. Nat..

Geared mostly to toddlers and elementary age children. The Mountain, a simulated Pacific Northwest wilderness, boasts a waterfall and campsite, and in Global Village, the cultures of many countries are represented. The MindScape technology studio hou..

In the last several years the area, particularly along Second Avenue, has become a popular night spot, with a number of restaurants, live-music clubs and bars along First and Second Avenues.

The center's 20-some craft include peapods, dories, catboats, skiffs, kayaks and canoes, all on view in the lake waters beside the center. Non-boating observers are welcome to watch the staff at work maintaining this museum-quality "fleet".

Along the south edge of Lake Union, the "seaport" offers a look at the maritime heritage of Seattle via three vintage ships. Visitors may take self-guided tours above- and below-decks of all three: the 1897 schooner Wawona, The 120ft-long t..

Featuring a domed overhead screen, six "surround-sound" speakers and reclining seats, this theater offers a changing series of movies that generally celebrate the wilderness, whales and other natural subjects.

Separates the Corner Market (1912) and Triangle Market (1908) buildings. At its northwest corner, the Soames-Dunn Building combines two historic structures, the Soames Paper Company and the Dunn Seed Building, into a renovated home for scores of rest..

The spaces that residents used for work and commerce, social and recreational pursuits, learning and enlightenment, and personal and family endeavors are depicted through historic photographs, blueprints, building models and furniture. The foundation..

Occupying an entire block in the middle of downtown, it features a circular window faþade that achieves the effect of a giant chandelier when lit at night. Built mostly from private funds but owned by the City of Seattle, the hall's two performance s..

Richard Haag, the architect who turned the former World's Fair site into the Seattle Center, was the mastermind behind this compelling mixture of industrial artifacts and parkland. The park also offers wide-angle views of the Seattle cityscape.

Designed by Lawrence Halprin and Angela Danadjieva, the five-acre oasis bridges the canyon created by the freeway and reconnects downtown with First Hill. Greenery, plazas for outdoor concerts, ponds, plantings of flowers and a series of soothing wat..

This brick-paved triangle holds two neighborhood landmarks: the wrought-iron Pergola erected in 1909 to shield streetcar and cable-car passengers from the weather, and a Tlingit totem pole commissioned in the late 1930s to replace an earlier one dest..

Lyman C. Smith, the Smith-Corona typewriter tycoon, commissioned the terra-cotta facaded, steel building as an office headquarters. Though many other city buildings now rise above it, the Smith Tower is still remarkable for its small but ornate lobby..

Seattleites first heard of the Klondike strike on July 17, 1897, when the steamship Portland arrived in town from Alaska, carrying men hefting sacks of gold. Overnight, the city was struck with gold fever, and many residents quit their jobs to get ri..

Today, a narrow, 106-step stairway winds around the interior of the 75.5ft tower, leading to an observatory with panoramic views of the city. Along the wall of the observatory, photographs and story boards explain the influence that the Olmsted Broth..

The current International District is still predominantly Chinese in character, with other Asian and African-American restaurants and businesses now represented as well. A hub of activity here is the ever popular Uwajimaya, a cavernous emporium selli..