The Alaska Building, which now houses the Courtyard Seattle Downtown/Pioneer Square hotel, is a 15-floor building in Seattle, Washington completed in 1904 to designs by St. Louis architects Eames and Young. At the time of its completion, it was the tallest building in the state of Washington—and remained so until the 1910 completion of Spokane's Old National Bank Building.
The building was purchased by American Life, Inc. on December 6, 2007, for $38.7 million and renovated to begin a new life as a Courtyard by Marriott in June 2010. The original exterior of the structure was maintained, as were the marble lobby, original crown molding, window framing and wood pillars.[7]
History
The fourteen-story Alaska Building was completed in 1904, following eleven months of construction. It was designed by Eames and Young, a St. Louis architectural firm, under the supervision of local architects Saunders and Lawton. The contractor was James Black Masonry Construction.
The building was the first steel frame building of any height in the Northwest and Seattle's first skyscraper. It remained Seattle's tallest building for ten years after it was built. It was designed using terra cotta and in a style inspired by the Beaux Arts, which is somewhat rare for Seattle (although the Frye Hotel is another major Beaux Arts example in the Pioneer Square-Skid Road National Historic District).