Rainier tower

The skyscraper, class A office and retail building Rainier Tower, has a very attractive appearance. It seems like an inverted pyramid. Being under the structure and looking at it, provides many onlookers with the illusion that it is inclining over on them. Rainier Tower was given several nicknames by locals: the wine glass, the golf tee building and the beaver building.

Different sources assert different descriptions of the building. Rainier Tower is sometimes described as a 42-story building, sometimes as a 40-story skyscraper. But it is neither. The truth lies somewhere in the middle. In the fact, Rainier Tower has 29 traditional floors, which rise from an 11-story pedestal. It is 40 stories altogether. But when we add a ground floor, because every building must have some, and a completely inaccessible mechanical floor, we get 42. Beneath the tower there is the Rainier Square underground shopping mall.

Rainier Tower is located in the Metropolitan Tract of Seattle, Washington at 1301 Fifth Avenue. From 1907 to 1976 it was the address of the White-Henry-Sugar Building, which had to be torn down to make place for this tower.

Rainier Tower was designed by a design architect Minoru Yamasaki and has become his third success. Minoru Yamasaki had also participated in designing of World Trade Center in New York, Federal Science Pavilion and the IBM Building standing on the corner diagonally opposite from Rainier Tower. The construction of Rainier Tower was completed in 1977.

Before the construction Rainier Tower underwent three environmental tests. Rainier Tower was tested first for strength in the event of strong earthquake, later for stability during swift winds. And thirdly the extraordinary shape of Rainier Tower was examined.