City Light Plant No. 3 - Seattle, WA
N 47° 37.860 W 122° 19.639
10T E 550536 N 5275507
This historical former steam plant is located on Eastlake Ave in the Lake Union suburb of Seattle, WA.
Waymark Code: WMGX9A
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 04/19/2013
Views: 4
Most passersby of the current ZymoGenetic's building don't realize that this location was once Seattle's main hydroelectric plant and power house in the early 1900s. The date on the building reflects the third and final stage of construction this building undertook. This plant provided steam/hydroelectric energy until the mid-1980s. This building's first phase of construction was completed in 1912 and the second stage of construction in 1918. Even though the last phase's date reads '1920' it wasn't actually completed until 1921.
From reading an online article from the HistoryLink.org website, this building was decommissioned and attempts were made to convert the property into condos but failed. ZymoGenetics, a biotechnology company, purchased the complex in 1993 and proceeded to spend millions of dollars updating this historical building. One of the updates was to replace the seven smokestacks on the roof with six updated ones. Whether these replacement smokestacks are functional or not is not known. Seattle designated this building as a Historic Landmark in 1994.
I was able to enter the front lobby to the building and noticed some pictures hanging on the wall. Many of them were taken of this building from many years ago. I've attached those pictures here. I also located a couple of other websites here and here that discuss the history of this building over the years.