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Architecture
Fancy an apartment at the top of the Smith Tower?
It was an abandoned attic until one woman got her hands on it.
WOULD YOU WANT to live at the top of a 38-storey building?
A derelict, cavernous attic at the top of an office block might not sound like a place you’d like to call home, but once you’ve seen what was done to the top of the Smith Tower, in Seattle, Washington we reckon you’ll change your mind.
Built in 1914, this white terracotta skyscraper is 522 feet tall, and was for over 50 years the tallest building west of the Mississippi.
Originally this space at the very top of the tower was empty bar a caretaker’s apartment and a 10,000 gallon water tank, but new owners in 1999 decided to renovate the space and removed the water tank, leaving a vast pyramid-shaped space ready for a major transformation.
When a busy venture capitalist set eyes on it, she knew that it would make an amazing home and with the help of architecture firm Castanes it was turned into a two-bed, three-storey family home for four.
In order to maintain the water tank there were myriad cast iron stairs and walkways that the client made sure to keep and make a feature of.
All these ladders and catwalks lead up to what is probably the outstanding feature in an already amazing apartment – an 8m diameter glass dome that sits on top of the pyramid with views all over Seattle.
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