In late December, my wife and I had the opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes tour of the King Street Station Restoration project and a trip up the clock tower. My father-in-law, who works with Sellen Construction, the project contractor that generously allowed for the tour, invited us down for this exclusive opportunity. We had the time so we did just that, with camera in hand, excited to see what this whole project was about and to hopefully have a look from the clock tower balcony.
I'd been by and to King Street Station a number of times prior to this - usually from the outside though, when getting on or off a Sounder train or catching a bus on 4th Ave (see the crazy picture below, taken a couple years ago when I was bored waiting for a bus) - and aside from a general appreciation of the building as a whole, never really looked at it too closely. The time or two I went inside I didn't study it too much. I don't remember the marble. Or the intricate plaster. Going about your business sometimes leaves little room for appreciating where you're at. You're too focused on the fact that it's 4:03 PM and the train leaves at 4:07 PM and you've still gotta go down a block, across the street, down the stairs, and into an open car.
I'd been by and to King Street Station a number of times prior to this - usually from the outside though, when getting on or off a Sounder train or catching a bus on 4th Ave (see the crazy picture below, taken a couple years ago when I was bored waiting for a bus) - and aside from a general appreciation of the building as a whole, never really looked at it too closely. The time or two I went inside I didn't study it too much. I don't remember the marble. Or the intricate plaster. Going about your business sometimes leaves little room for appreciating where you're at. You're too focused on the fact that it's 4:03 PM and the train leaves at 4:07 PM and you've still gotta go down a block, across the street, down the stairs, and into an open car.
That's why I like carrying a camera around - I look at the world differently when I have one in my hand. The camera can capture what you're seeing and preserve it. Simply knowing this is possible makes me feel a responsibility to do it. And that makes me look and see. Or to at least try. This time, the station was our destination, not just a waypoint, and touring it was the focus of our trip, not catching a train.
We arrived a little early so we walked uptown to Pike Place Market and killed some time there. Smelled the flowers. Tasted some samples. Bought some fish and crab legs from these guys. And got a free mini doughnut with a coffee for the return trip. The clock tower greeted us amidst the hustle and bustle of construction activities when we got back.
We arrived a little early so we walked uptown to Pike Place Market and killed some time there. Smelled the flowers. Tasted some samples. Bought some fish and crab legs from these guys. And got a free mini doughnut with a coffee for the return trip. The clock tower greeted us amidst the hustle and bustle of construction activities when we got back.
After a brief meet-and-greet with a few of the Sellen employees and a safety briefing, we adorned our safety gear and entered through the south door into the construction zoo that had replaced the main lobby. Renovation activities were well underway. Intricate plaster, marble, and cement work was being fixed, repaired, or replaced to historical accuracy. Accurate per photo documentation. That means design elements, textures, cracks, chips, misaligned tiles, and other such oddities all get reproduced as accurately as possible. Quite the job. Are these tradesmen or artists? It'll be exciting to see the finished product.
We took the circuitous route to the clock tower and were shown the construction activities along the way. Lots of investigative work was underway on the old structural elements. The steel skeleton of the building was laid bare. It looked like an archaeologist's find, without the fossils or hieroglyphics.
Onward we forged, through the dust and noise, past a century-old crank that's still lifting steel, and into the bowels of the clock tower. The narrow staircases are steep and the landings of each step are small. The handrails are made from plumbing pipe. The entrances to each floor are low. It's certainly a building from a bygone era.
Several floors later we arrived at the clock. It's big. I mean, you know it's big when you're looking up at it from down on the ground, but it's just hard to understand the scale of things sometimes until you see them up close. It's a gigantic analog watch, with shafts and gears and everything. Very neat! In this digital era, it's refreshing to see physically tangible devices. There's another little clock up here and, if I remember right, someone has to come up each day to set and align both clocks.
Just one more floor to the balcony. This time there was a spiral staircase that shot right up the center of the room. I guess there's no room for standard stairs. Once we got up we stepped out on the west side of the balcony. What a view! It felt like the view from the Space Needle - on the opposite side of town - where you're offset from downtown just far enough that you can look upon it rather than having to look through it. Dusk was settling over the city and its lights were starting to twinkle. The broken clouds over Puget Sound were reflecting the hues of evening. Our timing couldn't have been more perfect. We only had a few minutes to enjoy. I quickly snapped a couple series of shots with a panorama in mind hoping that they'd sync up. One of the series did and I was able to create the panorama you see at the top.
Then it was back down. Night continued to settle in as we went down the clock tower shaft and the construction lights cast shadows off the industrial elements. A few small jaunts and tidbits later, with the main attraction in our rear view mirror, out tour came to an end.
View the Full Roll of Photos
Check out the King Street Station Tour photo roll for more pictures.
Location and Renovation Project Details
WSDOT and the city of Seattle are working to transform the busy and historic King Street Station and adjacent tracks and platforms to meet current and future needs of expanding passenger rail service. |
