WHAT ARE THEY BUILDING?

A look inside Beacon Hill’s renovated Pacific Tower

Nov 2, 2016, 10:54 AM

Pacific Tower...

Pacific Tower in Seattle's Beacon Hill neighborhood was recently renovated. (Contributed)

(Contributed)

Restoration of Beacon Hill's historic Pacific Tower wrapped up recently, making way for more healthcare service providers. (Charlie Schuck) Restoration of Beacon Hill's historic Pacific Tower wrapped up recently, making way for more healthcare service providers. (Charlie Schuck) Restoration of Beacon Hill's historic Pacific Tower wrapped up recently, making way for more healthcare service providers. (Charlie Schuck) Restoration of Beacon Hill's historic Pacific Tower wrapped up recently, making way for more healthcare service providers. (Charlie Schuck) Restoration of Beacon Hill's historic Pacific Tower wrapped up recently, making way for more healthcare service providers. (Charlie Schuck) Restoration of Beacon Hill's historic Pacific Tower wrapped up recently, making way for more healthcare service providers. (Charlie Schuck) Restoration of Beacon Hill's historic Pacific Tower wrapped up recently, making way for more healthcare service providers. (Charlie Schuck) Restoration of Beacon Hill's historic Pacific Tower wrapped up recently, making way for more healthcare service providers. (Charlie Schuck) Restoration of Beacon Hill's historic Pacific Tower wrapped up recently, making way for more healthcare service providers. (Charlie Schuck)

Renovations to the iconic Pacific Tower on Beacon Hill wrapped up recently.

The $54 million project has been revitalized as a center for innovation in health and education.

It is occupied largely by Seattle Central College’s new 85,000-square-foot Health Education Center, which includes a dental education clinic.

Related: Seattle is winning the crane race

The tower is also home to a variety of nonprofit organizations devoted to healthcare, education and training, including FareStart, the Seattle Indian Health Board, Seattle Jobs Initiative and many others.

Pacific Tower originally opened in 1933 as a U.S. marine Hospital. It was designated as a U.S. Public health Service Hospital in 1951 and renamed the Pacific Medical Center in 1983.

The tower was placed on the list of National Historic Places and named a Seattle landmark in 1992.

When all the Public Health Service Hospitals were closed in 1981, the building was transitioned to local control and chartered under a public development authority. In 1998, the authority received approval to lease a portion of the building to non-healthcare related businesses. Amazon occupied nearly 200,000 square feet before moving to its new offices in 2011 — leaving the majority of the building vacant.

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A look inside Beacon Hill’s renovated Pacific Tower