SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
A look inside Beacon Hill’s renovated Pacific Tower
Nov 2, 2016, 10:54 AM
Pacific Tower in Seattle's Beacon Hill neighborhood was recently renovated. (Contributed)
(Contributed)
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.
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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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