Jake and Spike react to ‘beautiful’ Space Needle upgrades: ‘Long overdue’

The Space Needle introduced a new double-decker, glass-door elevator to the public on Friday. Nicknamed the “Skyliner,” the elevator offers riders sweeping views of the city as they ascend the iconic landmark.

Spike O’Neill, co-host of “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio, believes the upgrade was much-needed.

“This is long overdue, they first off expanded the scope of the viewing windows. They doubled that. Look at that. That’s nothing like if you’ve ever ridden this before the renovation. Nothing like this was available before,” he said.

Looking back at the Space Needle pre-upgrade

Spike mentioned that the previous elevator had extremely small window space.

“There used to be a very limited window, that was maybe a third of the front of the elevator,” he explained.

“You might back up against the back, have no view,” Jake Skorheim, co-host of “Jake and Spike,” chimed in.

“Yeah, a lot of people didn’t want to be part of that,” Spike continued. “But if you wanted to, there was always a crowd at the window. And oftentimes you’d be jockeying for view, especially people from out of town.”

However, looking at pictures of the new elevator, Jake shared, “This is really quite beautiful.”

Listen to the full conversation below.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.