The Waterfall Gardens in 2nd Avenue South in Seattle offer a peaceful escape from the bustle of the city.
The Waterfall Gardens designed by Masao Kinoshita, featuring a 22 feet waterfall was commissioned by the Annie Casey Foundation in 1977 to honor the workers of the United Parcel Service, UPS. The company, originally called the American Messenger Service, began in a saloon on 2nd avenue, not far from the garden. Under instructions from UPS millionaire, Jim Casey, Masao Kinoshita’s Boston architecture firm surrounded the park with a massive fence and gates that are kept closed at night.
The waterfall garden was built by Japanese stone masons and designed like a traditional Japanese garden. Besides the beautiful waterfall, Gingko trees cover the park with shade and provide an ambience of tranquility. The park has many bistro style iron benches where one can have a quiet lunch. Waterfall Gardens have inspired a painting by the artist Robin Weiss.
Admission to the park is free and visitors of all ages are welcome. The gardens are kept clean and well maintained. There is an onsite attendant to ensure that the cleanliness and beauty of the park is undisturbed. Waterfall Gardens are not visible to the street and one can escape into serene isolation when visiting the park. The only giveaway to passersby is the roar of the waterfall from within the four walls.
Visitors to Seattle will enjoy the tranquil atmosphere of Waterfall Gardens, built to honor the carriers of one of the best known parcel services that delivered parcels on time to millions worldwide.

The Columbia Center located at 701, 5th Avenue Seattle is the tallest building in downtown Seattle and in the State of Washington. The skyscraper towers over the city of Seattle offering breathtaking views of Seattle and its surroundings from the observation deck on the 73rd floor.
The Columbia Center was first designed to be 1005 ft tall. FAA regulations reduced the height of the building because it stood on the flight path of the Sea Tac Airport. It opened in March 1985 as the Columbia Centre. Later the name was changed to Columbia Sea First Centre and in 1999 became the Bank of America Tower. In 2005 the Columbia Center resumed its original name after a full circle.
The base of the building is made of Rosa Purino Carnelian granite. The design was by Chester L Lindsey architects and built by Howard S Wright Construction. Martin Selig the developer of the Columbia Center said of the building, ‘the Space Needle told people where Seattle was, the Columbia Center tells people that Seattle has arrived.’ The building has 76 floors and six escalators from the higher floors to the lobby. The design has three interlocking arches that give a three tower appearance to the structure.
The Columbia Center is a worthwhile destination for high rise and skyscraper architecture enthusiasts and visitors who want to take in the entire views of the city of Seattle from the observation center.

The Seattle Central Library is the flagship library of the Seattle Public Library system. The 362,987 square foot (34,000 m²) public library can hold about 1.45 million books and other materials, features underground public parking for 143 vehicles, and includes over 400 computers open to the public. Over 2 million individuals visited the new library in its first year. The library has a unique, striking appearance, consisting of several discrete "floating platforms" seemingly wrapped in a large steel net around glass skin.

The Seattle Art Museum popularly known as SAM has three facilities. The main museum is located in downtown Seattle, the Seattle Asian Art Museum, in Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill and the Seattle Art Museum building in the Olympic Sculpture Park on the central Seattle waterfront. The facilities feature a wide range of art from different parts of the world and also showcase the art of prominent Northwestern artists and sculptors.
The formation of the Seattle Fine Arts Society in 1906 marked the beginning of the development of the Seattle Art Museum. Dr. Richard E Fuller, a member of the society gave the funds to build a museum to house his vast collection of Chinese and Japanese art in collaboration with the City of Seattle. The building was designed by another member of the society, the architect Carl F Gould. Now the original structure is guarded by Jonathan Borofsky’s 48 foot tall kinetic Hammering Man sculpture.
Besides the collection of Dr. Fuller, the museum featured the works of famous Northwestern Artists like Mark Tobey and Morris Graves. The Dime store magnate Samuel H Kress added his European Art collection to SAM and the institution also received the Japanese art collection of Manson Bachus. The most popular of the exhibitions hosted by SAM was the Treasures of Tutankhamen exhibition in 1940. The museum also housed the Katherine C White collection of African Art in 1981 that was partially donated and partially funded by the Boeing Company. SAM soon expanded to the Volunteer Park facility to house its vast collection of Asian art and later to the waterfront Olympic Sculpture Park with views of the Olympic Mountain and Elliott Bay.
The Seattle Art Museum is open through the week and on select holidays. Members of Sam, children under 12 and military personnel are admitted free of charge. Photography is allowed for select exhibits. The museum offers visitors one ticket to visit the downtown facility and the Volunteer Park facility within a week.

The Seattle aquarium located in pier 59 on Elliott Bay is a public aquatic facility accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The building showcases the different types of aquatic life native to the shores of Seattle.
The aquarium built by architects Bassetti Norton Metler and Rekeviks opened in 1977. It was first managed by the City of Seattle department of Parks and Recreation. In 2010, the management of the facility was taken over by the nonprofit organization called the Seattle Aquarium Society.
The aquarium houses a range of exhibits that will delight biologists and marine and aquatic life enthusiasts. Dive shows take place frequently and divers communicate with visitors explaining the types of fish in the exhibit tanks in detail.
Exhibits at the Seattle aquarium include the Window on Washington Waters exhibition tank that features fish and aquatic life native to the State of Washington and Seattle like salmon, rockfish and sea anemones. The building also has a wave tank called Crashing Waves exhibiting the aquatic life of the Washington shores. The Life on the Edge exhibit shows the tidepool life of Seattle’s inland sea. Viewers can see the life of the Giant Pacific Octopus in the Life of a Drifter exhibit. The aquarium also has an artificial coral reef with fish that live near the reef and an exhibit on aquatic mammals and birds that live on the seashore. There is also an exhibit showing the unique aquatic life found in Puget Sound with an underwater glass dome to enable viewers to view the different types of Puget Sound fish through a glass tunnel.
The aquarium encourages school field trips and offers free admission for children under the age of 3. The building has a café offering seafood and other fare and a gift shop with books and gifts for all ages.

The Pacific Science Center is the main Science Museum of the city of Seattle. The Center is a teaching museum that has many travelling exhibits and a fleet of vans that travel to provide science education for students across Washington State.
In 1962, when Seattle hosted the World’s Fair, the Pacific Science Center was born. The buildings hosting the World’s Fair opened as the Pacific Science Center once the World’s Fair closed. The institution run by the independent nonprofit Pacific Science Center Foundation leased the land and buildings until the year 2004 when the organization purchased the property. The building was architected by Minoru Yamasaki who designed the World Trade Center in New York.
The early exhibits at the center were carried over from the World’s Fair. Exhibits from the World’s fair that are still on display include the Lens and Mirror Machine and the ramp where buildings were raised at a tilt. The facility also features a domed laser light show and two IMAX theaters. The institution has eight buildings, a room showcasing tropical butterflies and a planetarium. The center has many hands on exhibits and hosts travelling exhibits. In 2012, the Pacific Science Center will hold special programs to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the World’s Fair.
The Center is located at 200 Second Avenue North and has an onsite café for the convenience of visitors. The buildings are disability friendly and wheelchair accessible. A floor plan is provided for visitors to navigate the many unique exhibits available at the Pacific Science Center.

The icon for the 1962 World’s Fair, the Seattle Space Needle has become the symbol of the city over the years. The Space Needle is a 605 feet high observation tower built to weather winds of up to 200 miles per hour and earthquakes of a magnitude of 9.1 on the Richter scale. The tower also has 25 lightening rods to withstand lightning damage.
Edward. E. Carlson, the President of Western International Hotels is said to have doodled the design of the space needle. His diagram looked like a balloon. Architect John Graham and his team changed the original sketch and gave the top of the tower a saucer shape rather than the balloon shape of the Carlson sketch. The tower has 832 steps from the base to the top and three elevators. The space needle was ready in December 1961 and the structure’s famed revolving restaurant hosted a gala in March 1962, one month before the opening of the World’s fair. The tower hosts fireworks displays for major holidays or events and from 1999, the Legacy Light, a powerful beam of light, illuminates the skies from the top of the Space Needle on all major holidays.
The Space Needle stands in the center of Seattle on Broad Street. The observation deck hosts public and private events and the tower is open to visitors throughout the year.

The Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, now known as the Experience Music Project, founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, traces the history and evolution of both popular music and science fiction.
The Experience Music Museum opened in the year 2000 at the Center of Seattle. At first the museum did not succeed financially and the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame was established in 2004. The Science Fiction Museum closed in March 2011. The museum showcases rock-and-roll memorabilia and also has multimedia demonstrations using advanced technology. Frank Gehry designed the sheet metal structure of the museum resembling a shattered electric guitar and the Hoffman Construction Company of Portland Oregon constructed the building. The museum has a 40 foot high and a 70 foot wide video screen.
Two well known exhibits include the Northwest Passage with memorabilia of music and musicians from the Pacific Northwest, from Bing Crosby to Pearl Jam. Another exhibit takes visitors through the history and evolution of a guitar.
Rock-and-roll lovers will enjoy walking past the music memorabilia that abounds in the Experience Music Museum, open 7 days a week and offering discounted tickets to students, young people and children.

The maritime history of the Pacific Northwest is preserved and documented in a unique museum in Seattle called the Center for Wooden Boats. Boat enthusiasts and other visitors can not only view the wooden boats but touch the boats, row, paddle or sail in the collection of classic wooden boats at the museum.
Architect Dick Wagner designed the Center for Wooden Boats at Waterway #4 at South Lake Union and the first campus opened in 1981. The events and exhibits at the first museum gained great popularity and in 2008 a new campus was rented by the Center at the Cama Beach State Park, north of Seattle. The facilities of the CWB have over 100 small boats including sailboats, rowboats and tugboats. Historical boats and larger steamboats are also on display. Two steam launches take visitors around the wooden boat exhibits.
Admission to the Center for Wooden Boats is free and visitors are invited to make donations to support the organization. Free public rides on boats are arranged on weekends. Sailing competitions and special maritime exhibitions are held at the campuses. The annual wooden boat festival held by the Center draws crowds of boating enthusiasts to Seattle every year.