Seattle Opening Its Convention-Center Expansion This Month
The Summit, the Seattle Convention Center’s $2 billion addition to downtown and one of the few vertically focused convention centers in North America — Nashville is another — has announced that its opening celebration will be more January 25.
The Summit addition nearly doubles the capacity of the Seattle Convention Center, adding 573,770 square feet of event space in 62 meeting rooms, a 58,000 square foot column-free and divisible ballroom, 248,450 square feet of exhibit space, 140,700 square feet square naturally. illuminated lobby space and a 14,000 square foot outdoor garden terrace. Covering 1.4 million square feet in total, Summit and the original Arch building are a connected campus despite being a block apart.
“Congratulations to the board for having the vision to build two stacked buildings in downtown Seattle,” said Frank Finneran, chairman of the SCC Board of Directors. “This project was more complex and more difficult than building in the suburbs, but the vision has become a reality” in a more convenient location in the city center.
With the new space, new opportunities have been created for citywide events for Seattle to use. Currently, there are 58 events booked at the Summit for 2023 and 2024 with a further eight using both the Arch and the Summit.
Summit’s stacked configuration maximizes site efficiency and attendee flow between event spaces, while large windows and skylights bring natural light to all floors, including the exhibition floor below the classroom. Hillclimb, a system of suspended stairs and escalators, features wood sourced from the Pacific Northwest and provides access from the street level to the ballroom level, as well as seating.
In terms of sustainability, Summit is expected to achieve LEED Gold certification, using eco-friendly design elements such as sustainably sourced recycled materials throughout the building, including plant-based acoustic ceiling tiles and bio-based fabric panels . Also, the roof includes solar panels that will improve the building’s energy performance by 30 percent over the baseline rating, while a rainwater harvesting system will reduce piped water consumption by a projected 89 percent.
There are approximately 7,000 hotel rooms within a six-block radius of the Summit. There is also a Link light rail station nearby that goes to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in about 35 minutes.
