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The National Building is a historic warehouse building in downtown Seattle, Washington, located on the east side of Western Avenue between Spring and Madison Streets in what was historically Seattle's commission district. It is now home to the Seattle Weekly. It is a six story plus basement brick building that covers the entire half-block. The dark red brick facade is simply decorated with piers capped with small Ionic capitals and a small cornice, which is a reproduction of the original cornice. Kingsley & Anderson of Seattle were the architects. The National Building was constructed from late 1904 to mid 1905 by the Northern Pacific Railway as part of the road's multi-million dollar plan to improve their many Seattle properties and capitalize on the city's booming commission trade. One of the building's first tenants was the National Grocery Company which at first only occupied two of the building's eight stores and would later occupy the entire building, becoming its namesake. It would occupy the building until 1930. The building was later home to many small manufacturing and distributing firms and has been an office building since the late 1960s. The National Building individually was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 29, 1982 and became a city of Seattle landmark collectively with the Globe Building, Beebe Building and Hotel Cecil one year later as "First Avenue Groups/Waterfront Center".〔"City of Seattle Legislative Information Service - Ordinance Number: 111058." City of Seattle: City Clerk's Online Information. City of Seattle, 28 Mar. 1983. Web. 4 Jan. 2011. It is now home to the Seattle Weekly. (link )〕 ==Appearance== This architectural description of the National building was written for its National Register nomination in 1982: "The Western Avenue facade consists of eight bays encompassing storefronts at the ground story, and horizontal window bands in the upper five stories. The bays are defined by nine piers which are expressed externally as pilasters, and terminated at the sixth story by large ionic capitals. Wall planes within each bay are recessed behind the nine pilasters and enriched with molded back surrounds at the sides and top. Fenestration is characterized by a regular system of horizontal window groupings, each consisting of four pivoting windows with transoms. The window bands are separated vertically by wide, unadorned brick spandrels. Two of the bays include fire escapes. The two side elevations incorporate four bays each, and are also defined by pilasters with ionic capitals. Fenestration Includes pairs of square-shaped window openings within each bay at each of the upper five stories. Openings at the ground level of both elevators include storefront windows, small windows and doorways. The east, or Post Avenue, elevation is relatively undistinguished and includes a simple series of horizontal window bands in the upper stories, and a loading dock with large freight doors at the ground floor. Several original elements, including a wide cornice and all but two projecting marquees, are presently missing from the building (these were restored during the building's renovations in 1982)."〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「National Building」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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