Lost in Pioneer Square
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Wandering Through History.
and Cobblestone Streets
Walking the streets of Seattle's Pioneer Square in cold and breezy mid-January, the neighborhood is quiet. We pass very few other people out but notice some: a small group of colleagues dipping into a restaurant, two people playing ping pong in Occidental Square, and pairs of construction workers heading towards a building site off of Alaskan Way. The sleepy streets give plenty of space for admiring the architecture: grand arches and intricate, detailed brickwork are displayed on Romanesque Revival-style buildings on every block.
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Like many places, Pioneer Square has a complex story. It’s Seattle’s first, most historic neighborhood, a heavy burden that the 30-block community has carried through decades of evolution. Most of Pioneer Square as it’s seen today was rebuilt after Seattle’s “Great Fire” of 1889, and, just under a century later, it was established as a national historic district and a local preservation district. Throughout all of its evolution, Pioneer Square’s inhabitants have been diverse: Suquamish and Duwamish Indians, white pioneers, fishermen, logging workers, Chinese immigrants, Klondike Gold Rush fortune chasers, lawyers, tech pros, and artists.
Today the neighborhood is dotted with hidden gems: public works of art in alleyways; a waterfall garden park tucked between busy streets (a respite of nature in the urban context); and cultural centers honoring its history. Plazas and cobblestone streets connect more than 20 art galleries, sprinkled between local restaurants, cafes, and bars. It’s quaint, and a little bit grungy – just rough around the edges enough to feel like a place still undiscovered by the masses.
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The neighborhood’s long list of cultural significance and architectural charm is accompanied by an equally long list of challenges. It seems to always be at the forefront of the city’s ups and downs, the first and worst affected by economic shifts and increased poverty. Pioneer Square's historic nature has created an interesting push and pull for its growth and development. A tight-knit, local creative community, led by the Alliance for Pioneer Square, passionately fights for the preservation of its historic art, culture, and architecture, at the same time urging for the strategic plan of new investment, improvement, and growth.
In more recent months, many of the neighborhood’s favorite mainstay businesses have closed their doors for good. And yet, new activity indicates Pioneer Square might be entering an upswing. Several local businesses have opened – like OSHUN, a Korean Deli & Cafe on 1st Avenue serving bibimbap and banchan, and Long Brother’s, a rare bookstore around the corner that specializes in Pacific Northwest Americana literature.
Among the most exciting evolutions is the City of Seattle’s new waterfront development. The plan promises an injection of life all the way from Belltown to Pioneer Square, with $756 million dollars of investment put toward rebuilding the central waterfront and constructing a park promenade along the water. Pioneer Square will see pedestrian improvements, new sidewalks, increased greenery, and a new gateway that restores the community’s access to and from the waterfront.
Just a block east of the water is another hopeful sign of progress: Railspur, the 200,000-square-foot development created by Urban Villages. It includes an entire block of development, with multifamily apartments, office spaces, Heard Coffee, Hoot-Beerdega (a beer-bodega-hotdog-stand-hybrid), and Cassette Club cycling shop – all within historic adaptive-reuse structures.
This is where our relationship with Pioneer Square began: in re-imagining The Westland Building and giving this 1900s warehouse back to its community in the form of a 120-key boutique hotel. Pioneer Square’s long history has journeyed through periods of progress and times of struggle. Today, there's a tangible sense of excitement as the neighborhood wakes up from a season of hiberation and grows, yet again, into something new. We're honored and excited to be part of Pioneer Square's next, most vibrant chapter.
