Diamonds & Gold: The Art Deco Skyscraper Northwest Style

Diamonds & Gold: The Art Deco Skyscraper Northwest Style is an architecture tour led by the Seattle Architecture Foundation on Saturday, December 19, 2026. The group meets in the first-floor, street-level lobby of the Fairmont Olympic Hotel at 411 University St in downtown Seattle, and from there it's a walk that takes about two hours. You'll stop at the Exchange Building, the Seattle Tower, and the Washington Athletic Club, three of the city's best examples of the style.

The tour is built around the Roaring 20s. After the First World War, architects started fusing modern structural advances with lively, organic designs, and that's how Art Deco was born. Along the way, you'll see how diamonds and gold, as well as Northwest imagery, were worked into the Deco elegance of these buildings. The walk also looks at how technology, archaeology, and French design influences shaped some of Seattle's most impressive skyscrapers.

It's a good way to spend a Saturday morning or afternoon if you've ever looked up at the downtown skyline and wondered why some of those older buildings look so different from the ones around them. You get to see the details up close rather than from a car window, and you'll walk away with a better sense of how this particular style took root here in the Northwest.

Tickets are $27.50 for general admission, $22.50 for SAF members, and $24.50 for students and seniors over 65. If you decide to show up without booking ahead, walk-ups are $30. The whole thing starts at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel, and you'll end up back in the same neighborhood you started in.