History

John Graham Sr. established his architectural practice in Seattle in 1911 and became one of the city’s most prolific commercial architects over the following four decades, responsible for a large portion of the downtown core’s most significant buildings. The Exchange Building, completed in 1930, was his most ambitious Art Deco commission and demonstrated Seattle’s ability to absorb the formal innovations of the New York skyscraper boom of the 1920s with both precision and confidence. Graham’s design follows the stepped setback formula codified by the 1916 New York zoning law that shaped the genre: the tower rises through several setback levels before terminating in an ornamental crown, with the massing generating a profile that is unmistakably modern without abandoning the civic aspiration of commercial architecture in the tradition of the Chicago School.

Graham founded his firm, John Graham & Associates, in 1942; the firm went on to design the Space Needle for the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair — making it the same practice responsible for both the defining Art Deco commercial tower and the defining modernist icon of Seattle’s built environment. The Exchange Building has been continuously occupied since 1930 and has undergone periodic renovations maintaining its Class A office status; it was designated a Seattle Landmark in 1990, placing it under the city’s preservation review process for any exterior changes. Although no National Register listing has been sought, the Landmark designation provides the most relevant preservation protection for a building of this character in Seattle’s regulatory context.