Seattle-Tacoma International Airport,
South Terminal Expansion
Seattle
NBBJ

NBBJ added fast-changing security requirements on the fly while staying true to a successful terminal prototype

© Christian Richtens

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By John Pastier

A dramatic 1972 reconfiguration of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, or Sea-Tac, has proved remarkably adaptable over years of changing airline service and tightening security. Seattle-based architect NBBJ’s task in adding to it was to stay true to what had worked while altering the design to incorporate fast-changing security requirements after 9/11.

The 1970s design, by the firm Richardson Associates (its successor firm folded a few years ago), made Sea-Tac an industry exemplar, integrating structured parking, clear and easy passenger and vehicular circulation, and the world’s first airport subway linking the main and satellite terminals. It packaged this efficiency in a disciplined, understated Modernism that has worn well.

Two major alterations have opened in the past two years: a Central Terminal makeover [see coverage at www.archrecord.com] and NBBJ’s South Terminal Expansion Project (STEP), a $587 million, mixed-use addition.

STEP’s 2,100-foot-long, 762,000-square-foot terminal and finger concourse slips below a tower housing 110,000 square feet of airport offices and an 8,000-square- foot conference center. It adds seven new gates to seven replaced ones, accessed by Sea-Tac’s first moving sidewalks. A generous arrivals hall was intended to offer a real welcome to passengers, especially international travelers. Included are technologically advanced baggage-screening devices that serve a third of the airport’s needs, and other security installations growing out of 9/11.

NBBJ wished to give STEP a Northwestern character without overt reference to common regional symbols: no salmon, Space Needles, or totem poles, other than those in the gift shops. NBBJ’s design opens panoramas of the Evergreen State’s indigenous trees and nearby mountains—Mt. Rainier and the Cascade range. Outwardly canted glass walls open to sweeping airfield views.

STEP’s design and construction was greatly complicated by the aftermath of 9/11. At that point, construction was about 25 percent complete, and the project had to be redesigned on the fly to accommodate a series of new security requirements.

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Formal name of Project:
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, South Terminal Expansion

Location:
Seattle

Gross square footage:
880,000 sq. ft.

Total construction cost:
$350 Million

Client:
Port of Seattle

Architect:
NBBJ
111 South Jackson Street
Seattle, WA 98104
Tel. (206) 223-5555
Fax. (206) 621-2314
www.nbbj.com