Seattle: The Arch (705 Pike Street)#

Opened: 1988. Exhibit space: 236,700 sq ft. Walk Score: 98. Transit Score: ~100.

The Washington State Convention Center’s original building sits on a freeway lid over I-5 at Pike Street and 7th Avenue — the geographic center of Seattle’s contiguous walkable core.

What Was Here Before#

On June 1, 1961, protesters marched along the proposed I-5 route carrying signs reading “Block the Ditch” and “Let’s Have a Lid on It.” Architect Paul Thiry proposed lids. All were rejected by state planners. I-5 opened in 1967 after demolishing roughly 6,000 homes across its Seattle route, severing Capitol Hill and First Hill from downtown.

Greater Tacoma Convention Center#

Opened: November 13, 2004. Exhibition hall: 50,000 sq ft (column-free, divisible). Total event space: ~119,000 sq ft. Walk Score: 87. Cost: $84M.

Named to EXHIBITOR Magazine’s “Centers of Excellence” six times, most recently 2026.

The Building#

Governance#

A layered structure unlike Seattle’s single-entity PFD:

Meydenbauer Center#

Opened: 1993. Center Hall: 36,000 sq ft. Total event space: ~54,000 sq ft. Walk Score: ~85. Theater: 410 seats.

Bellevue’s city-operated convention center, 10 miles east of Seattle across Lake Washington. Named for William Meydenbauer, a Seattle baker who homesteaded on the bay in 1869.

The Building#

Governance#

Operated by the Bellevue Convention Center Authority, a city entity. Unlike Seattle’s state-created PFD or Tacoma’s multi-city PFD, Meydenbauer is a single-city operation funded from Bellevue’s general fund and operating revenue.

Seattle: The Summit (900 Pine Street)#

Opened: January 2023. Exhibit space: 149,200 sq ft (573,770 sq ft total). Walk Score: 98. Cost: $1.9 billion.

North America’s first high-rise convention center, one block northeast of the Arch.

What Was Here Before#

A Honda auto dealership ($56.5M, purchased 2014), Convention Place bus station ($275M, purchased 2017), and other commercial buildings. Part of the historic Pike/Pine “Auto Row.”

Convention Place was the northern terminus of the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel (opened September 15, 1990). It was permanently closed July 21, 2018 to make way for Summit construction.

Boston: Hynes Convention Center (Back Bay)#

Opened: 1988 (replaced 1963 Hynes Auditorium). Exhibit space: 176,480 sq ft. Walk Score: 97.

The convention center the neighborhood fought to keep.

What Was Here Before#

The Back Bay was tidal mudflats until the 1850s–1880s landfill (gravel brought by rail from Needham, 24 hours a day at peak). The Hynes site, in the western portion near Gloucester and Dalton Streets, was filled around 1871–1880. For the next 70+ years, the site was occupied by Boston & Albany Railroad rail yards — freight operations, coach storage, and maintenance facilities. The residential brownstone grid of Back Bay (Commonwealth Ave, Marlborough, Beacon) developed to the north; the rail yards were the southern boundary.

Nashville: Music City Center#

Opened: 2013. Exhibit space: 353,000 sq ft. Walk Score: 83–86.

The convention center that works — built on a community that was erased.

What Was Here Before#

Black Bottom — Nashville’s first African American business and residential district. Center of Black business life by 1900. Destroyed by urban renewal and highway construction; gone by 1960. 200,000+ cubic yards excavated.

Convention centers have a history of being built on cleared communities. Nashville is one of the most documented cases.

Washington DC: The Demolition#

Old Convention Center: Opened 1982, closed 2003, demolished December 18, 2004. 800,000 sq ft. Replacement: CityCenterDC. Opened 2015. 2.5 million sq ft mixed-use. Foster + Partners.

The most radical version of the experiment: demolish a convention center in the urban core and replace it with mixed-use development.

The Old Convention Center (1982–2003)#

Opened December 10, 1982 at 909 H Street NW. 10.2-acre superblock bounded by New York Avenue, 11th, H, and 9th Streets. Fourth-largest convention center in the US at opening.