From bank to Seattle Bouldering Project
A bank that was built early in the 1910s is soon to open as a climbing gym. Melody and I got to take a look inside after structural renovations were done, and again as the climbing gym was close to opening.
For most of the time that I worked at the University of Washington, I was in the building just up the hill from the bank on NE 45th Street and University Way NE. It was First Interstate when I started, then turned into a Wells Fargo.
The building originally held the University National Bank of Seattle when it opened in 1912, and had been in continuous use until the Wells Fargo branch closed in 2018. It was bought by Hunters Capital in 2020, but it took several years for them to figure out what to do with the building. Melody and I toured it in March of 2023, and the plan at that time was for the Seattle Bouldering Project to open a studio there. We had a chance to tour the building again last week; below are photos from both visits.
First Floor
In 2023, the first floor was empty except for the existing columns. The marble wrapping the columns was in rough shape, but the plan was to re-wrap them in marble. The original bank entrance at the corner of 4th/University used to have a Wells Fargo ATM, but that was removed, and the plan was to recreate the door at that corner.
In 2024, the floor is still mostly open, but now has a couple of bouldering walls, as well as a new mezzanine overlooking the far side. The plans for the corner door were scrapped because it would be too difficult to make it ADA compliant, so the doors on University will be used instead, keeping the original vestibule.
What will be the reception desk.
One of the columns describes what is on each floor.
The bouldering walls on the first floor. The different colors represent the difficulty of that particular path.
View from the mezzanine. Since the windows along 45th are not blocked, people will be able to look in to see what’s going on.
Basement
The bank’s vaults were in the basement. The investment company had checked all of the safe deposit boxes and determined there was nothing of great value in them. They liked the vaults, and planned on keeping them as-is; it was also a pragmatic choice, since it would have cost an enormous amount of money to remove them.
As expected, the vaults are still there. We were only able to see the main vault, but I believe the other ones are now meeting rooms.
The main vault is now an infrared sauna. It was divided into two sections, with glass doors to separate the actual sauna.
A yoga room was created next to the sauna.
These rooms used to be where you would go to examine the contents of your safe deposit box after removing it from the vault. They are now changing rooms.
The railing is new. At first it seemed odd for it to be so far from the wall, but it then becomes apparent that they would rather have a straight rail to go around the post rather than wrapping it around.
Second floor
The second floor used to be a ballroom. In 2023, you could see a mezzanine.
View from the mezzanine. The short walls near the north windows are the stairway from the first floor.
The mezzanine was removed to make more room for climbing. This photo is looking south; the wall on the left wraps around to follow the windows along the south side of the building and come out on the north end.
The climbing wall on the west side.
