Seattle's "Pit from Hell": Will we ever fill it in?

By Jean Godden

Visitors to Seattle have been asking questions. They inquire about the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPoP), the Frank-Gehry’s avant-garde building at the Seattle Center and wonder, “when are they going to finish it?” And then they look at the fenced-off, deserted block between Cherry and James, Third and Fourth, and puzzle over the yawning pit. They ask, “What in heck happened there?”

It’s a question even locals have asked. But, as long-time residents can recall, the unsightly yawning pit was once site of the 14-story Public Safety Building. Notorious for its people-trapping elevators and abandoned roof-top jail, the malfunctioning building was pulled down in 2005. By that time, it had been replaced by a new seven-story City Hall and the Seattle Justice Center directly to the East.

Incredibly, 21 years later, the fenced-off empty block remains an ugly scar at the center of the government compound. Surrounding are Seattle’s municipal buildings, the King County Courthouse and administration buildings, the Goat Hill garage and County Jail. The unsightly hole has blighted the area for decades while plans to activate it have flourished and then crashed.

During his first term in office, then Mayor Greg Nickels envisioned the location as a grand public-private development, a real civic square. He wanted the site to house a 43-story office/residential building, a jointly owned garage and a park rimmed with lively retail spaces, a worthy rival for San Francisco’s Union Square.

https://www.postalley.org/2026/04/17/seattles-pit-from-hell-will-we-ever-fill-it-in/