The Seattle Aquarium is in the final stages of planning a grand expansion that will add at least 40 percent more exhibit space and cost at least $90 million to build.
The expanded aquarium will be equipped to attract nearly twice as many visitors as today along the future park-like post-viaduct waterfront.
“We are at capacity now on many busy weekends,” said aquarium President and CEO Bob Davidson. “And they’re projecting double the number of people on the waterfront after the viaduct comes down.”
The major added feature — and a departure from previous plans — will be a Tropical Pacific pavilion building that will rise to the east of today’s aquarium.
It will be a prominent feature along the Overlook Walk that will connect the waterfront with the Pike Place Market. And aside from better connecting the aquarium to the city, Davidson said, the new pavilion will introduce crowd-pleasing giant sharks.
Meanwhile, new Northwest waters exhibits — coastal Washington and Puget Sound — will emerge within a revamped waterfront facility that covers much the same footprint as the existing aquarium, though slightly extended to the west.
To a much greater extent than before, the Puget Sound exhibit will look out upon the Puget Sound itself.
“We want to be providing an experience that engages people in understanding the Puget Sound and the Pacific,” Davidson said. “Our purpose is to help visitors engage with the animals and life in the sea in a personal, visceral context that they can’t get from TV.”
There’s no design or firm cost estimate yet. The city has committed about $34 million toward an eventual $45 million that has been earmarked for the aquarium as part of the Central Waterfront Project.
Aquarium officials aim to raise at least an equal amount from private donors, Davidson said. Chicago-based Campbell & Co. has been hired to help devise the fundraising campaign.
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Seattle Aquarium aims to make splash with huge expansion
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