File:Seattle, WA - Washington State Art Association Building.png

English: This postcard is actually just an architects visualization of a building that was never built. The Washington State Art Association was founded in 1906 with the goal of establishing an art museum in the city but struggled finding a permanent home after sites at Denny Park, Volunteer Park and West Seattle were shot down by the city and park designers the Olmstead Brothers. They were able to lease gallery space on 5th Avenue near Union Street in the Metropolitan Tract in 1912 and soon proposed to construct the pictured building, which would be located at the Southeast corner of 5th and University Street and extend the entire length of the block, then completely vacant except for the Plymouth Congregational Church across the alley. This $625,000 building, designed by William Kingsley, would include multi-level gallery and office space, a 4,000 seat auditorium and a roof garden. Per the conditions of the lease from the Metropolitan Building Company, construction was required to begin by January 1913 and an intense membership drive in the latter half of 1912 was reportedly a success but after 1912 no other mention was made of this project. In 1915 the Seattle Ice Arena was built on the site, later converted into a parking garage for the Olympic Hotel and is now the site of the IBM Building and plaza, built in 1964.