Kreielsheimer Promenade, Seattle, Visitor Guide & Things to Do Nearby

The Kreielsheimer Promenade is the open plaza in front of McCaw Hall at Seattle Center in Seattle, Washington. Its paving doubles as a shallow water feature that mirrors the sky, the metal canopy and the evening lights. It is a quiet, design-led corner of a campus that grew out of the 1962 World's Fair.

The story behind it

The promenade sits on the grounds of Seattle Center, a 74-acre campus of arts, sports, education and entertainment. The site's cultural life goes back to 1927, when Civic Auditorium was built here. That building was later reworked for the 1962 World's Fair, and many of the buildings you see around you today date from that fair. The auditorium site is now home to Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, and the promenade serves as its front entrance.

The floor is the clever part. Instead of plain stone, the designers laid three tilted panels of paving and covered them with a sheet of water only about a quarter of an inch deep. The water drains into a stainless-steel grille set into the stones, which gives the space a gentle trickling sound. Seattle Center today hosts more than thirty cultural, educational and sports organizations, and the campus fills with events throughout the year.

What to look for

• Look down at the paving: the thin film of water over the tilted stone panels turns the ground into a mirror.
• Look up at the metal ceiling, whose surface picks up the sky and the lighting and reflects them back into the water.
• Find the stainless-steel grille in the paving stones where the water drains away, and listen to the soft sound it makes.
• Notice the facade of McCaw Hall behind the plaza, glowing in the evening when performances are on.

Tips for your visit

• Plan on 10 to 15 minutes for the promenade itself, longer if you pair it with the rest of Seattle Center.
• Come around dusk or in the evening, when the lighting effects show best on the wet stone.
• The promenade is an outdoor public space, but the hall is for ticketed performances, so check current opening hours and event listings before you go.
• The Space Needle, Pacific Science Center and Chihuly Garden and Glass are all within a short walk across the campus.

See it on a quest

Highlights of Seattle: The Time Travelling Agent is a good way to see the promenade. You reach it on foot as one stop of a longer route through the city's highlights, the app tells you about the place as you arrive, and you solve a puzzle right in front of what you are looking at. There is no guide and no group to join, so you can start whenever suits you, and one ticket covers the whole group.