See You At The Top!

Speaker 1: [0:09] Hello, and welcome to Awesome in Seattle podcast. Woo. Yeah.

Speaker 2: [0:14] Meow. There it is. There

Speaker 1: [0:16] it is. Uh, my name is Christian Ossum, and, uh, I am here with the one and only Charlotte Reynolds.

Speaker 2: [0:22] Hello.

Speaker 1: [0:22] And Jason Saldarriaga.

Speaker 3: [0:24] Hey, hey, hey.

Speaker 1: [0:25] I even said your name correctly- Yeah,

Speaker 3: [0:26] you did … Speaker: I hope. I've only been saying it for, like, two years at this point. It's true.

Speaker 1: [0:30] Uh, anyways, we are here to talk about Seattle and how awesome it is, and Jason wants to tell you a little bit about something that's kind of iconic in Seattle, and that is…

Speaker 3: [0:42] The Space Needle.

Speaker 1: [0:43] Dun, dun, dun. Yeah, it's only a little bit iconic. Only a little iconic. Okay. Slightly.

Speaker 3: [0:47] So I pulled some interesting kind of history notes. I don't wanna just go through this, but just some things that really stuck out at me. The first thing being, did you know that the person who designed the Space Needle, his name was John Graham Jr., he a- actually was chosen because of his success, um, designing Northgate Mall a few years before?

Speaker 1: [1:08] Huh. Which was the first mall, like real mall, this side of the Mississippi.

Speaker 3: [1:16] Yep, it was. And clearly the architects, uh, the, the style was very similar. He got, he pulled a lot of inspiration from the- From

Speaker 1: [1:24] the mall. Yeah, not so much. But apparently it was cool back then.

Speaker 3: [1:30] Yep. So when the Space Needle was built, um, it… W- which by the way, was built for the 1962 World's Fair. Mm-hmm. I'm sure m- most people know that. The theme was, um, the age of space, and so obviously it needed to be futuristic and all that. When it was built though, it was the tallest structure west of the Mississippi-

Speaker 1: [1:49] Whoa … Speaker 3: surpassing Smith Tower. Yeah. Yeah, Smith Tower-

Speaker 3: [1:53] Very surprising … Speaker: Smith Tower was the tallest building this side of the Mississippi for a long time. Yep, until the Space Needle.

Speaker 1: [1:59] Yeah.

Speaker 3: [2:00] And then I forget, uh, I don't know how long the Space Needle lasted as the tallest building. I don't know either. It definitely is not the tallest anymore. No. It's actually fascinating. If you look at pictures of Seattle skylines, the Space Needle was so tall. Now it's very much dwarfed. Yeah. But you don't really notice because it's so far removed- Because it's so far … from-

Speaker 1: [2:16] Yep … Speaker 3: the, uh, high-rises. It was renovated a couple times over the years, but then a huge renovation started in 2018. Mm-hmm. Um, or was finished in 2018. There's still a few sections that aren't done. Um, they have the world's first and only revolving glass floor, which they call the Loop. Yeah. It's 500 feet above the ground. That's

Speaker 2: [2:36] crazy. Have you guys been up there yet?

Speaker 3: [2:38] Yeah. Yeah. It's really nice.

Speaker 1: [2:39] I haven't been up there since they finished.

Speaker 2: [2:40] Neither have I.

Speaker 3: [2:41] So they used to have a restaurant up on the bottom floor. I- if people don't know, up in the Space Needle there's two floors.

Speaker 1: [2:47] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3: [2:48] And the bottom floor rotates, and it was a restaurant.

Speaker 1: [2:51] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3: [2:51] And when they renovated, they removed the restaurant, um, quote, unquote, "temporarily", and, uh, renovated the whole thing. And so now you can go up on the top, the observation deck, which, which is stationary. Which

Speaker 1: [3:02] doesn't move,

Speaker 3: [3:02] yeah. I mean, that's where they have benches that kind of lean back, and they're glass benches and they lean out the side- Whoa over the side. Um, it's cool. It's v- it's a fun Seattle thing to do.

Speaker 1: [3:13] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3: [3:13] But then the bottom floor where the restaurant was is just an open space now, so it's great for kids. I went with one of my cousin's, um, children- She's like six years old, and she lo- she just sat for like 30 minutes, um, on the, on the glass floor just looking down 500 feet. It was really cool. She really enjoyed it. Hmm. Yeah.

Speaker 2: [3:33] That is terrifying.

Speaker 3: [3:36] What's scary is when somebody comes by and, like a little kid, and is being really, uh- Aggressive … dramatic. And, yeah, and you're like, "Just, you're gonna break this glass." I- what they should do is they should do like a s- for Halloween, make it look like it cracks.

Speaker 1: [3:49] No. Right. Yeah, like that one bridge. Did you see that in somewhere

Speaker 2: [3:52] in

Speaker 1: [3:52] Asia?

Speaker 2: [3:52] Yeah, is it like China or something?

Speaker 1: [3:53] Yeah.

Speaker 2: [3:54] Yeah. Yes. I've seen that.

Speaker 1: [3:55] Oh, oh, I know- It's so scary, and the floor like pretends to crack, but it's just a video screen. That is

Speaker 2: [4:00] scary. You see like videos of

Speaker 1: [4:02] people on that bridge. People just freaking out. Like, they lay down and they're like- Yeah … crawling.

Speaker 2: [4:06] Yeah. Yeah. I mean, not that that would help if it really broke, but you know.

Speaker 1: [4:09] No, no.

Speaker 2: [4:10] Whatever you can do to comfort yourself, right?

Speaker 3: [4:11] Exactly. So, uh, a few just random facts. When it was built, it was built really quickly in less than a year, which is crazy.

Speaker 1: [4:20] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3: [4:21] The engineering behind the Space Needle, it's actually v- w- viewed as a very safe place in a, in a earthquake. Apparently, I don't know if this is true, but apparently the core, if you remove like the legs that come out-

Speaker 1: [4:32] Yeah … Speaker 3: from the sides, those aren't required. It would stand up if it was just- What? the core. That's my understanding. Don't hold me to that one. Somebody test it. Let's just cut the legs out- Yeah … from under it and see.

Speaker 3: [4:46] Um, I love this fact. The motor that rotated it- Mm … or rotates it originally was 1.1 horsepower. That .1 was- Woohoo … so required. It was upgraded to a 1.5 horsepower motor. Oh my gosh. I think now it's like six or something, but anyways. Jeez. But that was interesting.

Speaker 1: [5:00] Well, they, I mean, I don't know how many- How many pounds of… I think I saw this fact. I think it was, like, 37,000 pounds of glass was added during the renovation.

Speaker 3: [5:13] Hmm, that might change its earthquake resistance.

Speaker 1: [5:15] Yeah.

Speaker 2: [5:17] Maybe just

Speaker 1: [5:18] a little. Just a little. Just slightly. Yeah. I remember, uh, in the, I think it was the '90s, early '90s, uh, there was a show called Almost Live, which was kinda like a spinoff, Seattle's version of Saturday Night Live, and they did an April Fools' Day prank where they made it look like the Space Needle fell, and it was a breaking news report. And a lot of people thought it was real, and they got in big trouble for it. But yeah. But you look at the video now and you're like, "Pfft, that doesn't look real at all," but back then- Yeah, I think it's back

Speaker 2: [5:51] then-

Speaker 1: [5:52] Yeah … the

Speaker 2: [5:52] quality is

Speaker 1: [5:52] different. The quality is slightly, slight- slightly different.

Speaker 2: [5:55] Yeah.

Speaker 3: [5:55] Yeah.

Speaker 1: [5:56] Yeah. Anyways, the, the glass floor, it weighs 37 tons and has a total of 10 layers of structural glass, and the top layer has a scuff layer that's made to keep the glass clean from shoe marks, and they, um, they swap out that scuff layer regularly.

Speaker 3: [6:14] I will say they're always cleaning it. They kept coming up to me- Yeah with, like, a motorized thing, and I was like, "I'm not getting up. I have a six-year-old with me."

Speaker 1: [6:20] Yeah, they have a full-time glass keeping team, and there's- Wow … 20,000 square feet of glass that they have to clean throughout the day. What if that was your job? "My job is to clean the glass at the Space Needle all day, every day." There's-

Speaker 3: [6:33] It's like painting the Golden Gate Bridge.

Speaker 1: [6:35] Exactly.

Speaker 3: [6:35] Once I i- once I finish- Once you start … I start again.

Speaker 1: [6:38] Did you know, on a real estate note side, it's the only privately-owned p- parcel of land on the Seattle Center campus? Can you guess how big you think that piece of land is?

Speaker 3: [6:51] Um…

Speaker 1: [6:53] It's 120 feet by 120 feet. That's it. It's tiny.

Speaker 2: [6:57] Yeah.

Speaker 1: [6:58] That's all.

Speaker 2: [6:58] I was thinking that.

Speaker 3: [7:00] Yeah.

Speaker 2: [7:01] Yeah,

Speaker 1: [7:02] it's much larger than you realize. It was, like, just the- Yeah … Speaker 2: just the ground there. Yeah.

Speaker 3: [7:04] So, uh, it's located, like you said, in Seattle Center- Mm-hmm … which is the f- basically the fairground that was built in 1962 for the World's Fair. Yep. Um, and the other pretty famous building there, there's multiple, but probably the second most famous is KeyArena.

Speaker 1: [7:19] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3: [7:20] Now called, or currently called, what is it? The Seattle Center Arena, because they don't have naming rights yet.

Speaker 1: [7:26] Yeah. Maybe that- But they don't, it would cost too much to take the signage

Speaker 3: [7:29] off. They had the signage for KeyArena up for 10 years after they-

Speaker 1: [7:32] the key- After the lease expired. It was more expensive to take it off and put up something temporary than to just leave it, so they just left it.

Speaker 2: [7:39] I actually didn't even know that it wasn't called the KeyArena anymore.

Speaker 1: [7:42] Yeah.

Speaker 2: [7:43] Probably mostly- Wow because it still has the signage up there.

Speaker 1: [7:45] Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3: [7:46] That's, that's like the Sears Tower. It's called Willis Tower now. I, I mean-

Speaker 2: [7:49] See?

Speaker 1: [7:49] Well, I didn't know

Speaker 2: [7:49] that either. Didn't know that either. Well, and it's like when they changed the stadiums, like- Mm-hmm … it was called Qwest Field forever after- Right. Mm-hmm they changed it. Like, I still call it Safeco now even though it's T-Mobile Park. Yeah, yeah. So it just takes a while.

Speaker 3: [8:01] But anyways, they're renovating KeyArena. It's supposed to be open in 2021.

Speaker 1: [8:05] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3: [8:06] Um, it is really interesting what they're doing. Yeah. I don't know if you know this. So they are basically removing every aspect to the arena other than the roof.

Speaker 1: [8:15] Yep. They're

Speaker 3: [8:15] keeping- To the point- … the

Speaker 1: [8:16] roof structure.

Speaker 3: [8:17] Correct. Yeah. Literally, they are, uh, digging around 15 feet out in every direction and, like, 30 feet down or something.

Speaker 1: [8:24] Yep.

Speaker 3: [8:24] Expanding out the whole arena, and building… They're gonna temporarily hoist the roof up with, like, temp- temporary boom jacks or something. Mm-hmm. Then change the structure to hold it, and they're doing this in order to expand it dramatically. It's g- Yeah … it, the stadium almost is larger than the roof. Mm-hmm. It, it expands out underneath. It's-

Speaker 1: [8:44] Yeah … Speaker 3: really crazy. There's some videos- ' Speaker: Cause it was one of the smallest arenas when it was in the NBA, uh, but they couldn't do anything because the roof line was protected because the roof line was historic, so they couldn't touch it, and so that's why they're doing that. It's pretty interesting.

Speaker 3: [9:00] Yeah. There's

Speaker 1: [9:01] those

Speaker 3: [9:01] cool videos-

Speaker 1: [9:02] Yeah, those videos are awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Where they're tearing out all the seats and then-

Speaker 3: [9:05] Mm-hmm … Speaker: driving them out of there, and yeah, it's pretty cool. Did y'all know there's a public school at Seattle Center?

Speaker 1: [9:12] Yeah, in those buildings just to the north of it. There is, isn't there?

Speaker 3: [9:16] It's called The Center School, I think.

Speaker 1: [9:18] Hmm.

Speaker 3: [9:18] And they're going, uh, they have plans, Seattle Public Schools announced, I don't know if they're gonna do this, but they announced that they're planning on building a high school there. Most likely where Memorial Stadium is. So there's another stadium that's, uh, all outdoors. Hmm. Um, and it needs some love. Yeah. It's a little old. It's- So they're thinking they might remove that and build a school, which would be crazy. Mm-hmm. Going to school literally, like, 200 feet from the Space Needle.

Speaker 1: [9:45] Yeah. Right by the fountain, right by the KeyArena. "What are you doing tonight?" "Oh, I'm just going next door to the concert."

Speaker 3: [9:53] It's a very… I, I'm, I bet it's a very Seattle school. You're like- Oh, yeah … a block from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Like- "Well, what are you doing this summer?" "I'm interning at Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. We're curing the world of cancer." Which would be amazing as a high schooler.

Speaker 1: [10:06] That would be. Jealous. Speaking of curing cancer and the Space Needle, they do this climb called Base to Space, and it's basically you walk up the stairs to the Space Needle, to the very top of the Space Needle from the bottom, and you raise money as, as either an individual or as a team, and the money goes to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. And, uh, you have to walk up 832 steps to get from ground level to 520 feet up. That one's coming up, uh, for the fifth annual Base to Space, and that's on September 29th. I'm gonna do it. You guys wanna go in? Let's go.

Speaker 2: [10:45] Yeah. Awesome, awesome. I'll see you at the top. I'll see you at the top. Yes, after we walk to the top, Jason.

Speaker 3: [10:52] Yeah, exactly. I'll take the elevator, all 43 seconds.

Speaker 1: [10:56] All right, let's move on. Let's, uh, talk about the real estate market since, you know, we are real estate agents. That's what we do all day. Who has an update?

Speaker 2: [11:02] I know. Um, I have some interesting tidbits about rates-

Speaker 1: [11:07] Ooh,

Speaker 2: [11:07] interest rates … um, which is… Yes, interest rates, which is, you know, a pretty big thing when you buy a house.

Speaker 1: [11:12] Yes.

Speaker 2: [11:14] Um, so we're at almost a two-year low right now. Um, we're hovering somewhere in the 3's- Yeah … um, which is crazy low.

Speaker 1: [11:22] That's super crazy low. Yeah. Like, I remember when they were in the 3's, like you said, about two years ago, and that was just insane that they were ever that low. And then they raised slowly, and people were like, "Yeah, we'll never see 3's again, ever." Like, that's just stupid that they were that low, 'cause it's all artificial, 'cause the government's buying down the rates, blah, blah, blah, pumping more money into it. But yeah, the fact that we're in the 3's is crazy.

Speaker 2: [11:48] Yeah, 'cause it's the biggest thing that really impacts your monthly payment.

Speaker 1: [11:52] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: [11:52] Um, so compared to a few months ago, the difference in payment is about, well, almost $600 a month less on a $500,000 purchase.

Speaker 3: [12:00] Wow.

Speaker 2: [12:01] So.

Speaker 3: [12:02] Yeah, another way to look at that, if you're looking at a $500,000 home a few months ago, now you can afford a $550,000 home.

Speaker 1: [12:08] Exactly. Which- For the same exact payment … Speaker 3: so that's some nice upgrades. Yeah. Very nice upgrades. Or saving a lot more money and buying the same priced house.

Speaker 3: [12:17] For buyers, it's, uh, it's amazing. Yeah. We've, we have buyers who some of them are really quick acting. Others, you know, they wanna take their time. They've been looking for a few months and- They're like, "Oh my gosh, this is amazing." Like-

Speaker 1: [12:28] Mm-hmm … Speaker 3: I, I, uh, now am approved for $50,000 more, or whatever. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3: [12:34] So it opens- Mm … you know, some possibilities up.

Speaker 1: [12:36] Yeah, and that's crazy that it happens so quickly. And that's the thing with rates. They can, they can jump either down or up very quickly sometimes. Usually it's going up that they go quick, not down. But in this situation, it happened pretty quick going down.

Speaker 3: [12:50] Yeah, so you couple this to what we're just anecdotally experiencing and seeing in the market with our clients.

Speaker 1: [12:56] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3: [12:56] You know, it's pretty slow, which is kinda crazy.

Speaker 1: [13:00] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3: [13:00] You know, with interest rates where they're, they are, it's an amazing time, I think- Mm-hmm … for a buyer.

Speaker 1: [13:05] Yeah. No, it totally is.

Speaker 3: [13:06] You know? Because, uh, things are just sitting. Like, great properties are just sitting on the market.

Speaker 1: [13:10] Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's, things are sitting longer than anticipated sometimes. There's still… Like, I was showing Charlotte, I was like, "Hey, this place just came on in Northgate two days ago" and I went to show it to her, and it was already pending.

Speaker 3: [13:23] Yeah.

Speaker 1: [13:24] So- I

Speaker 2: [13:24] get, I get that one, though.

Speaker 1: [13:25] Yeah.

Speaker 2: [13:25] For what it was. For what it was. We're at that price point. Like, I wish I knew about that beforehand- Mm-hmm because…

Speaker 1: [13:30] So there's still deals to be had out there, though. Mm-hmm. And that's kinda what the point is. Um, if you overprice, you're gonna sit. If you're not, you know, uh, with a great floor plan, if you don't have a great floor plan, or you don't hit a big demographic that, uh, for, of potential buyers, it's probably gonna sit, 'cause it's pretty competitive right now.

Speaker 3: [13:50] If there's a million of those little things that you meant to do over the last 10 years owning the house-

Speaker 1: [13:55] Mm-hmm … Speaker 3: and you just said, "Eh, I'll never get to that," and then you list it and there's just all, tons of issues, yeah, it's probably gonna sit. Yeah. Unlike, you know, a year or two ago when you coulda just put it on the market and anyone would buy anything. You could have three walls and they woulda bought it. So, yeah. All right. Well, that's it for us, the Ausman Seattle Podcast. See, see

Speaker 3: [14:17] you on the Space Needle. Woo.

Speaker 1: [14:19] See you at the top, base to space. Boo-yah.