MANILA, Philippines — “Mr. Grey is a bad boy,” Show Me Seattle tour guide James Grindle quipped while showing to Philstar.com, Philippine Airlines executives and other media Seattle's tallest building, Columbia Center, or better known as the building supposedly owned by Mr. Grey in “Fifty Shades of Grey.”
Apart from this, another “grey,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” was shot in the city; and so were other cult TV shows and movies like “Frasier,” “The Ring,” “10 Things I Hate About You,” “Disclosure,” “The Changeling,” and of course the eponymous, “Sleepless in Seattle.”
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Bits and pieces of the city shown in these films and series can be gleaned in one encompassing sweep at Space Needle, a designated Seattle landmark and icon.
Together with Pacific Science Center, which was designed by Seattle-based Japanese-American architect Minoru Yamasaki, also the architect of New York’s World Trade Center; Space Needle was constructed in 1962 for Seattle’s World Fair as the “Eiffel Tower of the Space Age,” said Genny Boots, Space Needle Corp. Public Relations Manager.
At 184 meters or 605 feet high, Space Needle was among the tallest structures west of Mississippi River and was designed by architect John Graham with the concept of a flying saucer, which contains the observation deck and restaurant.
“For the 1962 World Fair, the theme was all about the future and technology… you know, 1960s, ‘we're gonna put someone on the moon in kind of the time’ that they all took hold that year,” Boots told Philstar.com, Philippine Airlines executives and other press at a tour last week.
The restaurant in the Space Needle’s flying saucer, said Boots, was closed and replaced with a viewing deck called The Loop, the world’s first revolving glass floor, which makes one revolution every 30 minutes.
From The Loop, one can see some of the city’s most iconic buildings such as the aerial view of the metal building of Museum of Pop Culture designed by Canadian-American architect and designer Frank Gehry.
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“From Starbucks to ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ to movies and TV, shows and everything in between. (Space Needle) is synonymous with the city,” Boots enthused.
“Throughout the years or throughout the year, we do flag raisings, lightings. We have a huge New Year's Eve show every year where we like putting fireworks off the building and in the summers and the whole year, we welcome just over a million people up to the top,” she added.
“It's open pretty much every day since, but closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Eve.”
She told Philstar.com exclusively that the best time to go to The Loop and the viewing deck is at sunset, which many people find to be romantic, so these are also a popular spot for marriage proposals. From here, one can see Boeing airplanes flying on the sky. The city is also the aircraft giant’s home.
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From a distance, one can see the active stratovolcano Mount Rainier, also known as Tahoma, the site of alleged Bigfoot sightings. Space Needle is built to withstand up to 200 mph winds and up to 9.0 magnitude earthquakes.
From The Loop and the viewing deck, one can also see patches of green that made the city earn its moniker “Emerald City.” From afar, cruises docked by the ports can be seen, and one can hear the occasional signals for an incoming whale from the Pacific Ocean.
Because there are so much to do, see and hear in Space Needle, it is among the first things to visit in Seattle, said Boots.
“The very classic route is where after you went to the Pike Place Market, you take the monorail, you got off, so easy, and now you're here and we're gonna go up,” she said. “I like it as either your first thing to do or the last thing that you do on your trip because you can go see your city.” — Video by Deni Rose M. Afinidad-Bernardo; additional video editing by EC Toledo
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Editor's note: The tour to Seattle was hosted by Philippine Airlines to promote tourism in the area. At no stage does the host organization have a say on the stories generated from the coverage, interviews conducted, publication date and story treatment. Content is produced solely by Philstar.com following editorial guidelines.