You talk about perfection.
We go a little bit step past that.
They’re meticulous
and dedicated to their craft.
Restoring treasures
and preserving the past.
Largest, fastest,
most comfortable plane in history.
One legendary airliner
just ceased production for good.
But the history of Boeing’s 747
will live on.
It really showcases the city,
and that's
really exactly what we wanted
to do with this space.
We'll look inside this gleaming
structure of steel and glass
that's more than doubled
the city's convention space.
These stories
and more next on CityStream.
(CityStream theme music)
Hello, I'm Mona Lee Locke.
Welcome to CityStream
from the Seattle Convention Center
Rising 14 stories above downtown,
this is billed as North America's
First Vertical Convention Center.
It's striking
design of steel, glass
and wood is eye catching.
But the amenities inside are
what's most impressive.
Here are a few numbers that highlight this
new $2 billion facility.
It has more than
570,000 square feet of event space,
more than doubling the capacity
of the convention center
when you factor in the original building.
There's a 58,000 square foot ballroom,
62 meeting rooms,
and two gigantic exhibit halls.
One, you can drive a tractor
trailer down to.
We'll have much more on this new addition
to the convention center just ahead.
We begin with another storied
building in Seattle that honors aviation:
the Museum of Flight.
It holds one of the largest
aerospace collections in the country.
Many of the rare aircraft take months
and in some cases years to restore.
Producer Mark Feijo spoke
to some of the unsung heroes
who dedicate
a significant portion of their lives
to preserve living history.
You have to, first of all understand
that you know nothing.
You have to know how to do everything.
And you also have to learn
to embrace that
you can't do everything.
It really takes
a huge attention to detail.
You can't interpret it how you want.
It needs to be how it actually is.
I follow the Museum of
Flight and we have a job listing.
And I looked at that
and it was like
the universe talked to me for a second.
Every day I come to work, it still.
It blows me away.
What legends I work among.
You really can't necessarily
put a time frame on
some of the restoration.
Something simple
that may have taken a factory
a week to do now
may take a year or three years to do.
You talk about perfection.
We got a little bit step past that.
1966.
So I would watch planes
fly over all the time,
but they were off at a distance.
One day,
while I was out in the front yard, two
Grumman Bearcat came over
the top of our house 300 feet.
Just scared the bejesus out of me.
I ran in the house,
but I didn't get through the door before
I turned around to see where it went.
That's where it started.
It was just in my blood at that point,
and I couldn't shake it.
The other end of the building,
we have a de Havilland Comet.
It's been under restoration
going on almost 20 years now.
Inside is beautiful.
You want to talk about the passion
of our volunteers, their commitment.
This was by volunteers.
These guys were so dedicated to.
To basically get this
derelict machine back to
condition is just blows my mind
to see the job that they've done
is phenomenal.
That right there is proof positive.
All been redone.
This aircraft
looks like the day it did before
it's... almost his first flight.
We're really proud.
The volunteers
have really put in a lot of work
to get it back into this condition.
And I really miss those guys. A lot of them
are gone now, but
the legacy
they left behind
is what you're
what you're going
to chance to look at now.
And I wish you could see the pride
on their face once it got to this point.
And we're all able to kind of step back
and take a look at the work
that was accomplished.
You have to be excited
and you have to be willing to work
extremely hard, work
sometimes harder than you ever have.
You have to be able to go home
with a sore back
and sore feet or a headache or hands,
but know that what you're doing,
you're sacrificing for it,
but you're sacrificing for a future
that you're not going to get to see.
What I'm doing right now
its going to outlive all of us.
It's that dedication
that the future generations
can see
and learn and understand
the importance of our history
and what it actually was.
Not a fictitious illusion of it
or just a picture.
The actual history.
The amount of passion to be dedicated to
this career
is about the same passion as someone who
believes in superheroes.
It's like going to Disneyland
for your first time, but you do it
five days a week, 8 hours a day.
If you ever get used to it,
you should not be doing this career.
Aviation gives people hope,
and with hope you can have a dream.
And with a dream, you can do anything.
I think every kid can understand
the new bicycle in the window.
You basically daydream about that thing.
You may never get it,
but that doesn't stop the passion,
the pride that you get from seeing
the outcome of a successful build.
And then to watch it
go on all through the world is
breathtaking,
almost undescribable.
And just to be able to say
here to the next generation, next
to three
or four generations,
this is what it was like.
And I think we all share that same desire
to leave something behind
that other people
can try to identify.
That's what I want to do.
I want to do something for
future kids,
what aviation has done for me.
(music)
The Museum of Flight Restoration
Center in Everett is currently closed
to the public due to limited staffing,
but that could change in the future.
If you'd like more information,
go to
Museum of Flight
dot org and click on the Exhibits
and Events tab,
then look for aircraft restoration.
Next on CityStream,
a mini
tour of the stunning new convention space
that has the industry buzzing.
(Seattle Channel promo music)
CityStream returns
from the Seattle Convention Center
new edition,
which opened just a couple of months ago.
Joining me
now is the president
and CEO Jeff Blosser,
who is the man behind this vision.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you very much.
Jeff, can you please clear up
any confusion about this building?
Does this one replace
the existing convention center?
It doesn't.
It's an additional facility for us.
And the reason around
that is really because we didn't
have enough dates and space
in the Arch building.
So building the Summit facility
really gives us the opportunity
now to book things simultaneously
or book things
in a move in a move out scenario,
which really
then opens up our ability
to be able
to bring more people to Seattle.
Can you go over the names
of the buildings again?
They have different names, don't they?
We went from the Washington
State Convention Center
to the Seattle Convention Center,
and we wanted to make sure
that the campus had the ability
for people to understand
which building they needed to go to
because they're not connected.
So being able to do that,
we use the SkyBridge as the Arch,
if you will, for the current building,
and then the hill climb
as the Summit for the new building
and a really loud stand to be able
to make sure that people understand.
I got to go to the Summit
for this meeting.
I got to go to Arch for this convention.
So it really helped us do that.
Now that the convention center space
has nearly doubled in Seattle,
actually more than doubled,
what does it mean for our city?
It really means
a couple of different things.
One is, like I said, it
really helps us with the types of events
that we can do now
that we couldn't do before.
But if events do want to get bigger
or if they want to have additional space
or they may want to co-locate
with somebody else,
and then and groups will do that
so that they can broaden
their perspective and their attendees.
We now have the capabilities
with the two buildings to be able
to do those for them, either get bigger
or have multiple events.
As for the convention center,
tell us about the new vertical design.
Well, I think when you take a look
at an urban setting
and you want to make sure
that the convention center
is set in a way
that allows for people to enjoy the city,
enjoy all that the city has to offer,
whether that's restaurants
or retail or attractions
like Pike Place Market,
you really got to be downtown
and the only way to do that
anymore is really to build it
in the urban core.
And for us to be able
to get the space that we needed,
it really had to go vertical.
And LMN,
who's our architects,
did an excellent job of being able
to put this in the downtown
core in the heart of the city
and then go with the space vertically,
that gives us all the opportunities
in the space
that we need to be successful.
Is there a long waitlist?
We would be nice if we had that.
But we do have a lot of people
coming in now.
And once the building is open,
you know,
people want to make sure
that everything is ready to go for them.
So we're getting a lot of interest
both locally
and nationally now
for the availability
of the Summit building,
but also just to come to Seattle.
And that's
where we really wanted to offer
because we were saying no
a lot with the other building
because we just
don't have the space and dates.
Now we can say yes.
And when you can say yes
and then you get people
that come to town.
Which Is better for the city
and best for the economy. Right.
I know there are too many to list,
but tell me about
some of your favorite features
of this convention center.
Well, there's lots of them, actually.
I really like the entrance
to the building that you see here,
which really gives us the ability to have
the public to come in to our
where our retail core is going to be
and then the convention center itself.
And so we had those opportunities.
There's lots of issues in here
in this whole building
about everything that we've done
from a sustainability standpoint.
Some of the wood support
that you see came
from the old Honda building that we
that was built in 1930.
So we saved the structure there
and we put that in different
places of the building.
The hillclimb is going to be
a spectacular location
for people to plug in,
take a load off, network,
whatever they would like to do.
The ballroom,
which we'll see, is just spectacular.
And I think those are the kinds of things
that really make some sense
for us in terms of what people will see
in the building.
Glass everywhere,
every corner of this building,
you can see a different location
of downtown Seattle,
which makes it very,
very special and very, very different
than most convention centers.
So those kinds of things,
the atriums that are here
allow you to see all the way
up to the building
and down to the exhibit
hall, which is really something
that's very special
and not around
any other convention center.
So I think we offer those things
that nobody else has
and we can showcase those.
That's wonderful.
Jeff, thank you for agreeing to help us
lead a tour today.
So we're on our way.
Okay.
Sounds good. Let’s do it!
Okay.
Also ahead, after a century of service,
Boeing's famed 747 jumbo jet
will no longer be produced.
We'll look back as CityStream continues.
We've now moved upstairs
to the ballroom of the Seattle Convention
Center Summit addition.
As you see,
they're still putting on
some of the finishing touches.
But Jeff, I want to ask you,
this is a large room.
Tell me what it can be used for.
Well,
They can use a lot of
different things in here.
So it's very flexible.
And the reason it's so big is
so that we have that ability to be able
to put in a large plenary session
for like 4000 people
or sit down dinner for 3500.
Or you can break this
into three different rooms
so that you can use it
for all different things.
It could be a whole different set
in each of those three rooms.
So lots of lobby space
out there
to be able to function with that way.
And so we wanted to make sure that the
meeting planner
had the opportunity to do
whatever they needed
to do in this ballroom.
And speaking of ceilings,
I mean, this is a unique
one with the story behind it.
Yeah.
So 3900 plus planks in the ceiling.
And really they came from log booms,
as they're called, wormwood.
And it really sets the tone in this space
of being able to use wood, recycled wood,
and then also the lighting,
how the lighting system
bounces off of the wood in the building
with different colored
lights and capabilities.
It's spectacular
at night
especially, but
it's spectacular for any event.
And as people may not know
from behind the scenes,
this is a very eco friendly building.
It is LEED certified. It is.
And we have lots of different options
there. We have solar panels on the roof.
We are we buy local with all of our food.
We compost everything. We are
about 78%
diversion rate for our our trash as well.
So we really wanted to make sure
that we had the ability
to have an eco friendly building,
one that's going to have
a sustainable operation
and be very northwest.
And we
I think we've been able
to accomplish that. Thank you, Jeff.
We're moving on to one more spot,
but first will mark a milestone.
Last month, a Boeing
747 cargo jet similar
to this one made history.
It was the final Boeing 747
off the assembly line.
And even though production
of the jumbo jet
has ceased,
the legacy of this workhorse
will live on.
Jenny Cunningham looks back on its 50
plus years as the queen of the skies.
1969 Pan Am introduces
the incredible,
the largest, fastest,
most comfortable plane in history.
So you think you know the 747?
Perhaps you flew this
giant jet to Europe or Asia.
The coach lounge.
If you're going where it’s going,
why fly any other airline?
Maybe you had a martini
in the groovy bar in the iconic hump.
But even if you are the president
of the United States
and spend
nearly as many nights on this 747
as you do at home,
you don't know the queen of the skies
like these folks.
All right, y'all, a little more that way.
In 1969, they made this happen.
February 8th, 1969,
Jack Waddell,
chief test pilot, formally accepts
the airplane. At Paine Field,
at that time,
the place was covered with press.
Co-pilot Ryan White.
So I think the three of us,
we all had
one thought on our mind
was, don't do anything wrong.
Don't you like. That?
Did you ever think in 1969
you'd be talking about that first flight?
2019?
I didn't expect to be alive in 2019,
but here I am.
50 years after.
Test pilot Brian Wygle
was one of three crew members
who flew a 747 for the first time...
A celebration
at Seattle's Museum of Flight
starring that plane,
the City of Everett,
the first one ever built
and starring The Incredibles.
I'm sure trying to do things
that hadn't actually been done
before on an airplane,
the magnificence of which
we'd never seen before.
The Incredibles were a team of 50,000
engineers, mechanics
and pilots who built... a factory.
The world's largest takes form.
So they could create
the world's
biggest commercial airplane
inside that factory.
Machining and manufacturing.
First designed to roll out
29 short months.
Over the decades,
747 has gained
the reputation as an old reliable.
But the talk at this party
about the birth of the jumbo jet
was full of adventure and misadventure,
like this incident with a test
plane in Renton,
Long plane, short runway.
Nobody hurt.
And there are other stories
you may not have heard.
All of a sudden,
the blast from the engine
hit the front end of the station wagon,
lifted up about three feet.
And I thought we were going to tip over.
We lost all our gyro
operated functions in the cockpit.
So one by one, my instruments went dead.
I did some
terrible thing with the arithmetic
and basically the wheels locked up
on landing and popped all the tires.
And I knew I would be fired for that.
John Hope was just 26 years old
when he became chief engineer
of the flight simulator for the 747.
As the plane took shape,
he toggled between the real plane
and the simulator.
One day he got some figures wrong.
Remember, this is the analog age
and popped the tires on the real plane.
When he wasn't fired,
he used the incident
to improve this simulator.
By now,
I had personal experience
with the tires burst.
What does it feel like?
Everything The Incredibles
did was punctuated by urgency.
Boeing had borrowed
lots of money from lots of banks
to develop
two trailblazing planes, the 747
and the Boeing SST.
With a mighty roar.
Concorde
swooped low over the city,
heading from Le Bourge
and the Paris Air Show.
Concorde won the supersonic battle.
Boeing's SST project folded
and all hopes were on the 747.
T. Wilson came into the cockpit.
who was our president at the time,
looked at the three of us and said, gentlemen
I just want you to know
that the future of the company
is in your hands.
I was primarily responsible
for the design of this entire panel.
Pat DeRoberts was the engineer
on the 747's
first flight across an ocean.
His crew was ordered to fly to the Paris
Air Show,
even though the range of the plane
was untested.
And the engines?
Soon after liftoff, all four engines
went into overheat.
The crew decided to head toward Paris
to see if the engines would cool down
once they built up some speed.
So
it was interesting.
And it worked.
747 was a hit at the airshow,
but those Pratt and Whitney
engines continue to plague the program.
During the flight testing,
we changed 55 engines
within one year.
What does that mean?
Changed? Remove and replace
engine malfunctions.
The Incredibles didn't give up.
They got to the bottom
of the engine problem and invented a fix.
And that kicked off the wondrous days
of affordable,
spacious, delicious travel.
Japan
Airlines has captured
the spirit of the Japanese garden
aboard its new, spacious 747
garden jet.
Those two
with the caviar card, caviar and paté.
I remember one time having to do eggs
to order for 36 people in first class.
Everybody that works on
it is just falls in love with it.
So I would like to honor
everybody that's worked on it
and I would suggest a toast,
but I don't have any beer or wine.
As the 747 pioneers
wrap up this flight down memory lane.
There's a bittersweet realization
this may be one of the last gatherings
of The Incredibles.
In part,
I am here for the people
that can't be here.
All of my bosses that I worked for are
now deceased.
And so I'm kind of here for them.
But their legacy will endure
because of the plane
that carried space shuttles
and presidents.
And most importantly,
it flew millions of us to the world.
We made an airplane
that actually changed
world commerce history.
And that that was pretty emotional.
The next time you visit
the Museum of Flight,
spend some time with this first 747
and maybe, just maybe,
you'll hear
the voices of The Incredibles.
I guess it sounds complacent or something
that I think
is just ridiculously easy to fly.
It's just a pilot's dream.
I enjoyed the excitement,
which is a part of my heart to this very day
And an echo of that maiden flight
half a century ago.
Even though the Boeing 747
is no longer being made,
the wide body jets will continue to fly
all over the world for
many years to come.
Just ahead, see how beer
bikes
and baristas are bringing new life
to Pioneer Square.
We'll explain.
As CityStream continues...
A transformative
micro district in Pioneer
Square called the Rail
Spur, is working to reinvigorate
the neighborhood.
Three new retail concepts,
including a bike club
and artisan coffee shop and a craft beer
store, are the first to open.
And it's
hoped a collection of other businesses
will follow.
Producer Vincent Pierce takes a look.
It's a great way
to get around this town,
especially commuting to provide you
less stress.
Also at the end of your day.
It’s a stress reliever
because you get to get out and ride
your bike on your way home.
Less pollution.
I think one of the hardest things
as a bike commuter
or a cyclist in general is
when you get to wherever you're going,
you are oftentimes wet
and you are oftentimes muddy.
You are oftentimes sweaty.
We have a
membership program here
with locker rooms, showers.
You can ride your bike in, park your bike
in, safe bike storage downstairs,
take a shower,
get changed, head over to the office
and it'll be here waiting for you
nice and clean.
Cleaned up
when you're ready to head back home.
The hope for
this project is to create a place
that people feel comfortable.
Everyone feels comfortable.
That it's just an inclusive
space for community gathering.
All the history
here, the historic buildings,
the beautiful neighborhood
everyone's riding in,
either in the morning or in the evening.
You can kind of
watch a steady stream of cyclists go by.
It's kind of, I guess, the heart
of Seattle.
It's pretty historic neighborhood
and it's nice to see it kind of
reviving and coming back.
Our final stop on this
new addition
to the Seattle Convention Center
is the hill climb staircase.
And Jeff, what an amazing view.
Money shot right here, don't you think?
It really showcases
how this building interacts
with downtown.
It also this specific location
here allows for people to come out
from their meeting
space and network plug in
if they want to, enjoy the sun
like we have today.
But it really was to make sure
that people could get together
and have this opportunity
as well as the views.
I mean, you can see
all the way down to the bay,
you can see First Hill and
Capitol Hill here.
It really showcases the city
and that's really exactly what we wanted
to do with this space.
And that's part of the reason
for the name.
It is.
So you climb up to the summit
and you get the best view in town.
So we really wanted to showcase that
and then we call it that as well.
Yeah, that's a great idea.
So you've had a lot
of events here already
and you have a lot more coming through.
Can you tell us about them? Sure.
We had Comic-Con,
which is everybody's favorite way.
If you get a chance
to see people here in costume.
And the building really
did really well with them.
We have SHAPE coming up with
Physical Education Group.
We have a Microsoft event
called BUILD coming up as well.
We have six conventions in April and May.
We're really excited
about those opportunities
to have those events
here in the Summit building.
54,000 folks coming in to downtown
core is exactly what we're supposed to do
and to help the city.
Yeah. And exactly.
You're quoted as saying
this could be a catalyst
to help reinvigorate
the entire downtown core.
Why is that?
Well,
if we can put more people on the street
and we can get more people
to come to downtown,
they activate the shops,
they activate retail,
they activate the hotels.
And I think it really helps
with the whole safety issue as well.
So we want to do our part,
if we can, with the city to make sure
that we can bring people to downtown.
Jeff Blosser,
president and CEO
of the Seattle Convention Center,
I just want to thank you for helping
give this tour
and for being with us today.
You're welcome.
That wraps up this episode of CityStream
from the new addition
of the Seattle Convention Center.
If you'd like more information
on this impressive new facility
and upcoming events,
check out their website.
Seattle Convention Center dot com.
I'm Mona Lee Locke.
Thank you for watching.