Pioneer Square's Smith Tower made waves as Seattle’s original skyscraper in 1914. Back then, it was one of America's tallest buildings. These days, there's a different buzz around Smith Tower.
The historic building is home to a thriving colony of bees, known as an apiary, on its rooftop.
The Observatory Bar (with some of Seattle's best panoramic views) has an enticing fall menu that showcases the sweet liquid gold honey in its dishes and cocktails. Guests can also book private events and cocktail classes that offer a great view of the rooftop apiary.
Shane James, Director of Food & Beverage for Columbia Hospitality, explains that the Smith Tower apiary began as a collaboration between the building’s property management company and the Observatory & Bar team.
"As a LEED-certified building, sustainability is a key consideration in our daily operations, and the introduction of the new apiary is a wonderful way to connect the community and Smith Tower’s tenants to that mission in a tangible way," James said.
The project is a delicious teaching tool for guests. James said, "Honey-inspired additions to the fall menu will help bring awareness to the essential role bees play in our ecosystem."
Consisting of three colonies, the apiary can be found on the rooftop of Smith Tower’s 22nd level. There’s a viewing area in the lookout lounge so building tenants and special event guests can get up-close peeks of these essential pollinators as they come and go.
Benjamin Berrick, urban beekeeper with Alveole Seattle, has worked with bees for years. He started as an outdoor and garden educator with a couple of hives and now bees, like the ones he tends at Smith Tower, are his bread and butter.
"Bees are this super engaging combination of mystery and known entity," Berrick said. "Working with them means getting to work with so many passionate, talented people with the full gamut of life experiences."
Berrick explains that the bulk of the daily care is done by the bees themselves, "We use a three-week checkup system because it allows us to keep track of changes in the hive from generation to generation. Worker bees are the lifeblood of the beehive and take about 21 days to fully develop from egg to adult bee. When we do come, what we do with the bees depends on the season."
As long as it's warm enough, the caretakers open the hive and peer through to look for signs of a healthy queen, well-ordered egg laying (they want tight clusters and no empty beeswax cells inside the cluster) and the total amount of resources. Then, they make any necessary changes, additions or subtractions to get the beehive on track for the season.
"In spring, for example, we look for any signs of disease and remove frames that we see any warning signs on," Berrick said. "Then we look for the queen to make sure she is healthy and strong, as well as removing any swarm cells, which are special queen-making chambers that the bees make when the hive is doing very well and wants to make another hive. Swarms aren't a bad thing, but they can be hard to catch and we like to minimize how many we have in urban areas." (That strategy keeps neighbors feeling more comfortable living close to bees.)
In wintertime, a checkup could be as simple as lifting up the hive to see if it feels heavy enough to indicate the amount of honey necessary for making it through the coldest times, "Seasonality plays the biggest role in what we do."
Through it all, the Smith Tower team hopes to educate both tenants and visitors to its historic site and future plans.
Learn more about Smith Tower here.
