The Emerald City is going pink! In a surprise announcement this week, Seattle Center shared that the Space Needle’s color is about to change. For the rest of this month, the roof of the Space Needle will be a light pink shade.
Read on to find out why!
The Space Needle’s new pink roof is in honor of this month’s upcoming Seattle Cherry Blossom & Japanese Cultural Festival. The festival takes place on Seattle Center grounds, which is where the Space Needle stands. According to the event page on the Seattle Center website, this free festival “serves as a vehicle for sharing Japanese and Japanese American culture and heritage.”
To draw awareness to the festival, the Space Needle will be painted in a shade appropriately titled “Cherry Blossom Pink.”
The festival starts on Friday, April 11 and runs through Sunday, April 13. The roof painting is expected to start this week and wrap up just in time for the Space Needle to be pink by the start of the festival on April 11.
If you happen to pass by the Space Needle in the coming days be sure to look up and see the blossoming in progress!
This is not the first time the Space Needle has been painted a different color. When it first opened to the public in 1962 for the World’s Fair, the Space Needle was actually painted an assortment of shades: Galaxy Gold for the roof, Re-entry Red for the saucer or halo, Astronaut White for the legs, and Orbital Olive for the core. In the decades since, the Space Needle that most people know and love has been painted from tip to base in Astronaut White.
However, it has gotten a similar makeover on prior special occasions. The Space Needle was painted red, white, and blue for Memorial Day in 2003; it has been embellished with the colors and/or logos of local sports teams Seattle SuperSonics, Mariners, and UW Huskies; it was painted red when Washington state won the Apple Cup in 2005; and it was painted to look like a wheel in honor of Wheel of Fortune taping in Seattle in 1995.
Most recently, the Space Needle roof was painted Galaxy Gold for the third time. This was to celebrate its 60th anniversary in the spring of 2022 (the second time was for its 50th anniversary in 2012). Seattleites were divided on the color—some liked it the retro look, while others were happy to see the orange shade be repainted white a year later. According to the Seattle Times, that most recent paint job cost somewhere between $60,000 and $70,000.
A cost estimate for the pink makeover hasn’t been announced yet.
Oh, and one more thing about the Space Needle’s new pink look…
It’s April Fools’ Day!
We’d honestly be tickled pink to see the Space Needle try on another fun color, but alas: it’s not actually changing from Astronaut White anytime soon. Who knows? Maybe in a few years we’ll get to see the Needle turn green when we get the SuperSonics back.