Formidable Dome Room at Arctic Club

 

12/17/25 Arctic Club Hotel Dome Room (full panorama)

Decades ago, I attended a work-related event in the Arctic Club Hotel’s majestic Dome Room. Although I hadn’t been back there since, I clearly remembered how spectacular the space was. Of course, I wasn’t a sketcher back then, so I wouldn’t have considered how formidable the Dome is as a sketch subject. Now I know.

While a few stayed in the lobby, most USk Seattle sketchers bravely took on the Dome, which was worthy of our attention. Seeing it as a study of black and white contrasts kept me from thinking about perspective and other such fussing.

To complete the landscape panorama page spread, I went outside to sketch one of the many walrus gargoyles on the historic building, which was built in 1916. Originally called the Arctic Building, it’s a City of Seattle landmark on the National Register of Historic Places.

After the hard work inside the Dome, it was a welcome relief to join other sketchers at a drink & draw at the hotel’s Polar Bar, where the bear himself was a much easier subject. What a fun afternoon!

Polar Bar inside the Arctic Club Hotel (I thought the bar napkin would be a perfect piece of collage to add to my sketch journal page, but the glue I dotted onto the back stayed looking wet even after it had dried, which is not the look I wanted. Not sure what kind of glue would have dried more transparently on that thin, absorbent paper.)

The formidable Dome!