I think you can safely add the Alaskan Way Viaduct to this list. The reasons, that are obvious to most people, will become immediately clear for everyone when it's gone.

The library is the one of the most over-rated, over-hyped, least functional buildings I have ever experienced. The New York cheerleaders set a glowing trend of approval upon its opening in 2003; the locals fell for it and now have learned to avoid the Taj Mahal of wasted space.

Knute, put the curmudgeon coat back on. More fun than warm and fuzzy.

Animalal goes a bit far - and insults locals who "fell for it" (guess we're a bunch of yokels). It's not the perfect building for reasons more elegantly posted by Knute, but I enjoy working and thinking in the grand spaces - off 5th and the Reading Room.

I've always liked the Smith Tower and both the Quad and Suzallo Library at UW, as well as Saint Mark's Cathedral.

Certainly the PI globe and Elephant Car Wash sign, but I'd add two more pieces of monumental neon, one gone and one extant. First, the "R" atop the Rainier Brewery, sadly gone (and the "Green T" is no substitute). It always told you you had arrived in Seattle for folks coming up from the south - even if it was backwards. And the huge animated Bardahl sign which tells you, similarly, you've arrived in Ballard.

Great list, though I'm still getting used to the Central Library. The Arboretum ramps to nowhere especially. Too bad they'll be removed as part of the reconstruction of 520.

I'd also add Pacific Medical Center.

One of the most disappointing attempts to replace an unforgettable Seattle icon is the pathetic neon "Wallingford" sign atop the QFC on North 45th. The sign's noble predecessor was the name of the supermarket beneath, the Food Giant. The exquisite secret beauty was the in the extreme, but somehow subtle spacing between the letters that stretched the two words far beyond signage or corporate identity--- F O O D G I A N T. Truly a giant of food and a cornucopia of urban well-being. The thoughtless compressed marker offered as a compromise by QFC and its corporate parent is merely embarrassing; a hokey chamber-of-commerce compromise solution that does no favor either to its eponymous neighborhood or the plucky, independent enterprise that preceded it.

Curiously, Crosscut's electronic copy editor also compressed the words FOOD GIANT. I'm not sure what this says about my observation, the nature of icons, current electronic technology, or semiotics. I'll give it another shot: F (SPACE) 0 (SPACE) O (SPACE) D (LONGER SPACE) G (SPACE) I (SPACE) A (SPACE) N (SPACE) T.

Good list, but add another vote contra library, not without virtues, but overall another glass box. Meh. Count me in with the Smith Tower instead. The sculpture garden doesn't have anything to compare with Moore's Vertebrae or Newman's Broken Obelisk, but there's time to remedy that. One more reason to dislike the New 520, as the Ramps to Nowhere join the Twin Teepees and possibly the Hat and Boots service station in oblivion. @dbreneman is right, even if the Rainier R yet lives in retirement at MOHI, but Ivar's neon 'sign' over the Acre's of Clams is gone and only remembered by a few of us codgers. Or maybe without the Kalakala around it lost it's magic.
And if Knute really was feeling his curmudgeon full on, he'd dis Waiting for the Interurban along with streetcars old and new. Maybe he's mellowing.

Somewhere there must be an 'Older Curmudgeon' who's grumbling - "The Old Curmudgeon'? Whaa?? He used to do good stuff... before he SOLD OUT!"

Personaly, I think that it will be a while before the Library or the Sculpture Garden actulaly prove their worth. But they're not lost causes.

My two cents on the icon thang:

1.) Best lost Icon from the nearly forgotten past: Calder's "Big Crinkly".

2.) Best (and most underappreciated) enduring Seattle sculpture Icon): "Changing Form" by Doris Chase (in Kerry Park).

But that's just me.

My 95-year-old aunt, who lived in Fremont from 1954 to 1980, still hankers for the burgers from Dick's Drive In on 45th. A century from now, it's possible that only the very wealthy will be able to afford to eat beef because population will outstrip food supply and raising animals to consume will be extremely costly. When that time comes, I hope Seattlelites can see Dick's neon sign and front counter in toto in a cavernous museum hall.

At risk of tarring and feathering (or maybe mossing?) I will agree with most of the list, walrus gargoyles especially, but not Rainier. It's a vast shapeless heap of rubble. Sure, it's big, but so what? Send it to Texas. Give me the symmetry of Glacier Peak, the classic flattop of Baker, the gracefulness of Hood and some of the other Oregon volcanoes, but spare me the overgrown, amorphous, bloated bulkiness of Rainier and its ugly little sister Adams.