The successful promotional campaign sparked a period of explosive economic and population growth that spurred development of the city's infrastructure, transforming it from a town into a metropolis.

Caught up in the boomtown spirit of the Gold Rush years, the bank's shareholders readily endorsed the project, which was intended to promote business ventures between Alaska and the Pacific Northwest and as a social club.

The Alaska Building heralded the development of other imposing structures on what soon became the city's major commercial strip, popularly known as the Second Avenue canyon.

In their book Hard Drive to the Klondike, Lisa Mighetto and Marcia Babcock Montgomery state: "This fourteen-story structure symbolized the significance of the gold rush in Seattle.

The porthole windows along the top floor looked out over the waterfront, providing a view of the shipbuilding, shipping and rail industries that the gold rush encouraged.