5 Best Sights in University District, Seattle

Founded in 1885, the Burke is Washington’s oldest museum—and also one of its newest, after moving to a new, 113,000-square-foot facility in 2019. It’s an impressive space with an ambitious goal: to exhibit highlights from a collection of more than 18 million objects, encompassing natural history, archaeology, and native Northwest art and culture. You’ll see totem poles, hand-carved canoes, mastodon bones, a whale skeleton, bats, bugs, and lots of fossils. It’s all beautifully displayed, but what’s most striking about the design is the way it “turns the museum inside-out.” Glass walls let visitors look behind the scenes at 12 labs where researchers and conservators go about their work of studying and preserving artifacts. The Burke is also good about activities for kids, with daylong classes on dinosaurs and fossils (handy for parents who want some time to themselves). The museum is affiliated with UW and located on the northwest corner of campus.

This gallery presents thought-provoking shows by contemporary artists that often often bend or defy tradition. The star attraction of the permanent collection is Light Reign by James Turrell, an elliptical chamber sitting separate from the main building that allows visitors to contemplate the sky through a large hole in its ceiling. It's a quiet, meditative experience in the midst of the university hubbub. The Henry's location—steps away from the Burke Museum and Red Square—and its free admission make it an easy stop while exploring the UW campus. The café, open even when the gallery is closed on Tuesday and Wednesday, is a peaceful spot for a coffee and a bite to eat.

Nestled between the University of Washington campus to the west and the Laurelhurst neighborhood to the east is the Center for Urban Horticulture, consisting of the 74-acre Union Bay Natural Area and 16 acres of landscaped gardens. The UW Botanic Gardens department uses the center as an open-air laboratory. Their main interest is studying land reclamation: until 1966, the Natural Area was a city dump, and recovery is still an ongoing process. Both animals and humans seem happy with the results. It's popular with bird watchers, who have spotted more than 200 species here; the swampier areas yield frequent beaver sightings; and joggers and walkers enjoy the flat gravel trails, which lead past interesting plant life and include scenic views of Union Bay. To get here, head east from the U-District on 45th St. and turn right onto Mary Gates Drive.

The UW campus is worth a stroll just to admire the handsome architecture and landscape design. The main plaza, cheekily known as Red Square due to its brick pavement, is a good hub for taking in some highlights. In the northwest corner, the building to the left of the three slender towers is Odegaard Library, home to the visitors center, where you can pick up a campus map. On the square’s east side is its most striking building, Suzzallo Library, an example of “collegiate Gothic” design that would fit in at Oxford or Cambridge (or Hogwarts). It’s open to the public and worth going inside to check out the ornate, church-like Reading Room, with its vaulted ceiling and stained glass.

To the right of Suzzallo as you face it from the square is Rainier Vista, a downward-sloping, third-of-a-mile walkway that perfectly frames Mt. Rainier on the horizon. It’s Seattle’s best-composed view of the mountain.

Left of Suzzallo, a sidewalk leads to the Quad, four academic buildings surrounding a large lawn with 29 cherry trees. When the trees blossom in April, people from far and wide throng here to revel in the beautiful scene.

This 350-acre park three miles northeast of the University District is mainly used by locals, who come here to jog on the trails, launch boats onto Lake Washington, and let their dogs run free in Seattle’s largest off-leash area. Several unique characteristics can make it worth a visit. From the 1920s through the ‘70s, the park was a naval air base; if you’re interested in aeronautics history or architecture, check out the historic district, where the base’s art deco and Colonial Revival buildings from the ‘30s and ‘40s remain (now repurposed in various ways, including a roller derby arena). If you’re a dog lover, you can find joy watching happy pups swim at the off-leash dog beach. And grunge rock fans like to make a pilgrimage to the park’s northern corner, where, when the breeze is blowing in the right direction, you can hear the Sound Garden that inspired the iconic Seattle band’s name. (The instillation is part of a neighboring NOAA facility that’s not open to the public.)