BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON.- Winston Darby Brown, the former head of Howard S. Wright Construction, the company that built the Space Needle, the monorail and several Seattle skyscrapers, has died at age 95. Brown started his career with Howard S. Wright Construction in the 1940s. He was president of the company when Seattle business leaders began planning the Century 21 Exposition, the Seattle World’s Fair that opened in 1962.
Brown and architect John Graham managed to design and complete the Space Needle -- including the revolving restaurant at the top -- in less than a year.
Meanwhile, Brown oversaw construction of the Seattle Center Coliseum -- now KeyArena -- and the monorail.
"The Seattle Center buildings were just the tip of the iceberg," said his son, Ned Brown of Milton in Pierce County. "He was the driving force behind many, many projects in Seattle, including the IBM Building, the Bank of California, Lloyd Building and Norton Building."
Brown also built pulp mills in Everett, Tacoma and the Alaska towns of Ketchikan and Sitka -- and while he knew those buildings weren’t pretty, he considered them impressive construction and engineering feats.