FAA says proposed Seattle skyscraper would be so tall, it could interfere with planes

If everything had gone to plan, Seattle would've had the tallest building on the west coast, a 1,112 foot, 101-story skyscraper that would've towered over the country's current tallest building — the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles — by almost 100 feet. But that dream was too big for the Federal Aviation Administration, which has deemed the structure a hazard to aircraft, including both commercial flights and helicopters that service a nearby hospital.

According to KOMO News, the FAA has sent a "Notice of Presumed Hazard" to Crescent Heights Inspirational Living, the building's Miami-based developers. The notice reads:

"The structure as described exceeds obstruction standards and/or would have an adverse physical or electromagnetic interference effect upon navigable airspace or air navigation facilities."

The FAA is concerned that the building, known as 4/C for its location on the corner of Fourth Avenue and Columbia Street, would be too close to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and to the Boeing headquarters (which has its own airfield). In addition, the organization worries that the cranes needed to construct a skyscraper of that height could interfere with the flight paths of helicopters transporting patients to Harborview Medical Center.

In its warning, the FAA suggested that the building would be good to go — or good to fly around — if its height could be lowered to that of the 967-foot Columbia Center, currently the tallest building in the Northwest (the Puget Sound Business Journal says that the developer of that building wanted it to be taller, but he couldn't get approval from the FAA).

A spokesperson for Crescent Heights told the news station that the FAA's warning was just part of the process for skyscrapers like this one. "We anticipate that a determination of 'no hazard' will be reached," the developer said, although it did not elaborate on how the FAA might arrive at that conclusion, or whether it would be willing to shave a story or two off the top.

It looks like you're still ahead, Los Angeles. And you might be for a while.