If not for the Great Recession and Sean Beatty, construction of the curvaceous reinforced concrete sea-creature tanks in the 50,000-sq-ft Seattle Aquarium Ocean Pavilion would have been even more arduous.

Failure of the 52-ft-tall Radisson Blu hotel lobby tank released 26,000 gallons of seawater, which killed most of its 1,500 tropical fish, but with just minor injuries to two people.