Construction of a new pavilion at the Seattle Aquarium, designed by LMN Architects, looks set to go ahead after the city council approved a US$34m (€30.7m, £25.8m) contribution towards funding.

Designs for the US$113m (€102m, £85.8m) 50,000sq ft (15,240sq m) Ocean Pavilion project were unveiled in 2017.

It will see a 325,000-gallon (1.5-million-litre) martini glass-shaped tank built to house sharks, stingrays, and schooling and reef fish from the South Pacific's Coral Triangle area.

A key aspect of the redevelopment will be "Overlook Walk" – a park-like ramp that will connect the hillside Pike Place Market to the waterfront below, via Ocean Pavilion's rooftop.

Pedestrians walking along the promenade would be able to look up through a circle of glass into the new aquarium tank, while a similar glass portal on top would let in sunlight and give people on the roof of the pavilion a view into the tank.

"The new waterfront is as significant as Central Park is in Manhattan," said Mark Reddington, partner at LMN Architects. "It will be one of the biggest transformations in Seattle's history."

The project will be part of a wider redevelopment of the Seattle waterfront that aims to triple the number of visitors to Seattle's downtown piers and increase attendance at the aquarium.

Currently, around 850,000 people visit the aquarium every year, and it's hoped that the new pavilion would allow it to serve at least 1.2 million visitors annually.

Work is expected to begin in 2021 and take two years to complete.

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