Arts
Read More ›
Amazon, South Lake Union: Tech, Business and Art, Too
This article originally appeared in the January 2017 issue of Seattle magazine.
The transformation of Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood from a quiet area of light industry and wholesale florists to a neighborhood of high-rise office buildings housing Amazon’s global empire has not been all business. Set among its many walkways and plazas are 20 site-specific public artworks by some of Seattle’s leading artists, commissioned by developer Vulcan Real Estate. While some loom large, others announce themselves more discreetly to the blue-badge-wearing workers venturing out for lunch or another meeting. Although privately funded, the pieces are available for all to experience. These are a few of our favorites.
Image by Benjamin Benschneider
1. “There Is Another Sky,” 2014, by Spencer Finch 515 Westlake Ave. N (in the public plaza at Westlake Avenue and Ninth Avenue N) » This glass canopy, positioned above stairs and lush plantings, is printed with abstract patterns in yellow and green that filter light like the leaves of tall trees. Finch augments the understory with LED lights whose sequences mimic the flights of fireflies.
Image by Benjamin Benschneider
2. “Woodpile,” 2012, by Jenny Heishman 207 Boren Ave. N (at Boren Avenue N and Thomas St.) » A stack of logs and a blue tarp draped haphazardly over a plank, rendered in painted steel and bronze, appears at first glance to be a pile of forgotten construction debris. Its permanence reflects the continuous rebuilding of Seattle, from pioneer days to the present.
Image by Vulcan Real Estate
3. “The Laundry Strike,” 2014, by Whiting Tennis Stack House, 1280 Harrison St. » This painted bronze colossus suggests the wicker hampers that once held clothes cleaned by female laundry workers, and is near the site where 700 of them went on strike in 1917.
Image by Vulcan Real Estate
4. “Re-Stack,” 2015, by Annie Han and Daniel Mihalyo of Lead Pencil Studios 325 Ninth Ave. N (in the public plaza at Ninth Avenue N and Thomas Street) » This tall, stainless steel triumphant arch of horizontal and vertical panels resembles stacked shipping containers or cardboard boxes awaiting delivery. The sketch-like sculpture also suggests the half-built structures that appear throughout this and many other Seattle neighborhoods.
Image by Vulcan Real Estate
5. “Ping Pong Plaza,” 2004, by Buster Simpson ISB Building, 401 Terry Ave. N (in the public plaza off Harrison Street) » A metal ping pong table surrounded by bamboo and fitted with wide, diagonal legs that reveal the profiles of famed scientists. Players mix sport and creative endeavor by hitting the ball back and forth, just as the great minds of those scientists once bounced ideas between one another.
We also like:
Image by Vulcan Real Estate
“Cabin Corners,” by Jenny Heishman
Image by Vulcan Real Estate
“Nebulous,” 2015, by Dan Corson
Image by Vulcan Real Estate
“Placeholders,” by Claudia Fitch
Follow Us
Rearview Mirror: Spinasse at Home, a New Spa Experience, and Seattle Mag’s Reader’s Choice Awards
Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).
YOUR VOTE MATTERS Everyone has a favorite restaurant, coffee shop, or local boutique. Call me old-school, but I will die on the hill that Caffe Vita has the best coffee in town. Disagree with me? Now’s your moment to speak up. Each year, we survey Seattle magazine readers, asking them to weigh in on everything…
Studio Sessions: Ling Chun
The Seattle-based artist brings playful color to ceramics and neon while exploring memory, transformation, and life between cultures.
For Ling Chun, creating begins with something sensed before it can be named. Working with clay, glass, light, and sometimes synthetic hair, the Hong Kong-born artist gives physical form to things that words cannot always hold. “For me, the magnitude of making goes far beyond the object that is eventually produced,” Chun says. “The object…
The Magic of PAX Is Stronger Than Ever
PAX West draws more than 100,000 people to Seattle each year. Co-founder Jerry Holkins reflects on what the gaming convention set out to change, how its community has grown and why gathering face to face still matters.
Access to game news as it was happening was difficult back in the day. Even with the advent of the internet, communication between game publishers and journalists was still a very elite affair. I used to fake credentials—via fax machine!—to attend the Electronic Entertainment Expo, mostly just known as E3. It was simultaneously as loud…
Your Guide to Bumbershoot 2026
Navigate Seattle’s wildest end-of-summer weekend with 20 picks spanning Death Cab for Cutie, Blood Orange, wrestling, skateboarding and—obviously—movies made in 48 hours.
Four years after Bumbershoot returned with its quirkiness revivified, Seattleites broadly acknowledge the two-day multimedia extravaganza as a welcome finale to the summer festival season. Fests like Bumbershoot are designed around a choose-your-own-adventure model, but if you’re the kind of person who looked at this year’s sprawling lineup—featuring multiple bands, artists, and exhibits happening at…