|
About SPU
>
Management
>
History & Overview
>
Public Arts Program
1999 Projects
Stream Echo/Fauntleroy Creek
Fauntleroy Way SW and SW Henderson Street, West Seattle
Artist: Tom Jay
1999
Seattle Public Utilities worked with residents of West Seattle to replace a damaged storm drain culvert that was blocking fish passage, returning salmon to a restored Fauntleroy Creek. The Stream Echo artwork is a large-scale relief, adjacent to a fish ladder, which weaves through a Fauntleroy Creek viewing plaza, echoing the passage of the creek below. Artist Tom Jay included a simulated stream, text describing the relationship between salmon and humans, and images of salmon. Jay also designed and sculpted the actual fish ladder built by SPU within the creek. The return of salmon to urban creeks is an indicator of stream and environmental health. Jay encouraged school children and community members to bring small stones and submit text for the viewing plaza highlighting the importance of stream stewardship. The result is a work of art that celebrates the biodiversity of urban streams and their roles as both habitat and a classroom for all.
Water Wheel/Water Quality Lab
800 S Stacy Street, SODO
Artist: Deborah Mersky
1999
In 1999, artist Deborah Mersky created this large artwork, consisting of glass panels cut to fit into a wall at the Seattle Public Utilities’ new Water Quality Laboratory. The panels have sandblasted images and cover the entire wall. The images include some of the very things that SPU uses to ensure clean water, including beakers and other testing equipment, as well as animals and plants that depend on clean water.
Morphauna/Woodland Park
Phinney Avenue N and N 59th Street, Phinney Ridge
Artist: Miles Pepper
1999
Morphauna is a fabricated metal “moving collage of animal forms,” activated by the wind and was commissioned in part with funds originally designated to aesthetically enhance SPU’s nearby water tank. Mounted on a pole, wings and fish tails rotate in the wind. The artist designed Morphauna in homage to the neighboring Woodland Park Zoo and to respond to the community’s request for an artwork that would appeal to and be enjoyed by a variety of viewers. The sculpture is located several blocks away from an SPU water tank, the original site for an artwork that was never realized, in Upper Woodland Park, which is a popular gathering spot for the Phinney Ridge neighborhood. Public and private money was used to renovate the park in 1997, and neighbors now enjoy an enhanced play area, paths, butterfly gardens, and the kinetic Sculpture. The park was given the “Best Project” award by Seattle’s Department of Neighborhoods the following year.
|
