September 25, 2021 - Echo Echo Echo

 

Jaume Plensa's "Echo" at the Olympic Sculpture Park.  The 46 foot tall statue represents a Mountain Nymph that had offended the goddess Hera. To punish the nymph, Hera took away her ability to speak, except to repeat the last word of others.  The statute looks across Elliott Bay and Puget Sound in the direction of Mount Olympus.

The Olympic Sculpture Park opened in January of 2007.  Unocal had operated a fuel facility here from 1910 to 1975.  The contaminated soil was removed and before the 9 acre sculpture park was opened  200,000 cubic feet of soil and 80,000 plants were put in place.

Alexander Calder's "The Eagle".

Mark di Suvero's "Schubert Sonata".

September 25, 2021 - Myrtle Edwards Park

 North of Broad Street, where much of Seattle's 'working' waterfront ends, are a series of connected small, narrow public areas that run along the shores of Elliott Bay.  From south to north they are the Olympic Sculpture Park, an extension of the Seattle Art Museum, Myrtle Edwards Park and Centennial Park.  These green spaces are sandwiched between the BNSF railroad tracks and Elliott Bay.  

The parks sit on what was an industrial area that included oil and petroleum operations. Material from the excavation of some portions of Interstate 5 had even been dumped here.  The land was purchased in 1972 and work began in 1975 to transform it from a rubble strewn toxic brownfield to the gem of a green space that it now is.

In 1976 "Adjacent, Against, Upon" was installed.  The art installation partly in view here, is made of three concrete plinths and three huge granite boulders quarried in the Cascades.  One is 28 tons and the other two weigh 45 tons.  

The shoreline was restored to provide public access to the water as well and to improve the marine habitat with pocket beaches and kelp beds.  Walking and biking trails run through the parks and connect with the rest of the Seattle waterfront. 

Across the railroad tracks, is the landmark globe and eagle Seattle Post Intelligencer.  The Seattle PI newspaper is longer in paper form, but the globe remains.

August 14, 2021 - Obey Fire Sale

 

The wildfire smoke in the Puget Sound area gave a slightly orange tinge to photos on this day.  It was a somewhat befitting atmosphere for Shepard Fairey's five-story mural on the side of the State Hotel near Seattle's Pike Place Market. 

The mural by Fairey, most famous for the "Hope" poster of President Barack Obama, comments on the challenges one faces in pushing for environmental and climate responsibility.  "Each individual that cares about the planet has the daunting task of being up against very powerful corporations..." 

August 8, 2021 - Then and Now - Alaska Way

 

The transformation of the Seattle waterfront has been pretty dramatic.  The removal of the double decker Alaskan Way Viaduct and replacement with an underground tunnel has removed the arterial gash that separated downtown from the waterfront.  Development is proceeding and the transformation will only continue.

December 2017 (above) and April 2019 (below)

In April 2019 the viaduct was in the process of being torn down and the $3.3 billion, 2 mile tunnel underneath downtown, the longest road tunnel in the contiguous United States, had opened. 

Today (below) Alaska Way is more open and the development where the viaduct used to be is progressing.  

Below is a July 2016 southbound view from one of the 90,000 vehicles, that utilized the viaduct until its closure in January of 2019.  The view was often scenic, but it was hard not to think about when the next seismic event would suddenly bring it down. 

June 13, 2021 - Puddle Jumpers

A damp day was an appropriate time to view the six joyous youths captured in Glenna Goodacre's "Puddle Jumpers" sculpture located at Kirkland's Marina Park. 

As with many sculptures there is a story.  One part of the story is that the sculpture is even here for visitors to enjoy.  The sculpture was initially installed in 1990 and is considered an icon in Kirkland.  However, it wasn't actually commissioned or acquired by the city.  It was loaned to the city by a resident art collector.  A number of the recognizable sculptures in Kirkland - "The Water Bearers", "Cow and Coyote" and "Mountain Comrades" - were also loaned to the city by this same collector, Bill Ballantine.    

The sculpture, Glenna Goodacre passed away in April of 2020.  Some of her famous work includes the image of Sacagawea on the dollar coin, the Vietnam Women's Memorial (Washington, DC), The Irish Memorial (Philadelphia, PA) and Raising the Flag (Detroit, MI).  (Another of her 'works' is her daughter, former model Jill Goodacre, Harry Connick, Jr's spouse!)

In 2001 the sculpture, valued at several hundred thousand dollars, was scheduled to be sold and shipped to Santa Fe to go on sale at a gallery there.  Joan McBride, Kirkland City Council, found out about the transfer two days before it was to be shipped.  She succeeded in spearheading a drive that quickly raised enough money to keep the sculpture in Kirkland.  Her quick action has ensured that visitors to Marina Park will continue to enjoy the sculpture for years to come.

  

April 27, 2021 - Attempted Sunrise Pink Moonset

Alas! Just before setting, the Pink Moon disappeared behind some clouds.  They parted to reveal the pink Olympics, but the super moon was gone.

April 26, 2021 - Pink Moonrise Sunset

The rise of tonight's Pink Moon was quite lovely.    There are three other super moons in 2021 - March's Super Worm Moon, May's Super Flower Moon and June's Super Strawberry moon.  

However, before the moon had her moment, the sun bowed out to the west with a show of her own.

We were lucky enough to catch the first part of the moonrise as it rose between the arms of Everett DuPen's "Vision", a cast bronze sculpture of a diver at the Edmonds Public Library.

April 18, 2021 - A Chamber of Commerce Day

 

The small harbor town of Gig Harbor, population 7,000, makes for a pleasant scene on this sunny day. 

Located on Puget Sound west of Tacoma, it was incorporated in 1946.  Prior to the completion of a bridge across Puget Sound at the Tacoma Narrows, Gig Harbor was accessed from Tacoma by ferry.  The first Tacoma Narrows Bridge, "Galloping Gertie", collapsed in November 1940 after four months of operations.  A replacement bridge wasn't built until 1950.  In 2007 a second bridge was added which allows for well over 120,000 vehicles a day to cross Puget Sound here.

April 17. 2021 - Incongruous Anna

This Anna's Hummingbird has found a unique perch on this sunny spring day!

April 17, 2021 - Stacked Containers

 

In random fenced lots south of downtown Seattle shipping containers are stacked eight high.  How long have they been there?  How long will they be there?  Where are the cranes that stacked them?  Why is there a tractor trailer on the top of one stack?

Shipping containers were invented in the 1950s in the US to more efficiently load, unload and transport cargo.  However, in the 1970s most cargo in the world was still shipped without containers. 

Shipping containers come in standardized sizes - TEU (twenty-foot equivalent) and FEU (forty-foot equivalent).  They are designed to stack on top of one another and are locked into place on each of the four corners.  (The first locking mechanism, still used today was developed in Spokane, Washington.) 

While most container ships carry between a few hundred to a thousand TEUs, the largest container ship in the world can carry 12,413 TEUs - an incredible 29 million cubic feet of cargo space!

There are over 55,000 cargo ships in the world today and some twenty million shipping containers.  If they were laid end to end they would stretch halfway around the world.  

The larger FEU (forty-foot equivalent) containers have grown in popularity and there was a glut of the TEUs around the world as recently as 2020.  That changed with the pandemic as the American consumer continued to buy goods.  As the need for imports grew, so did the need for shipping containers.  The demand in Asia for empty shipping container grew so much that in March of 2020 some companies were focusing resources in getting empty shipping containers back to Asia as quickly as possible.  Today nearly 75% of the shipping containers from west coast ports headed to Asia are empty.

Apparently these shipping containers didn't get the word that they are needed.

April 14, 2021 - Twilight to Downtown Dusk

Milder temperatures make for a pleasant way to pause and watch a cloudless day transform into a gorgeous evening, as the soft pink glow fades and is replaced by the lights of downtown. 

April 10, 2021 - Bloedel Reserve

 

The 150 acre Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island is considered one of the top botanical gardens in the country.  Two miles of well maintained trails take visitors through 23 distinct landscapes including a meadow, woodlands, marshland, glen, moss garden, Japanese garden and a reflecting pool.  

The residence, an18th century French inspired design, was built in 1929 as a summer home for a prominent Seattle family.  It was purchased by Prentice and Virginia Bloedel in 1951.  Born in Bellingham in 1900, Mr. Bloedel attended Yale and went into teaching, but gave it up to join the family timber business.  

He was a pioneer in the industry for his recycling innovations including reforestation.  In 1938, his firm became the first lumber company to plant seedlings.  By 1948 they were responsible for 70% of all reforestation efforts in the private sector in British Columbia.  

The reserve has been shaped by a number of noted landscape architects and designers, including Thomas Church, a pioneer in Modernism in landscape design, Richard Haag, who later started the Landscape Architecture Department at the University of Washington and Fujitaro Kubota, who developed Seattle's Kubota Garden.

The property was donated to the University of Washington in 1970.  A foundation was later created to purchase and maintain the reserve.  Prentice passed away in June of 1996 at the age of 95.  His wife, Virginia, passed away in 1989.

The Bloedel Reserve is far from their only legacy to the Seattle area.  The Japanese Gardens at the Washington Park Arboretum was made possible by their giving.  Their daughter, Virginia, and her husband were top art collectors for decades and have been instrumental in the growth of the Seattle Art Museum.