The Art of Public Expression

The transformation of Seattles South Lake Union from a quiet area of light industry and wholesale florists to a neighborhood of high-rise office buildings housing Amazons global empire has not been all business. Set among its many walkways and plazas are 20 site-specific public artworks by some of Seattles 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. For a guide to all 20, visit vulcanrealestate.com/assets/pdf/SLUArtpanel.pdf. Here are five favorites.

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.

A stack of logs and a blue tarp draped haphazardly over a plank, rendered in painted steel and bronze, appear 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.

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.

Stack House apartments, 1280 Harrison St.

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.

A metal ping-pong table, surrounded by bamboo plantings, sits on wide, diagonal legs, each leg revealing face-to-face profiles of famous scientists, such as Albert Einstein and Max Planck. Players mix sport and creative endeavor by hitting the ball back and forth, just as the great scientists might have bounced provocative ideas off each other.