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Art that Helps the Sound
By KCTS Puget Sound Matters
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Puget Sound Matters is a production of KCTS Television. Funding is provided by The Russell Family Foundation.
The Olympic Sculpture Park in downtown Seattle is much more than a world-class exhibition of art. The park is designed with a healthy Sound as its first priority. Wanna see what was there before the park? Check out our special featured video content from KCTS at:
Broadband link: http://kcts.vo.llnwd.net/o10/ram/psm/psm4_sculpture300.ram
Dial-up link: http://kcts.vo.llnwd.net/o10/ram/psm/psm4_sculpture56.ram
The Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park is a nine-acre waterfront park that gives visitors an opportunity to experience sculptures while taking in the views of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains. The site was the last piece of undeveloped waterfront property in downtown Seattle—the Seattle Art Museum and the Trust for Public land worked together to obtain the property with the support of the City of Seattle and King County. The park was an industrial fuel facility from the early 1900s until 1975 used for storing, transferring and shipping gasoline and diesel fuels. The cleanup of the site started in the 1990s and took 10 years. Today, the park is an environmental showcase with the runoff-reducing pervious surfaces, the landscaping and the sculpted pocket beach. The objective of the beach is to aid in the recovery of salmon inhabitation in Elliot Bay. The development of the beach involved excavating the existing shoreline and adding 50,000 tons of rock creating sloping shelves which will be replanted with native plants to mimic a saltwater marsh inter-tidal habitat. The hope is that this beach will inspire others to redevelop other waterfront properties in ways that might encourage a return to a more natural ecosystem in Elliot Bay.
Learn more:
The Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park
http://seattleartmuseum.org/visit/OSP/AboutOSP/default.asp
Seattle trying to woo salmon back downtown with park's seawall makeover—an article from the Seattle Times about the improvements along the Seattle downtown waterfront
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sculpturepark/2003528358_waterfront17m.html
An essay about the opening of the Olympic Sculpture Park from HistoryLink.org
http://historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=8130
Broadband link: http://kcts.vo.llnwd.net/o10/ram/psm/psm4_sculpture300.ram
Dial-up link: http://kcts.vo.llnwd.net/o10/ram/psm/psm4_sculpture56.ram
The Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park is a nine-acre waterfront park that gives visitors an opportunity to experience sculptures while taking in the views of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains. The site was the last piece of undeveloped waterfront property in downtown Seattle—the Seattle Art Museum and the Trust for Public land worked together to obtain the property with the support of the City of Seattle and King County. The park was an industrial fuel facility from the early 1900s until 1975 used for storing, transferring and shipping gasoline and diesel fuels. The cleanup of the site started in the 1990s and took 10 years. Today, the park is an environmental showcase with the runoff-reducing pervious surfaces, the landscaping and the sculpted pocket beach. The objective of the beach is to aid in the recovery of salmon inhabitation in Elliot Bay. The development of the beach involved excavating the existing shoreline and adding 50,000 tons of rock creating sloping shelves which will be replanted with native plants to mimic a saltwater marsh inter-tidal habitat. The hope is that this beach will inspire others to redevelop other waterfront properties in ways that might encourage a return to a more natural ecosystem in Elliot Bay.
Learn more:
The Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park
http://seattleartmuseum.org/visit/OSP/AboutOSP/default.asp
Seattle trying to woo salmon back downtown with park's seawall makeover—an article from the Seattle Times about the improvements along the Seattle downtown waterfront
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sculpturepark/2003528358_waterfront17m.html
An essay about the opening of the Olympic Sculpture Park from HistoryLink.org
http://historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=8130