the park

Washington Boulevard, Seattle, Wa

This park in one of Seattle's wealthiest areas, serves as a memorial to people all over the world.

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freeways

Intersection of I5 / I90, Seattle, Wa

American Cities are generally designed around the road as the main transportation infrastucture. While the City Government of Seattle acknowledges the need to build more "sustainable" roads, no definition of what that means is given. The problem, I think lies not in the road structure, but in the way the road and the car is viewed as necessities in the urban landscape. Seattle may want to portray an image of itself as an environmentally progressive city (the Climate Protection Initiative is the first of four "pillars of the City's environmental work"), but as long as the road rules, it will have a major impact on the city skyline.

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playground

First Hill, Seattle, Wa

From the strict confines of urban right-angular architecture emerges a strange freak. Medgar Evers Pool has walls slanting at angels possible to ride a bike on, and the roof is a concrete playground.

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u district murals

U-district, Seattle, Wa

The murals in Seattle's University district were painted over the course of four weeks, by 40 young artists. The organizer, Jill Rothberger, got permission from the City to paint the north part of the underpass. As more volunteers joined in the painting, more space was needed, and just to the south was another stretch of unadorned grey concrete. So they started painting there as well.

Near completion of the piece, two City departments put in objections: no permission had been issued for the south wall, and some paintings on the north wall looked “too much like graffiti”. When pressed that graffiti style is not a crime in itself, Dave Chew of Department of Transportation said he had no flexibility when it comes to graffiti.

In the english language, graffiti is the word used to describe all illegal use of paint and markers on property.

However, the City came to a decision that the wall should stay as it is. The appropriate permissions were granted, and two years later, the wall stands.

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