THORTON CREEK
DATE: 2010
LOCATION: Seattle, Washington
CLIENT: City of Seattle
MEDIUM: steel, water, grass
SIZE: 28 ft x 10 ft x 8 ft
THORNTON CREEK speaks to the urgency of a balanced urban ecology and an architecture of service. The sculpture — located at FIRE STATION 39 in NorthEast Seattle — is a monument to the community’s effort to reclaim the creek, which was once a part of a riparian wetland ecosystem.
THORNTON CREEK lifts swaths of native creek grass above the asphalt and to the daylight. Steel pipe is “peeled” open to catch the rain and carry it to an underground cistern.