Sound Transit’s poles in the maintencance facility have won an award for best public art. Which is awesome!
Safety Spires” by artists Norie Sato and Dan Corson was honored in the Year in Review that culminated the Annual Americans for the Arts conference in Las Vegas last week. The tapered tops and distinctive pattern of the overhead centenary system poles, which carry power to light rail vehicles, were inspired by the native horsetail reed plant also known as scouring rush.
“’Safety Spires’ acknowledges the industrial architecture, and makes the site memorable and engaging,” said UCLA contemporary art history professor Miwon Kwon who curated the judging with artist Larry Kirkland. “The reference to the horsetail plant is logical without trying to replicate nature.”
Too bad ST’s best art is not in a station but in the maintence facility that few people go to. And seriously too bad my photos aren’t don’t do due justice to the art.
More about the poles here.
That is awesome. Can they be looked at up close? I believe they are in the rail yard only right? I have only seen them in pictures. I’ve got to admit, that sometimes people get more out of art than I do, this would be one of those instances. I think they are cool, I just don’t see the horsetail?
Perhaps ST could invite the transit nerds on a Saturday to the rail yard and have a peek? Just an idea. They could also roll out one of the light rail vehicles so I can see inside. When they unvieled the R, it was on a workday and I couldn’t go. I was bummed. Again, just an idea.