Canal Substation, Seattle, WA 1986

Art and artful earthforms and landscape enhance two block electrical substation in Ballard-Fremont area of Seattle. ‘Sources of Power’ artwork by Barbara Noah uses human silhouettes in substation building windows to represent types of power – love, money, justice, science or the mind, and physical force (rock, paper, scissors).

Sitework by GAYNOR plays off the art with striped paving evoking former rail lines, edible ‘hedgerows’, checkerboard of colorful ‘walkable’ herb groundcovers, delicate-to-dense ‘living’ fence, salvaged substation lightning arrester stands repurposed as benches, observation hill and interpretive signage. The project is completed in 1986, with approximately $220,000 spent for landscape and site improvements.