Fire Station 39 (Thornton Creek)
2007 – 2010
approx dimensions: 25’x 10’x 8’
steel, water, grass
Seattle, Washington
Commissioning agency: City of Seattle
Architects: Miller Hull Partnership
Landscape: Outdoor Studio
Fabrication: Fabriweld
Structural Engineer: Seattle Structural
The actual Thornton Creek is an ancient and vital local creek and watershed that has been mostly paved over by late twentieth century unchecked urban development. The Community of Lake City is attempting to restore the creek to it's original ecological splendor and reclaim it as a community identity. In that spirit, the entire public building and landscape project is LEED certified.
The sculpture "Thornton Creek" is a monument to the community's effort to reclaim the creek. The piece 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.
"Thornton Creek" speaks to the urgency of a balanced urban ecology and an architecture of service.
