"Saltwater Streets" Medallions
"Water Protector Petrel Guarding the Spring"
"Raven Steals the Water Spilling It Across the Land"
Precast colored concrete and stainless steel artwork installed in sidewalk
32” diameter
NW 36th St near the corner of NW 36th St and Leary Way NW, Seattle, WA.
Preston Singletary and David Franklin
Collaboration with Vaughn Bell for Saltwater Streets
“The streets are our watershed.”- Seattle Public Utilities staff
Preston Singletary and David Franklin participated in Saltwater Streets with ship canal water quality project lead Artist Vaughn Bell.
Sidewalk inlays align with a massive storage tunnel diverting combined sewer overflows from the Ship Canal. The project encompasses multiple neighborhoods and several construction sites.
The sidewalk art creates a connective thread amongst artists, neighborhoods, and waterways. Vaughn Bell conceptualized and led the sidewalk art project and invited collaborating artists to design the inlays near their large scale permanent public artworks.
Each circular artwork is a portal from the street and sidewalk infrastructure to the watery world underneath stretching to the Salish Sea. Pathways from home to sidewalk to an underground conveyance tunnel to the large storage tunnel to the wastewater treatment plant and ultimately to Salt Water (Puget Sound) are made visible.
Commissioned by Seattle Public Utilities 1% for Art in partnership with the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture.
Photos by Spike Mafford
Fabrication by Intention Space
Artworks installed and planned 2024-2027
