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"Downtown Seattle Transit System"

A tunnel through the core of Downtown Seattle was one of the first projects of its kind to integrate artists into the design team, from its earliest stages in 1985, to its completion in 1990. Alice Adams and Kate Ericson, of New York, and Jack Mackie, Vicki Scuri and Sonia Ishii of Seattle won a national competition and were appointed to the team of architects and engineers of the new transit system. Alice Adams and Jack Mackie were assigned to the Convention Place Station, which is near the historic Paramount theater and the Camlin Hotel, and these landmarks strongly affected the station design in choice of materials and in general theme of stage and theater. Both worked with architect Mark Spitzer, with Adams’ specific focus the corner uplit glass block entrance plaza and the steel, glass and neon entrance marquees above it. Mackie designed the bus level with its articulated retaining wall and waterfall and the sea of painted catenary poles. At the International District Station, Adams, Sonia Ishii and station architect Gary Hartnett developed the central station plaza with its trellises with seasonally flowering vine, its  brick zodiac paving and its wood and stone stage and seating platform.

Seattle, Washington  1985 – 1990

CONVENTION PLACE STATION

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INTERNATIONAL DISTRICT STATION

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