Seattle and Raleigh-Durham marketing, graphic and brand design studio Design Kompany

I took this the other day when the sun was splashing around in Capitol Hill. Looking at the branches against the sky, I was reminded of the new metal tree at Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park. When I got back to the office, I asked Design Kompany’s team members what they thought about that piece.

Jace: I spotted the tree immediately in the car before we even found a place to park. I pointed this out to a friend and she was surprised — she just thought it was a living, breathing tree. It was one of the last things we saw in the sculpture park, and as we approached, my friend said “Some of the branches are broken off.” She was right. The tree had many branches with jagged ends, looking like it’s seen better days. That’s when I realized that this wasn’t even supposed to resemble a living, breathing tree. This tree was a dead one, the kind you’d find on an old homestead on the northern plains of eastern Montana and western North Dakota where I grew up. It’d be located next to a barn with all the paint peeled, tilted to one side like a rhombus. Yet here it was, being admired in downtown Seattle with a nice view of the Puget Sound and Olympic Mountains. You’d have a hard time picking a better place to decay.

Akira: Metal tree is kind of stupid, anyways — I’d take a real one over that, any day. That said, the Sculpture Park is a noble idea realized very gracefully. I was impressed how well it integrated with the existing cityscape and the road system. I look forward to spending more time there when it’s a little warmer!

Dipika: Lots of people are asking me what I think about SAM’s new Olympic Sculpture Park, then waiting a second to see what I say. I am not getting the sense that anyone is particularly wowed by the $85 million dollar thing, but that might have more to do with the overwhelming crowd that was there last weekend to check it out. Lots of architects and people up for the day from out of town, it seemed. I wonder what kind of demographic we’ll see here when the hubbub calms down and people who are going to be living around there or lunching around there will be the ones you see. I didn’t make it around the whole thing–I’ll save that for a quieter, more reflective time–but I did really enjoy the metal tree, especially the way it glinted in the January sun.

See it for yourself.
Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park
2901 Western Ave., Seattle
206-654-3100
Seattleartmuseum.org