Nicolas WardArt Link
It’s spring break for Seattle Schools. One of our first big activities yesterday was my mom’s idea: to ride the newly opened Link Line 2 all the way to Redmond, checking out all of the station art along the way. Sound Transit has an interactive map of all of the installations! Plus we’re rarely Eastside so it’s an opportunity to explore a bit.
Outbound
They took the fast ferry from Southworth and we took our usual bus, meeting on the platform at Pioneer Square Station, which oddly I don’t think I’ve ever used before! We didn’t have to wait long for a train which we took to the first new station, Judkins Park.
Timelapse along I-90There we saw Barbara Earl Thomas’s piece A Walk in the Neighborhood as we waited for the next train across the lake.
Next up was the engineering marvel of our trip, the world’s only floating rail bridge. That’s neat in and of itself! We had a grey Seattle morning so the mountain was not out.
At Mercer Island, a place I have previously only passed through on I-90, we saw Beliz Brother’s stroke and crossing suspended above the platform stairs and Julie Berger’s Ghost Ship Migrations across the street by the completely full Park & Ride.
We decided we’d stop at other stations on our way back, so we rode through all the way to the end of the line at Downtown Redmond, chatting and appreciating all of the transit-oriented development going in. My parents shared their memories of what the area was like in the late ’70s if they happened to come this way.
In Redmond I liked the big mosaic panels, including Cable Griffith’s Bitstreams and Julie Paschkis’ Bicycle Series/Traveler Series.
We stopped briefly at the open but oddly empty Redmond Town Center mall lifestyle center to use a bathroom. (I really think Sound Transit should have gone for attended station bathrooms but I guess that would cost too much.)
Inbound
We had spotted a few pieces on the outbound leg we wanted to stop back for, so up first was enemy territory at Redmond Technology. We touched Dan Webb’s Move Your Boulder (which is already gathering moss) and the very cool and fractal ceiling-mounted Journey and Connection by Kate Sweeney.
Our next stop down the line was BelRed, which features Patrick Marold’s Wandering Line subtly built into the station guardrails. Across the street on the fence was Brady Black’s colorful mixed media mural Joyful Connections, which was funded through the BelRed Arts District Community, not SoundTransit STArt. Across the street on the other side was a polished metal horn sculpture reminiscent of Chicago’s Bean. I was surprised this East Link segment along Spring Boulevard isn’t grade-separated like the rest.
We exited at Bellevue Downtown right next to city hall to go grab lunch. First we spent some time in the plaza which has a neat reflecting fountain.
After enjoying some tasty salads/bowls at the downtown Evergreens we walked a ways down the hill to the south to board at East Main. This is across from the Hilton where we went to OrcaCon in January 2020. We passed an abandoned Toys “R” Us that now houses some Bubble Planet experience.
We crossed back to Seattle, seeing a number of folks heading to the Mariners game, and exited at Pioneer Square, and briefly stopped in at Magic Mouse Toys, which I hadn’t been in since 2012. My parents headed to the new ferry terminal and we headed back to 3rd Ave to catch a bus home.
A lovely transit exploration of the region and some of the new art commissioned for the East Link stations. Highly recommended, even if you don’t have a reason to be Eastside.
#art #bellevue #infrastructure #publicTransit #redmond #seattle #trains
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