Old Cannery Building – Flatcolor Gallery Wall

Left: In Memory of Jade; Right: Clifton Yatez Piece

Location: 2^nd Avenue Extension S and S Main St in Pioneer Square (47.599891,-122.330495).

Creator: Clifton Yatez (black and gray piece), Wagnerisms (“In Memory of Jade”)

Description: Yatez is represented by the Flatcolor Gallery. Jade refers to Jade BTM, a respected writer* from the Bay Area who died in 2013. Jade was known for his stylized tag “Jade”.

For a past view of this wall, see Good People of Seattle Mural.

* pracitioner of writing graffiti, a graffiti artist. For more terms, see a glossary of graffiti terms.

Left: Detail of In Memory of Jade; Right: Pigeon in front of Yatez Piece

Milepost 31 - SR 99 Tunnel Project Information Center

Milepost 31 Information

Milepost 31 is an information center where the public can learn about the history of Pioneer Square and the new SR 99 Tunnel Project. The folks manning the center on the day we stopped by were friendly and eager to share all sorts of facts and figures about Pioneer Square, the Tunnel Project, and Seattle in general. In fact, to understand the goals and challenges of the SR 99 Tunnel Project you need to go back in time and understand how Seattle has grown from the first inhabitants in the early 1850s to the present day. The first settlers lived on a piece of land (approximately today’s Pioneer Square) that bears little resemblance to today’s city outline. Generations of fill matter enlarged the city to its current shape. In fact, the bit of information that stuck in my mind the most was from a Milepost 31 Brochure called 20,000 Years in Pioneer Square (shown below) which shows how the shape of the city has changed since the 1850s. The historical shoreline overlaid on the modern city is an eye-opener. The information is also captured in a Burke Museum exhibit at Milepost 31 and a web overview titled Waterlines. In the web presentation, there is a plan of the city from 1856 drawn during the Battle of Seattle, which shows a spit of land that looks nothing like the current city outline. It’s amazing what fill and time can do to reshape a city.

The path of the tunnel doesn’t just follow the existing viaduct - as we initially assumed. At Yesler the tunnel path runs further away from the water than the current viaduct. For city buildings it passes under, right of ways had to be purchased. Along the way the tunnel will run through a variety of soil types: sand and gravel, clay and silt, and silt and fine sand. See the photo of the soil types below. If you ask, they folks at Milepost 31 will roll out the soil map for you!

The SR 99 tunnel is projected to open in late 2015. It will be about 2 miles long and have 4 lanes (2 in each direction). Construction has started, but boring hasn’t. (It’s not boring, ha ha.) The tunnel boring machine is still being tested in Osaka Japan. It was built by the Hitachi Zosen Corporation and is the world’s large-diameter (57.5 feet) tunneling machine. And, its name is Bertha.

Milepost 31 doesn’t cover much of the process that led to the select of the tunnel (or at least we didn’t see it). It was a process with political twists and turns, votes, and finally, a decision handed down. (Read more.) I guess Bertha can only go in one direction so why look back now?

Left: Scaled-Down Model of the Boring Machine at Milepost 31, Right: SR 99 Tunnel Depiction

20,000 Years in Pioneer Square Brochure – Changes in the Shape of Seattle

    

Left: Map By Drawn by Lieutenant Thomas S. Phelps of the Decatur and photographed by an unknown photographer. Map Drawn for Battle of Seattle. Via Wikimedia Commons.  Right: View of Seattle from What Used to Be Part of the Bay

Soil Types and SR 99 Tunnel Profile
 

You’ll Dig It – Or Maybe Not if You Didn’t Vote for It.

Good People of Seattle Mural

Good People of Seattle Mural Panorama (left) and Front Shot (right)

Good People of Seattle Mural Faces


Here’s another eye-catching mural by Jeff “Weirdo” Jacobsen and Joey Nix. This one is on the 2nd and Main Cannery Building in Pioneer Square, Seattle, and is dedicated to the Good People of Seattle. The mural features four people: Michael Trapp, Ana Dyson, Michael Doucett, and Taylor. Trapp and Doucett are by Weirdo and Dyson and Taylor are by Nix. Ana (Bender) Dyson was a musician and graffiti artist who passed away earlier this year. Her portrait in this mural joined with her tag “Aybee”.

One panel of the mural reads: “Dedicated to the Good People of Seattle 2012” with FranklinAndThomas.com written nearby. 

Around the corner are some pieces by Baso Fibonacci and Jean Nagai. Fun stuff on the Flatcolor Mural Wall at 3^rd Ave. S., 2^nd Ave. Ext. and S. Main Street.

The Old Cannery building, you guessed it has something to do with canning. The Department of Neighborhoods has more background on the building, what its features are and why there is a discrepancy between the two facades (east and north) - hint, a street cut through it. An interesting tidbit: “the building was occupied by the Cannery Workers of ILWU Local 37. On June 1, 1981, Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes of Local 37, who were trying to reform the conditions for cannery workers and also had actively opposed President Marcos of the Philippines, were gunned down in this building.” 

Ana (Bender) Dyson and Michael Doucett (left) and Across Main Street Looking at the Mural (right)
 

Good People of Seattle Mural Dedication (left), Taylor (middle), and Michael Trapp (right)
   

Flatcolor Mural Wall: Jean Nagai ‘12 (left) and Baso Fibonacci ‘12 (right)

“Did you see that raccoon?”

Pioneer Square Murals: Have Lunch Over Seas

We went to see the Billy King Mural and the Emerge: An Ode to Dedication Mural and also ran into a few other interesting murals that we show here. One is a large mural on wood that surrounds a lot near Occidental Square on the corner of Occidental Ave S and S Washington St. This mural has the signature “The Original” and features images of Seattle perhaps read as a condensed timeline. Starting from the beginning (most eastern section) and reading left to right we have Chief Seattle, the King Street Station built between 1904 and 1906, the Pioneer Square iron pergola built in 1909 and originally covering an underground restroom and on the far right of this section, a brick wall with greenery still in the process of being drawn. The mural continues around the corner and shows building ruins with Pioneer Square District written overhead. Skipping over a gate-fence, the scene is completed with a ferry out on a surreal Puget Sound. Is this the rise and fall of Pioneer Square, all in a mural?

Speaking of ferries, looking up from where this mural is one can see the side of a building in brick where “Washington State Ferries - Have Lunch Over Seas” is written.

Update 2012-05-30: a reader, Christina, clarified that the “ruins” represent underground Seattle (http://www.undergroundtour.com/). We thought the blue “blocks” above the word district in the mural looked vaguely familiar. They are the sidewalk sections of glass blocks that are the skylights for the level below, the original ground floor of Pioneer Square. We should have known that since we have been on that tour.

Update 2012-06-01: a reader, James, says that the mural was created by Jeff "Weirdo" Jacobson for the Alliance for Pioneer Square. He also created Emerge: An Ode to Dedication Mural - Pioneer Square. For more from Jacobsen, see Pinterest.

The Original – Chief Seattle and Northwest Coast Native Symbols

A Man Traverses the Mural Center Section (left) and The Story is Still Being Written? (right)

Around the Corner, Pioneer Square District and Fantasy Puget Sound Scene

Man Painting Stripes (left) and Ferry Plies the Water of Puget Sound in a Surreal Light (right)


Nearby, Lunch Over Seas?

Emerge: An Ode to Dedication Mural - Pioneer Square

Panorama of Mural

The 100 foot long and 17 foot tall mural Emerge: An ode to Dedication covers the east side of the currently abandoned Metropole building in Pioneer Square, located at the corner of Yesler Way and 2^nd Avenue. The building was damaged by a fire in 2007. In 2010, the artist Jeff Jacobson created the mural on plywood covering the side of the building. His goal was to create something beautiful to look like and draw attention to the building. A Kickstarter site contains details of the mural project. According to Jacobson in a video where he describes the mural’s underwater scene, the salmon represent artists rising to and breaking through the surface of the water.

South End of Mural (left), Center of Mural (middle), and North End of Mural (right)

Detail of Emerge Mural


People Walking in the Underwater Dreamscape

Billy King Pioneer Square Mural

The “Billy King Pioneer Square Mural” is on the west side of a brick building on the corner of Yesler Way and Post Avenue. The mural, executed in 2002, is by Billy King, an artist who is intimately familiar with the neighborhood having spent 40 years living and working there according to his blog. When we look at the mural, two things come to mind: the Mambo Kings and Lynda Barry’s artwork for her book The Good Times are Killing Me. As we were taking pictures of the mural, a tourist walked by with a thick Texas(?) accent and said “If you all are taking a picture of something it must be something important to see.”