Pump-to-gram
W. Scott Trimble
Kirkland Pump Station
Sculptural pictographs educate the public about the wastewater treatment process.
The Kirkland Pump Station is located within a busy hub of civic life, which is home to the city library, Peter Kirk Park, Park Lane urban village, and the Kirkland Transit Center. With Pump-to-gram, artist W. Scott Trimble set out to inspire park visitors, library users, bus riders, and neighborhood residents to learn more about the pump station and wastewater management.
The artwork is composed of two sculptural panels. The smaller panel, which serves as a gate for staff, represents the community of Kirkland, and the larger panel, a gate for vehicles, represents the South Treatment Plant in Renton. Connected by a single red pipe, the two pictographs tell the story of the wastewater treatment process.
Trimble borrowed his color palette from the main computer controls at the Renton plant. Blue and green cast glass forms indicate where water is refined and amber glass shows where solids are removed. The saturation and transparency of the glass also depicts the stages of treatment; they are more saturated at the beginning of the process and become increasingly transparent as the water moves through the cycle.