Rhododendrons

Harold Balazs

King County Administration Building

During a prolonged illness, Harold Balazs began to paint watercolors of the flowers outside his window—and those flowers became the inspiration for Rhododendrons, a mural originally commissioned for the now-demolished Kingdome. The stadium, he said at the time, “cries out for color and I decided to give it a bouquet of flowers.”

In 2000, the three-panel piece was re-sited at the entrance to the King County Administration Building in Seattle, where it brightens the Fourth Avenue façade. To make the work, Balazs used vitreous enamel on steel, fusing high-fired powdered glass to metal and forming a jewel-like design. Rhododendrons was the first artwork commissioned by King County as part of the Honors Program, which recognizes visual artists who have made significant contributions to our region through the sustained production of high-quality artwork.

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Balazs (1928–2018) lived and worked in Mead, WA, where he built a multifaceted career and produced a wide variety of artworks, from large-scale fountains, sculptures and altars to paintings and prints. His sculptures can be seen throughout the Northwest, particularly in Spokane, which is home to many of his public projects.