The Plaza
Jack Mackie
King Street Center
A dramatic outdoor gathering space responds to its geological realities.
Sections of the pavement turn red behind the King Street Center—part of The Plaza, a sculptural gathering space designed by Jack Mackie. Inspired the area’s seismic activity and close proximity to the Puget Sound, the irregular shapes of the plaza imagine the aftermath of an earthquake, as if the urban grid has been shaken and realigned.
Though level with the back of the building, The Plaza sits above the streetscape, like a bluff rising from the sea. A curved staircase leads the way up to it, lined by a textured wall and topped with yellow steel railings that curve as if they were beach grasses. Concrete benches and expansive planter boxes give the feeling of an urban glade, creating an oasis above the hum of the busy neighborhood.Continue Reading ›
Based in Seattle, Mackie has been creating and consulting on public art projects since 1978. He is perhaps best known for Dancer's Series: Steps, a beloved set of bronze footsteps that detail various dance patterns, inlayed along the sidewalk on Broadway in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.
About the Location
King Street Center
The streets of Seattle’s historic Pioneer Square neighborhood are lined with brick and stone buildings that date back to the late 19th century, after the Great Seattle Fire of 1889 burned nearly all of the wooden structures settlers had constructed since their arrival in the early 1850s. Featuring architectural details of the era’s Romanesque Revival,…
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