A nondescript 10-acre Park & Ride sits under an elevated section of I-5, dividing Seattle’s Green Lake and Roosevelt neighborhoods. To improve the character of the streetscape, 4Culture led an extensive community listening process and, in 2002, hired artist Laura Haddad to produce an art plan for the site. Ultimately, Sheila Klein was selected to transform the underpass, creating Columnseum, a “sculptural painting” designed to embrace the columns that support the interstate.

Klein and her team painted a total of 396 columns over the course of two phases. She used colors from the parking lot vernacular—safety yellow, striping white, and disabled parking blue—to create a series of graphic “dot and slot” shapes on the concrete, which she says “take bites” out of their intimidating bulk. Glossy white circles in receding moon shapes lend lightness, green ovals connect the human-made structure with the surrounding greenery, yellow frames energize, and tall blue slots bring a slice of the sky down to the ground. These colors and shapes not only break up the visual monotony of the space, they serve as functional wayfinding markers for people using the Park & Ride.

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“I didn’t want to introduce something alien,” Klein says, though she did want to help diminish the “dark brutality” of the freeway.

Based in the Skagit Valley north of Seattle, Klein’s art practice straddles the worlds of art and architecture. She is best known for civic projects such as the air traffic control tower at LAX, her streetlight installation Vermonica, and efforts to “dress” public spaces, including 4Culture commission Comfort Zone at Harborview Medical Center.