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Recharge Chambers

Gloria Bornstein

Regional Communications and Emergency Coordination Center

Water features connect with nature, lending calm to a stressful setting.

Gloria Bornstein. Recharge Chambers, 2003. Carved stone, electric pump, and bronze. Regional Communications and Emergency Coordination Center, Renton, WA. King County Public Art Collection. Photo: joefreemanjunior.com

Home to 9-1-1 dispatch as well as the Metro Transit Police and Animal Control, King County’s Regional Communications and Emergency Coordination Center is a high-stress environment. The three water features in Gloria Bornstein’s Recharge Chambers aim to soothe and calm the Center’s workers and visitors by connecting to the natural world that surrounds the site.

People passing through the building’s entrance see and hear collected rainwater splashing against a black granite basin, which is perched on a bed of river stones that drain into the Cedar River Aquifer beneath the site. In the south courtyard, a set of seating stones encircle a polished black granite table. On the table’s surface, bubbling water forms an ever-changing pattern of small waves, inviting rest and relaxation like a natural spring. The artwork’s third water feature is a “release chamber” made of four scuppers that channel rainwater from the building to the meadow below.
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Gloria Bornstein. Recharge Chambers, 2003. Carved stone, electric pump, and bronze. Regional Communications and Emergency Coordination Center, Renton, WA. King County Public Art Collection. Photo: joefreemanjunior.com
Gloria Bornstein. Recharge Chambers, 2003. Carved stone, electric pump, and bronze. Regional Communications and Emergency Coordination Center, Renton, WA. King County Public Art Collection. Photo: joefreemanjunior.com
Gloria Bornstein. Recharge Chambers, 2003. Carved stone, electric pump, and bronze. Regional Communications and Emergency Coordination Center, Renton, WA. King County Public Art Collection. Photo: joefreemanjunior.com