Bella Figura + Throne Room
Ellen Sollod
Harborview Medical Center
Surrounded by breathtaking views, complementary artworks anchor Harborview’s main entrance.
Steps from Harborview’s doors, View Park offers gorgeous, sweeping views of Seattle, Puget Sound, the Olympic Mountains, and Mount Rainier. View Park II adjoins the original park, created atop a parking structure that also supports the hospital’s heliport, and includes a plaza that leads to the hospital’s entrance. Artist Ellen Sollod played a central role in the design of View Park II.
Sollod contributed to the overall conceptual and aesthetic approach to the new parking garage, influencing the design of the elevator building, railings, window grills, and the ambulance drive entry gates. She also created two artworks for the site: Bella Figura, a wind-activated kinetic sculpture, and The Throne Room, the plaza’s sculptural seating area.
Sollod’s vision for the plaza “was a bit out of Alice in Wonderland,” she says. Situated above a long, curved bench, oversized and throne-like seat backs transport visitors to an imaginary realm. Their playful shapes both add to the experience of the place and echo the Art Deco details of the hospital building. Sollod also collaborated with landscape architect Barbara Swift to surround the plaza with robust and cheerful plants.Continue Reading ›
Bella Figura activates the entry area of the hospital. Standing 23 feet tall, its verticality and curvaceous shape suggest the regal, feminine human form from which the artwork takes its name: “bella figura” is a common Italian idiom used to describe a woman with great style and flair. Bella Figura, which also resembles a large brooch or hatpin, not only moves with the wind, but its colors and reflective qualities also change with the light and weather.
Based in Seattle, Sollod is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice includes large-scale, site-specific public artworks, temporary installations, artist books, photography, and occasional sound and video projects. Her site-based works often explore the psychological intersection of landscape and memory, and her public art projects number more than two dozen, most of which are in Washington.
About the Location
Harborview Medical Center
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