DuPen Fountain at Night

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Also called the Fountain of Creation after the subject of this bronze sculpture, the DuPen Fountain and its surrounding architecture on the Seattle Center campus speak of a time and place: west coast, mid 20th century. Built as part of the Century 21 Exposition and incorporating multilevel vantage places in a serene setting, this fountain's large wading pool is wildly popular with families of young children in sunny months. Their and other Seattlites' outcry saved the fountain from city council's unanimous vote to tear it out in their search for a replacement space for SeaSk8t, the popular skate park that was displaced by construction of the Gates Foundation/Seattle Center parking structure finished last July (I showed you here). Everett DuPen, a sculptor from the University of Washington, had designed the fountain specifically for its site in 1962 and consulted on its refurbishing in 2003, two years before his death. The setting looks to me like a page out of a 1960's Sunset Magazine.