Rush Hour

Photo & Text © 2012 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved. No use, reproduction, alteration or republishing in any media.

A Seattle cyclist with a messenger bag speeds past me in the twilight, braving the chill February evening air in shirtsleeves and cuffed pants. Obviously he's speedier than I have been of late. Life is full and spring is in the air, ( in liquid form, mostly) :-).

Chihuly Garden & Glass Nearing Completion

Photo & Text © 2012 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved. No use, reproduction, alteration or republishing in any media.

It's pretty much night and day construction on the Seattle Center site of the new Chihuly Garden and Glass area which has taken shape in the space once occupied by the Fun Forrest amusements. The Garden and Glass exhibit is due to open in April and just broke ground at the end of August, so construction has been rapid. One crew of workers was leaving their shift and another had just begun as evening settled in on the very busy work site. The crew said the project is coming together well and that there have been no injuries. It is a beautiful structure, and I can't wait to see it finished with the garden installation and all the light and color it will bring. Meanwhile, across campus wedged beside Key Arena, the Children's Theater and Fisher Pavilion, the new skate park area is providing some alternative fun space for active youth to work on their fluid moves. Hopefully a few more active areas for children, youth and families will be developed nearby to provide safe, fun alternative attractions that add variety to the many performing arts, science and cultural offerings currently on site.

Gates Foundation Visitor Center Opens

Photo & Text © 2012 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved. No use, reproduction, alteration or republishing in any media.

Today the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Visitor Center will open its doors to the public, giving a window on the Foundation's projects around the world. From the street you will see lighted lettering on the visitor's center which shines out the credo,"Every Person Deserves the Chance to Live a Healthy, Productive Life." On Wednesday evening I was on campus taking photos when the Foundation kicked off it's Visitor Center opening celebration with a large gathering, including President Jimmy Carter, whose Carter Center has been successfully working to eradicate common preventable diseases and parasites in the third world for the past 30 years. The gala was well attended and the campus was lighted up gloriously (the building pictured is not the Visitors Center but is the southwest elevation of the Atrium located at the back of the northern most boomerang-shaped building of the large campus. It is across a courtyard from and behind the street-front Visitors Center). Do go visit when you get the chance. The work going on here is strategic, important, and will have an amazing impact for good in people's lives all over the planet. As you can see from the reflection in the glass of the lobby where guests were being received, the Gates Foundation campus is located just across the street from Seattle Center and the Space Needle.

Noodling the Needle

Photo & Text © 2012 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved. No use, reproduction, alteration or republishing in any media.

Shot through the red noodley sculpture (Olympic Iliad by Alexander Liberman, installed 1984) near the entrance to the Space Needle at sundown on a chilly but sunny first of February. This is another in the series of playing peek a boo with the Needle. Being one of the most photographed structures in the world can be a bit ho hum, so I try to get glimpses not so common of the Needle peeking at me over, through and around things. Still, I think there is hardly an original idea to be found for the now 50 year old icon. "Make it new, make it new," cried the parrot to the mocking bird."