With the shelves stocked inside the new QFC on 24th Ave NW, final touches are being put on the outside.
We met up with Seattle artists Anna Sher of Boulevard Park and Rodman Gilder Miller of Fremont who, for the last year, have been designing and creating the art for the outside of the building. “We talked to the architect and they gave us an idea of what they were looking for,” Sher tells us, “They were talking about Danish design or Scandinavian design.”
With Sher’s metal work and Miller’s glass work, they created this 80-foot railing. “I was told ‘do something with the water,'” Miller tells us, so he created a glass rain catchment that will be installed in the middle of the railing. “I’m happy with it,” Anna says, “When you build it piece by piece, it’s really hard to get a sense of what its overall impact is going to be.”
Photo of artists Ten Ridlon, Anna Sher and Rodman Gilder Miller
Security Properties, the developer, has been very generous with their art budget, the two tell us, but they’ve been generous in other ways, too. “I feel like they’ve been generous to give the artists license to do what they want to do without a lot of constrictions,” Sher smiles. Along with this railing, the two are also creating a 24 foot by 15 foot screen with, great big leaves, flowers and glass for the south side of the building.
The two artists have worked together in the past on projects in Fremont and San Francisco. On the building in Fremont (shown above) Anna created the railings outside of Peet’s Coffee and Miller, along with metal artist Mark Stevens created other art on the building.