Olympic Sculpture Park
| Olympic Sculpture Park | |
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The park as viewed from the Space Needle
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| Location | Seattle, Washington |
| Coordinates | 47°36′59″N 122°21′19″W / 47.61639°N 122.35528°WCoordinates: 47°36′59″N 122°21′19″W / 47.61639°N 122.35528°W |
| Area | 8.5 acres (3.4 ha) |
| Founder | Mary and Jon Shirley |
| Designer | Weiss/Manfredi |
| Operated by | Seattle Parks and Recreation |
| Open | January 20, 2007 |
| Status | Open |
| Website | seattleartmuseum |
The Olympic Sculpture Park, created and operated by the Seattle Art Museum, is a park, free and open to the public, in Seattle, Washington that opened on January 20, 2007. The park consists of a 9-acre (36,000 m2) outdoor sculpture museum and beach. The park's lead designer was Weiss/Manfredi Architects, who collaborated with Charles Anderson Landscape Architecture, Magnusson Klemencic Associates and other consultants. It is situated at the northern end of the Seattle seawall and the southern end of Myrtle Edwards Park. The former industrial site was occupied by the oil and gas corporation Unocal until the 1970s and subsequently became a contaminated brownfield before the Seattle Art Museum proposed to transform the area into one of the only green spaces in Downtown Seattle.
As a free-admission outdoor sculpture park with both permanent and visiting installations, it is a unique institution in the United States. The idea of green space for large, monumental sculpture in Seattle, was first discussed between Virginia and Bagley Wright, Mary and Jon Shirley (former president of Microsoft and Chairman of the Seattle Art Museum Board of Directors), and Seattle Art Museum director (and wife of William Gates Sr.) Mimi Gardner Gates. The idea grew further during a discussion in 1996 between and Martha Wyckoff while stranded on a fly fishing trip in Mongolia due to a helicopter crash. Wyckoff, being a trustee of the Trust for Public Land, soon after began an effort to identify possible locations for the park.
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