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The idea for artist designed personnel hatchcovers in Seattle came from Seattle Arts Commissioner Jacquetta Blanchett, who had been impressed with the hatchcovers she saw in Florence, Italy, in the late 1950s. Former Mayor Paul Schell, who was the director of Seattle's Department of Community Development at the time, thought it was a good idea to replace some of the old and battered personnel hatchcovers downtown. Schell convinced Blanchett to make a private donation, which paid for 13 hatchcovers displaying a design created by artist Anne Knight in 1975. Other donors supported the project as well, and a total of 19 hatchcovers of Knight's design were installed.