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Moon Gates

Artist Doris Chase
MediumBronze
Dimensions9’ to 17’ H
ClassificationsSculpture
Credit LineGift to the City of Seattle from a consortium of donors. Seattle Center Foundation raised the funds.
History: In 1991, Seattle Center demolished the infamous “Building 50,” a 500 foot long concrete tilt-up storage building that divided the Center from the Denny Regrade/Downtown and created a hard impenetrable edge to Seattle Center at its southern edge.  In its place flourished the Broad Street Green- a nearly three acre open space which draws and welcomes thousands of people to its broad, green lawns each day.  The Sculpture Garden needed two additions for its ‘completion’- a relocation of the Iliad and another major work to fill out the area and make it read as a true sculpture garden.  Chase's Moon Gates was selected as the completing piece for the garden.

Description: Three bronze forms ranging in size from 9’ to 17’.

Artist Statement: Moon Gates offers interior-exterior experiences and the opportunity to interact on many levels: physically, visually, and spiritually.  Two sections offer seating on the interior passages.  A third section may seem kinetic, place apart and situated on a thrust bearing, enabling it to revolve.  My basic concern for this public installation is the joyous relationship between spaces, form and human interaction and that the composition offers both a symbol of place and a unique area for creative play.

Location: Seattle Center, Broad Street Green, Broad Street and John Street


Changing Form
Doris Chase
1969
Untitled
Doris Chase
1970
Untitled
Doris Chase
1970's (early)
Gates
George Tsutakawa
1976
Neototems
Gloria Bornstein
1995
Gate Stops
Clair Colquitt
1982
Breaching Orca
Tony Angell
1978
Traffic of Ideas
Brian Goggin
2005