Page 135 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Pacific Northwest

PIONEER SQU ARE AND DOWNT OWN  133

The museum’s permanent
collection includes 25,000
objects ranging from ancient
Egyptian relief sculpture and
wooden African statuary to
Old Master paintings and
contemporary American art.
Traveling exhibits are featured
on the fourth floor, as are the
permanent collections of African
and European art. Northwest
Coast Native American art
figures prominently on the third Benaroya Hall, grand home of the Seattle Symphony
floor. Highlights here include the
14-ft- (4-m-) tall red-cedar Native superior acoustics. The multi- shady footpaths invite leisurely
houseposts carved with bears level Grand Lobby, dramatic at strolling. Outdoor concerts are
and thunderbirds boasting 11-ft night when lit, offers stunning held here in summer.
(3.5-m) wing spans, from the views of Puget Sound and the
village of Gwa’yas-dams in British city skyline.
Columbia. The third floor also Even if time doesn’t permit w Central Library
houses American art, ancient attending a symphony perform- 1000 Fourth Ave. Map 4 D2. Tel (206)
mediterranean and Islamic art, ance, visitors can gain an 386-4636. @ many. Open 10am–8pm
and modern and contemporary appreciation of this magnificent Mon–Thu, 10am–6pm Fri & Sat, noon–
art, including works by contem- facility by taking one of the 6pm Sun. Closed public hols. 8 7
porary Pacific Northwest artists. excellent tours offered, learning - = ∑ spl.org
Also in this museum family how this acoustical masterpiece
is the Asian Art Museum, in was created atop a transit tunnel. This striking glass and steel
Volunteer Park (see p157), Visitors can also admire Benaroya structure, completed in 2004,
hous ing extensive Asian art Hall’s impressive private art was designed by the award-
collec tions. The Seattle Art collection, which includes Echo, winning Dutch architect Rem
Museum’s third venue is the Robert Rauschenberg’s evocative Koolhaas as a replacement for
Olympic Sculpture Park (see p148), 12-ft (3.5-m) mural, painted on the city’s 1960 Central Library.
an outdoor “museum” on the metal, and Dale Chihuly’s pair The unusual shape of the
north end of Seattle’s waterfront. of chandelier sculptures – one building was once a source
silver-, one gold-colored – each of controversy, but the Central
with some 1,200 pieces of blown Library is now regarded as one of
glass wired to a steel armature. Seattle’s architectural highlights.
Within the hall’s outdoor The 11-floor library includes
space along 2nd Avenue is works of art worth a staggering
the Garden of Remembrance, $1 million and an innovative
which honors more than 8,000 “Books Spiral,” allowing visitors
Washington citizens who have maximum access to the
given their lives in the service collection. In its first year, some
of their country since 1941. 5,000 people visited the library
every day to benefit from its
2 million items. Other facilities
q Freeway Park include Internet access, 340
computers for public use, and
Seneca St & 6th Ave. Map 4 D1. @ 2,
Dale Chihuly’s Benaroya Hall Silver 13. Open 6am–10pm daily. 7 separate centers for children,
Chandelier, one of a pair ∑ seattle.gov/parks teenagers, and adult readers.
0 Benaroya Hall Tucked into the heart
of Seattle’s bustling
200 University St. Map 3 C1. Tel (206)
215-4800. @ many. 8 check commercial district,
website for details. ^ 7 - = and adjoining the
∑ seattlesymphony.org Washington State
Convention and Trade
Home of the Seattle Symphony Center, Freeway Park
and occupying an entire city straddles the I-5,
block, the $118.1 million Benaroya which runs through
Hall contains two performing downtown. Inside
halls, including the 2,500-seat the park, thundering
S. Mark Taper Foundation waterfalls drown out Seattle’s strikingly modern Central Library, designed
Auditorium, acclaimed for its the traffic roar, and by Rem Koolhaas
For hotels and restaurants see p288 and pp298–300

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