The Office of Arts & Culture in partnership with Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) has selected artist Charles Sowers to be a member of the design team for the proposed Northgate Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge Project. Sowers will work with SDOT and project designers to develop and design artistic elements that will be integrated into the new bridge.

SDOT is proposing to design and construct a pedestrian and bicycle overpass across I-5 that will connect North Seattle College, the Licton Springs neighborhood, and communities west of the freeway with the future Northgate Sound Transit light rail station, and the eastern portion of the Northgate Urban Center, and Northgate Mall. The bridge would include a spur linking directly to the mezzanine level of the light rail station.

Sowers is based in San Francisco, CA and has a B.A. in anthropology from Oberlin College, OH. Sower’s work presents and incorporates actual physical phenomena that draw people into careful observation and interaction. His works often elicit a sense of delight and wonder and highlight natural phenomena. He has completed public art commissions for the San Francisco Arts Commission at the Randal Museum (Windswept, 2011) and the San Francisco International Airport (Butterfly Wall, 2011) as well as the Science Education Center (Wave Wall, 2006) in Livingston, LA.

Sowers was selected by a panel of artists, design professionals, Lichton Springs and Seattle Community College representatives and SDOT staff. The artist’s design work is commissioned with SDOT 1% for Art funds. Read more about the Northgate Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge here.

Windswept, 2011, Randall Museum, San Francisco, CA., 35’L x 20’H – aluminum, stainless steel. Photo: courtesy of artist