Westlake Station-the Shopping Stop

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Downloadable station map [.PDF 897kb] with art locations noted.

One of the ultimate compliments to the architects and artists who created Westlake Station is that many of the thousands of people who pass through the two-block mezzanine running the length of the station have no idea it is a transit station. With lead artist Jack Mackie, architect Brent Carison designed Westlake Station, which lies beneath Pine Street between Third and Sixth avenues. The station design literally brings the surface character of Seattle's shopping district underground.

Four major retailers have entrances onto the mezzanine of Westlake Station-Macy's, Westlake Center, Coldwater Creek and Nordstrom. Each entrance is clearly marked with the store's logo and large kiosk lanterns nearby, helping the marble-clad mezzanine feel like an uptown shopping mall.

Distinctive geometric shapes anchor each section of the mezzanine-a triangle on the west end, a square in the center, and a circle at the east end.

While you're on the mezzanine, take a closer look at the beige ceramic tiles lining the station walls. You'll discover 40 low-relief images loosely styled after clothing patterns. Artist Vicki Scuri looked at neighborhood buildings and hit on the idea that the patterns and facades were like clothing. So she created a ceramic garment for the station.

At the northwest corner of the mezzanine near the entrance to Macy's, you'll discover "A swarm of B's," carved into the step risers leading to Pine Street between Third and Fourth avenues. This list of items beginning with the letter B comes from the diary of Caroline Ober, professor of Spanish and romance languages. University of Washington, 1897-1929. The list comes from a party game popular at the time. Ober's contribution to "Traveling Words" is appropriately placed at this entrance because Ober wrote often in her diary of trips to the vintage Bon Marche department store, which operated in this building for 75 years.

If you use the southwest exit from the station, on the other side of Pine Street, you'll discover the words of Seattle artist Mark Tobey describing a crowd scene at Pike Place Market. That exit is closest to the Century Square office and retail tower.

Also at the west end of the mezzanine at the Customer Stop, you can buy transit passes and ticket books and pick up timetables for all transit service provided by Metro, Sound Transit and other local transit agencies.

The terra-cotta park-vine art

East of the Customer Stop, look at the south wall just before you reach the Coldwater Creek entrance midway through the mezzanine. You'll see the terra-cotta park designed by Jack Mackie. More than 1,264 handmade terra-cotta tiles create the illusion of leaves, vines and flowers winding down the wall. Appropriately enough, the wall is directly below Westlake Park and symbolically pulls the roots of the park into the station below.

If you continue along the mezzanine, you'll discover another element of the station's terra-cotta motif-a large clock rising over the east edge of the mezzanine like a huge terra-cotta sun.

Window-shopping

On the north stairway to Pine Street near Nordstrom is a quotation by Silas Munro, a former partner in the Frederick, Nelson & Munro department store. Munro explains why he was bought out of the company, which operated for 76 years in the building now owned by Nordstrom. Instead of containing a granite profile of Munro, the marker in the sidewalk at the entrance is blank. Unfortunately, the artist couldn't find any photos of the pioneer entrepreneur.

Across Pine Street at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Pine is Bill Whipple's Question Mark Clock. The 17-foot-high street clock is made of a concrete column supporting a large stainless-steel question mark wrapped around a granite clock face. The concrete column is labeled "BEFORE" on one side and "AFTER" on the other.

On the walls of the station loading platform are three 10- by 35-foot murals-abstract reflections of the glamour and larger-than-life character of retail display windows in many stores above the station. Bringing the artists' interpretation of surface life into the tunnel, the murals are by Roger Shimomura, Fay Jones and Gene Gentry McMahon.

To produce the murals, the three artists painted smaller-scale working models. The models were reproduced with fired enamel on porcelain-coated steel in a process like that used to paint large kitchen appliances.

Deep-seated artworks

Also in Westlake Station are some entertaining and functional artworks designed by Jack Mackie. Sandblasted into granite benches on the station platform are images of cloth and clothing loosely draped over the seats (including a sweater the artist wore throughout the design process). The benches, like all the benches in the tunnel system, are designed to be functional, not comfortable. Each has an obvious bump in the middle to discourage long-term lounging and loitering.

Downloadable station map [.PDF 897kb] with art locations noted.