Seattle Sundial Tour

 

The following locations are listed in one possible order for a tour; for further information, contact Woody Sullivan at woody@astro.washington.edu.

 

 

 

1.  Gasworks Park (~NE Northlake Way at Meridian Ave N), top of the large "kite hill"

 

Analemmatic dial; concrete, bronze, and inlaid objects; diam. ~8 meters; detailed plaque

 

Charles Greening, assisted by Kim Lazare

 

1978 [restored by the artists in 1998]

 

47°xx´ N     122°xx´ W

 

            Gasworks Park is one of Seattle's most popular because of its prime location on Lake Union and it's great urban views over the lake. Under the direction of Richard Haag, the site was reclaimed from a coal-to-natural-gas conversion plant and many of the industrial structures have been retained as a reminder of that past.

            On the top of a ~15-meter-high hill, great for flying kites, is an analemmatic sundial, the type where a person casts his/her own shadow and reads the time from an elliptical-shaped pattern on the ground. A bronze plaque built into the ground gives good directions for how to use the dial.

            The dial's chief artist was Charles Greening (1949- ), well-known around the Northwest for many public art projects.  The structure is colored concrete, with many inlaid objects scattered throughout, including a bronze bear claw, a ceramic crab, pieces of pottery and glass and shells, etc. The main features are in bronze (such as the hour numerals {CHECK} and the line on which one stands, with a position depending on the date).  Bronze casts of three pairs of footprints are those of Greening, the (anonymous) donor of the piece, and the donor's dog!

            Excellent explanatory plaque includes information about how to read the time using the shadow of the moon (near the time of full moon). Plaque also gives thanks to John Purcell (gnomonicist), Ted Lloys, Sarah Richardson, Rich Haag, and Plaza d'Artz

 

Photos and descriptions are in: Art in Seattle's Public Places (J. M. Rupp, 1992) and A Field Guide to Seattle's Public Art (Seattle Arts Commission, 1991)

 

http://www.vrseattle.com/html/vrlist.php?cat-id=64  -- photos of Gasworks Park, including the dial

http://www.larch.umd.edu/classes/larc/L160/Slides/parksplaygrounds/SLIDES34_39_45/SLIDES39_45.html - photos of Gasworks Park, including the dial

 

 

 

2.  Cowen Park (~Cowen Pl NE, connecting NE Ravenna Blvd and 15th Ave NE), adjacent to playground

 

Horizontal dial; aluminum, concrete, brick, and  landscaped circle (~4 meter diam); ~2.5 meters high; no plaque

 

Randy Nussbaum

 

1999

 

47°40´ N     122°19´ W

 

            This sundial was installed as part of a general campaign to improve Cowen Park by the local neighborhood and the City of Seattle. It is unusual in that the directions N S E W are clearly marked, but these apparently refer to magnetic North, etc., which is about 18° to the east of true North. The sundial itself and the hour markers are of course aligned with true North.

 

http://udistrictchamber.org/comminfo.cfm?North=1 - map and short audio description of the dial

 

 

 

3.  North Seattle Community College (on south edge of main bldg. of College, just E of the cafeteria; north side of N 95th St, ~100 meters E of College Way N), in a small garden; no plaque

 

Equatorial open dial; bronze; diam. ~0.6 meters; granite plinth

 

Daryl Smith

 

~1990

 

47°xx´ N     122°xx´ W

 

This elegant, accurate (to ~1 minute) dial has a slit in its gnomon that can be rotated to face the sun, allowing a bit of sunlight to fall on the hourline band. The dial is a memorial to George Lewis, who was the founder of the College's Horology Department.

            Meridian Ave N happens to pass just west [CHECK] of this dial. This street's name comes from the fact that it lies on a basic reference line chosen by the original surveyors of the city - at a longitude of exactly 122°20.00´ W.

 

http://www.northseattle.edu/info/ -- photo of dial

 

 

 

4.  Webster Park (on west side of Nordic Heritage Museum, in a small garden adjacent to a playground, south side of NW 68th St, between 30th and 31st Aves NW), small plaque

 

Equatorial disk dial; brass, concrete, steel; diam. 0.8 meters; concrete plinth

 

Chuck Nafziger

 

1997

 

47°41´ N     122°23´ W

 

"We did not inherit this land from our parents, we are borrowing it from our children"

 

            This dial was built as part of the neighborhood-driven creation of Webster Park. Chuck Nafziger designed, fabricated, and installed the dial. The shadow center of the gnomon/polar axis can be read to 1-2 minute accuracy, and the shadow of the disk (falling on the gnomon) allows the date to be read. Both the upper (summer half of the year) and lower (winter half) surfaces of the disk are finely marked with one-minute divisions. The entire time scale is rotated by 9.6 minutes, in order to compensate for the shift from PST to the local longitude, although one still must adjust for the equation of time in order to compare with clock time.

            A 20 cm diameter brass globe is mounted at the top of the gnomon; a world map is engraved on this globe, with Seattle on the top. The half of this globe that is lit at any time corresponds exactly to the half of the Earth that is lit at that instant.

            There is much explanatory material incorporated into the dial's design. Other persons who contributed to the project were Virginia Lindahl, Lillian Riley, Peter Hirtle and Woody Sullivan.

 

 

 

5.  Pacific Science Center (southern edge of Seattle Center, nearest entry off 2nd Ave N, just N of Denny Way near center of Science Center's central courtyard, on edge of water; entry fee required)

 

Vertical dial; etched glass mounted in stainless steel; face 0.6 x 1.5  meters; plaque

 

Ron Karzmar

 

1991

 

47°37´ N     122°21´ W

 

            This vertical glass dial is read from the northern side, although the gnomon is formed from two perpendicular rods mounted ~8 cm out from the southern side. A clean modern design. Instead of straight hourlines (reading solar time), each hour is marked by a complete analemma, so that Pacific Standard Time can in principle be directly read.

            Datelines for the solstices and equinoxes are indicated, as well as two particular dates and times: (1) 8:30 am on 21 April (1962), the opening of the World's Fair on this site; the present Science Center was then the US Pavilion, designed by xxx; and (2) 3:45 pm on 11 November (1889), the founding of the State of Washington.

 

http://www.pacsci.org  -- for hours, fees, events, exhibits, etc.