Sundials in Seattle and Nearby Regions
For
information on these, contact Woody Sullivan at
woody(@)astro.washington.edu.
Updated August 2006; photos and much more
information
coming shortly!
I. Within Seattle
*
University
of Washington, Physics/Astronomy Building, just E of intersection of 15th Ave NE and NE Pacific
St,
facing Burke-Gilman Trail; large wall sundial (explanatory plaque below);
Woody
Sullivan, Larry Stark, & Mihaly Turbucz, 1994.
* University Prep Academy (main entrance), N side of NE 80th St
just
E of 25th Ave NE; 10-ft-tall variation on the traditional
shepherd's
or pillar sundial; Peggy Dow, Ray Monnat & Woody Sullivan; fabricated
by
Charles Wiemeyer, 2002.
* Olympic View Elementary
School, 504 NE 95th St (just E of
5th
Ave NE); (a) large vertical dial on S wall of school, and (b) analemmatic
dial
on playground surface; Bill Fetterley, Cynthia Livak, Melanie Olsen, Woody
Sullivan, & grades 4-5 students; 1999.
* Lakeside School, just S of intersection of NE 145th St and
1st
Ave NE; concrete bench with terrazzo dial panels and bronze gnomon; Ross
Brown,
Peter Bevis, Woody Sullivan, and students (especially Rachel Sullivan and
Etienne Lebailly) in the graduating class of 1995.
Directions:
(1) turn W after taking NE 145th St exit off Interstate 5, (2) at second light,
turn
left (S) on 1st Ave NE, (3) turn left immediately into lot next to gym,
(4)
take winding path along S side of gym, (5) dial is on
left.
* Pacific Science Center (admission fee required), Seattle Center, Mercer
St
and W Denny Way; vertical glass dial mounted in one of the central
courtyard
ponds; Ron Karzmar, ~1994. [many more details at end of this
listing]
* Gasworks Park (~NE Northlake Way at Meridian Ave N), top of the large
"kite
hill"; large, ornate analemmatic dial; Chuck Greening and Kim Lazare,
1979. [many more details at end of this listing]
* Webster Park (just W of Nordic Heritage Museum), NW 68th St between 30th and
31st
Aves NW; equatorial dial; Chuck Nafziger, 1997. [many more details at end
of
this listing]
* Sam Hill Mansion, 814 E. Highland Dr. (just off Broadway); bronze
vertical dial easily visible from street on E end of S side of private
home;
1909 - oldest extant dial in Seattle.
*
University
of Washington, Drumheller Fountain ("Frosh Pond");
horizontal dial; "Class of 1912" graduating
gift.
* North Seattle Community
College, just E of cafeteria on S edge of main bldg,
~100 m E
of College Way NE on N side of NE 95th St; equatorial dial (memorial to
George
Lewis); Daryl Smith, ~1990. [many more details at end of this
listing]
* Cowen Park,
play area just N of Ravenna Blvd NE and W of Cowen Pl NE; large horizontal
dial; Randy Nussbaum, 1999. [many more details at end of this
listing]
* Greenwood Elementary School, on NW 80th St just east of
3rd
Ave NW; large horizontal dial at east entrance to school - gnomon is a
disk on
a ~10-ft high pole; Larry Stark and Woody Sullivan,
2002.
* Suyama Peterson Deguchi
Architects, SuyamaSpace Gallery (open during business
hours),
2324 Second Ave, interior tracings on walls, floors, and stairway for
aperture
dial (small circular window in SW wall); George Suyama and Woody Sullivan,
1996-98.
* Burke-Gilman Park, on NW side of Sandpoint Way NE, at NE 52nd St,
in
playground ~50 m from small parking lot; vertical, conical gnomon on tiled
horizontal surface (~2 inches of gnomon's tip is missing), in a small
ampitheatre; Robert Shimbo, 1987.
* Montlake Branch Library, 2401 24th Ave E (at E McGraw St), a
"skylight aperture sundial" inside the library; holes in the ceiling cast
colored spots of light on to the floor, marking noontime and the seasons;
Rebecca Cummins, 2006.
* Smith Cove Park, just E of 23rd Ave W and W Marina Pl; horizontal dial
(in
memory of Richard Mohn, Port of Seattle executive); "Noonmark Industries",
1978.
* Weatherwatch Park, Beach Dr SW at SW Carroll St (West Seattle); small vertical dial (painted enamel) facing S on concrete monolith; Lezlie Jane, 1991.
* Meridian Park Elementary School, just W of N 175th St and Meridian Ave N (Shoreline); concrete horizontal dial with stainless steel gnomon, ~2002?.
* Evergreen Washelli Cemetery, 11111 Aurora Ave N; 6 horizontal dials on
graves
(all on W side of Aurora Ave); oldest is from 1925 on the grave of Richard
W.
Richards.
* Epiphany Episcopal Church, 38th Ave, just S of E Denny Way
(Capitol
Hill); horizontal dial on E side of church in "The Remembering Garden",
1999.
Note that the following are
not working sundials:
-
Van Asselt Playground, NE of
Beacon Ave S and S Myrtle St (Beacon Hill) - iron spherical
structure on
tall stone plinth
-
apparent sundial on the wall of the house at 2608 W Galer
St
===================================================================
II. Sundials near Seattle (Everett-Tacoma, but not in Seattle)
Edmonds
* Edmonds-Woodway High School, wall dial
(1998)
* Public Safety Complex, meridian line (2001)
* Maplewood Elementary School, analemmatic
dial
Redmond
* Town Center Shopping Center (Macy's),
equatorial
dial (2003)
Renton
* Time Square, very large horizontal dial
(2004)
Kent
* Millennium Plaza, large horizontal dial
(2001)
Auburn
* Les Gove Park, horizontal dial on "picnic table" (2001)
Tacoma
* University of Puget Sound (University Hall),
vertical dial (1958)
* Commencement Park, large equatorial dial
(1978)
* Woodward Middle School, flagpole gnomon?
(1998)
================================================
FURTHER DETAILS on 5 of the Seattle sundials in lists I.A and I.B; full
information on
other dials coming soon
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
â
ˆ
ž37
Â
â¥
N 122
ˆ
ž21
Â
¥ 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 Science Pavilion,
designed by Minoru Yamasaki; 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.
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
â
ž39ˆ
Â
¥
N 122
â
ˆ
ž20
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¥ 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
http://www.larch.umd.edu/classes/larc/L160/Slides/parksplaygrounds/SLIDES34_39_45/SLIDES39_45.html
- photos of Gasworks Park, including the dial
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
â
ˆ
ž41
¥
N 122
â
ˆ
ž23
Â
¥ 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.
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
â
ˆ
ž42
¥
N 122Â
â
ˆ
ž20
Â
¥ 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 of this dial (and just east of the
Gasworks
Park 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
â
ˆ
ž20
Â
¥ W.
http://www.northseattle.edu/info/ -- photo of dial
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
ˆ
ž40
Â
¥
N 122
â
ˆ
ž19
Â
¥ 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
ˆâ
ž 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