George Tsutakawa, sculptor of Waiola Fountain - Beyond Tiki

W woofmutt Member Seattilite Telstar Joined: Mar 26, 2002 Posts: 2639	W woofmutt Posted posted on Sun, Nov 4, 2012 10:33 AM I think Tsutakawa's work is largely invisible to a lot of people as it's associated with the International Style, particularly 1960s municipal and commercial architecture which has mostly come to be regarded as boring and is often torn down to make way for something "better." The old downtown Seattle Public Library was such a building and had a Tsutakawa fountain, Fountain of Wisdom, in an outdoor plaza. The building was torn down in 2001. Surprisingly the Tsutakawa fountain was reinstalled by an entrance. It's one of the few genuine features of the new library building which is a large, flashy, glass spectacle. Image by Chuck Moody There's also a Tsutakawa fountain on the Seattle waterfront near the ferry docks. The waterfront is being heavily redone right now and hopefully the fountain will stay there. Though I love Seattle's gray and rain this fountain on a sunny summer day is really fantastic. Image by Jefree Stewart (The picture shows the fountain as I last saw it with some damage; one of the "petals" was bent down.) There are other Tsutakawa pieces around Seattle, a couple of which are shown in this historylink.org article.

I think Tsutakawa's work is largely invisible to a lot of people as it's associated with the International Style, particularly 1960s municipal and commercial architecture which has mostly come to be regarded as boring and is often torn down to make way for something "better."

The old downtown Seattle Public Library was such a building and had a Tsutakawa fountain, Fountain of Wisdom, in an outdoor plaza. The building was torn down in 2001. Surprisingly the Tsutakawa fountain was reinstalled by an entrance. It's one of the few genuine features of the new library building which is a large, flashy, glass spectacle.

Image by Chuck Moody

There's also a Tsutakawa fountain on the Seattle waterfront near the ferry docks. The waterfront is being heavily redone right now and hopefully the fountain will stay there. Though I love Seattle's gray and rain this fountain on a sunny summer day is really fantastic.

Image by Jefree Stewart

(The picture shows the fountain as I last saw it with some damage; one of the "petals" was bent down.)

There are other Tsutakawa pieces around Seattle, a couple of which are shown in this historylink.org article.

Post #657752 by woofmutt on Sun, Nov 4, 2012 10:33 AM