HADDAD | DRUGAN

Emerald City is a landmark artwork currently in design for the roadway into Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.  The piece portrays a utopian city, a fantastic abstraction of an idealized place with allusions to the Pacific Northwest. 

A towering ecotopia feature composed of illuminated and planted terraces and spires creates a portal into the Airport, appealing to the sense of wonder and possibility associated with travel.  Evergreen plants will slowly envelop the vine towers and topiary cages, conveying a “greening” of the city.

Leading up to the portal and structuring the grades of the median and west embankment are linear gabion walls, in front of which flow planted undulating berms alluding to the land- and water-scapes of Washington State. Behind the walls are rows of cherry trees with blue accent lights.

The focal point of Emerald City is a solar-powered clock tower clad in receding and protruding stainless steel fins, one of which houses an LED clock panel.  Photovoltaic cells will be integrated into angled fins down the south side of the tower, powering internal lights that change color with the air temperature.

This project is particularly coplex, as it involves multiple contracts and design teams, and review and compliance with regulations of agencies including the Port of Seattle, the FAA, Sound Transit, and WSDOT.

“Emerald offers us rarity and sparkle. A green city provides an ideal reflection of nature; a city not in opposition to the forest, but a humanized version of it. It is the city as a dazzling garden, a dream of nature perfected.”

- The Emerald City by Daniel Willis