HADDAD | DRUGAN

Undercurrents is the public art component of King County's Denny Way/Lake Union CSO Project, a $140 million dollar project that reduces untreated combined sewer overflows into Elliott Bay and Lake Union through a series of pipes and tunnels. Laura Haddad, the design team artist, chose to focus the art at the marine outfall site in Myrtle Edwards Park, where the impact on water quality is most evident. The artwork consists of a landscaped plaza with integrated sculptural elements fabricated from stainless steel pipe that direct the viewer’s attention to the underground infrastructure.

Plaza runoff drains through a swale aligned over the outfall pipes, mimicking what happens underground during storms. The swale is etched with words and lines describing moving water. Wave-activated sound pipes are built into the new shoreline. Letters spelling "h’loo-loo-loo-loo-loo," a sound from a native American myth about water, are embedded in the concrete paving in front of the soundpipes. Concrete for the paving and seatwalls is colored and stained and includes broadcast river rock. Gates and fences for the pump building beside the plaza are fabricated from pipe bent and welded to resemble reeds and eddies.

A second phase for this project currently in construction includes a new mechanical vault wrapped on three sides with a planted berm, symbolizing stormwater utility as green infrastructure.  The fourth side is a stainless steel wall aligned with the existing swale and etched with a metaphoric pictogram depicting the processes of stormwater collection, transport, and treatment.  Five mirrored stainless steel vent pipes extend out of the vault, conveying infrastructure that merges with its environment.