SEATTLE, WASHINGTON.- The Trustees of the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) unveiled Weiss/Manfredi Architects’ final concept design for an 8.5-acre sculpture park overlooking Elliott Bay. The Olympic Sculpture Park, the third venue of the Seattle Art Museum, will transform the Emerald City’s largest and last undeveloped waterfront property from a former industrial site into vibrant new green space for people to experience modern and contemporary art beyond the museum’s walls and appreciate the city and unique environment of the Puget Sound.

Weiss/Manfredi Architects, one of the country’s leading emerging practices, has created an innovative design that integrates art, architecture, landscape design and urban infrastructure, connecting the city to open waterfront space. The architects’ design is conceived as a continuous surface that unfolds as a landscape for art, connecting three disparate sites, currently separated by train tracks and roadways. Their unique ‘Z’ shaped design joins art, city and sound into one uninterrupted form.

The architects have worked closely with the museum’s Deputy Director of Art, Lisa Corrin, throughout the design process to define a new model for a sculpture park, creating a multi-textured landscape with a range of open precincts providing animated spaces for the evolving medium of sculpture. The ambitious artistic program and design of the park will engage visitors through the element of surprise, presenting rotating works and commissions that will be continually redefined by the changing seasons, time of day and weather.

“We are delighted with Weiss/Manfredi’s dynamic design for the Olympic Sculpture Park which will provide an accessible place for people to connect with art,” says Mimi Gardner Gates, Director of the Seattle Art Museum. “It has long been part of our mission to break down the barriers of the museum walls and their design has made this a reality.”

The Olympic Sculpture Park will present an international exhibition program incorporating works by regional artists. The park will feature works from the Seattle Art Museum’s collection, such as Alexander Calder’s monumental sculpture, Eagle (1971), loaned works and special exhibitions, as well as artists’ commissions and ephemeral installations that draw on the urban texture and regional environment.

Located in Belltown, just north of Seattle’s central business district, the park will serve as a major cultural and scenic destination, providing an urban oasis with spectacular views of the Olympic Mountains, Elliott Bay and Seattle’s downtown skyline. Free to the public, the park will include a pavilion for exhibitions, performances and educational programming, a café, safe and convenient pedestrian access to the waterfront and underground parking. Construction of the $60-million park is currently expected to begin in 2003, with a projected opening date of 2004 which is contingent upon final route selection and funding for the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement. SAM is working closely with representatives from the City of Seattle and the State of Washington to coordinate the design and construction of both projects concurrently.

“The Olympic Sculpture Park will further elevate sculpture as an important visual art form and build on Seattle’s long-standing international reputation as an innovator in the field of public art,” says Jon Shirley, a leading sponsor of the project who with his wife Mary named the park after its dramatic vista of the Olympic Mountains. “This new sculpture park will be a lasting and important legacy for the museum and the city.”

“Weiss/Manfredi Architects have designed a spectacular green space for Seattle residents and visitors to enjoy,” says Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels. “SAM’s Olympic Sculpture Park will help to bolster our reputation nationally and internationally as a leader in urban environmental stewardship and a pioneer of public art.”

“The new park will serve as an excellent example to the nation by demonstrating that urban growth does not mean we have to sacrifice open space,” says Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash).

The park will join celebrated cultural landmarks that have contributed to the area’s architectural renaissance, including Robert Venturi’s downtown Seattle Art Museum building, Steven Holl’s Saint Ignatius Chapel, Frank Gehry’s Experience Music Project, Rem Koolhaas’ upcoming Seattle Public Library and the Seattle Symphony’s LMN-designed Benaroya Hall.