The Tsutakawa fountain, which for more than 40 years has graced the Fifth Avenue plaza at the Central Library in downtown Seattle, will be removed on Monday and placed in storage while the building is demolished.
The library, which was dedicated in 1960, is being razed to make way for the construction of Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas’s bold and exciting facility. The new 355,000-square-foot library will open on the same site at 1000 Fourth Ave. in late 2003. Known as “The Fountain of Wisdom,” the abstract bronze sculpture is significant because it is the first fountain by George Tsutakawa, a Seattle artist who won international recognition for his scores of graceful sculpture fountains. Tsutakawa died in December 1997 at age 87.
The artist’s son, Gerard Tsutakawa, who also is a sculptor, will supervise the removal of the fountain.
City Librarian Deborah L. Jacobs said the Library would have the fountain restored and reinstalled at the southwest corner of the site when the new building is completed. “The fountain is not only beautiful, it is incredibly important to the people of Seattle and to the Library,” she said. "It’s a piece of our shared heritage. It’s another way for the Library to demonstrate the importance of history."
It will take several hours to prepare the fountain to be moved. Seattle-based Artech Fine Arts Services Inc. will begin at 9 a.m. Monday by draining and drying the reservoir and strapping together the seven pieces of the fountain to stabilize it, according to Peter Lane, Artech’s project manager for the job.
The crew will remove the bronze bolts from the legs and cut through a cone and a vertical pipe at the base of the fountain. A forklift will lift the 9-ft., 6-inch sculpture – which weighs an estimated 800 to 1,000 pounds – onto a flatbed truck. Lane estimated the fountain likely would be lifted and placed on the truck between 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m.
The existing Central Library will close at 6 p.m. Friday, June 8 to allow books and equipment to be moved to the Temporary Central Library at 800 Pike St. The temporary facility will open at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 7. Demolition of the existing Central Library is expected to begin in mid-August.
The new central library is part of the $196.4 million “Libraries for All” bond measure that Seattle voters passed in 1998. The plan calls for improving or replacing all 22 branch libraries, building five new branches and building a new central library. For more information about Libraries for All, visit the Library’s Web site at www.spl.org and select "Libraries for All capital projects."
(For more information, call Andra Addison, communications director, at 206-386-4103, or Caroline Young Ullmann, communications assistant, at 206-615-1627.)
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Content modified: 4 June 2001
12/30/2005
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