On February 20th, students and faculty of the Department of German Studies and the School of Art visited Sound Garden, an outdoor public art work in Seattle. It is one of six such works on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) campus, which lies adjacent to Magnuson Park on the northwestern shore of Lake Washington. While Rebecca Cummins explored with us the sculptural and humorous aspects of the installation, Dorothee Ostmeier connected the dots between organ pipes and her lecture on Feb 21st, in which she talked about (among other things) the famous (and infamously inaccessible) Sound Garden.
Listening in the Sound Garden overlooking Lake Washington.
Designed and built by sculptor Douglas Hollis in 1983, the sound sculpture is composed of twelve 21-foot high steel tower structures, at the top of each of which hangs an organ pipe attached to a weather vane that produces etherial sounds when stirred by the wind.
The Sound Garden is located behind the walls of NOAA, which does not allow visitors without permission.
We may have been the first (since 2020) and possibly the last group to visit (until funding for NOAA will be restored). The guard at the NOAA access gate said they closed during the pandemic and re-opened for our group. As of April 8, 2025, the Sound Garden and other sculptures on the NOAA property are closed to the public. Cuts to federal funding for NOAA may be a factor.