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At Ethnic Cultural Center building site, fencing tells a story
By
Catherine O'Donnell
UW News and Information
Once, most big construction sites were surrounded by cheap plywood boards or rickety chain-link fences, both with lots of signs saying KEEP OUT. But take a look next time you pass a site. Many sites are tidier, and often, the fencing is a whole lot more imaginative.
University of Washington / Mary Levin
University Architect Rebecca Barnes (left), University Landscape Architect Kristine Kenney and Assistant Professor of Visual Communication Design Kristine Matthews contributed ideas to the Construction Graphics Program.
Like at the corner of Brooklyn Avenue and Lincoln Way, where the new, three-story, 25,000-square-foot Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center is going up.
A series of 6-by-12 panels screen the site, affording safety for people passing by and neatening the site while also telling what’s going on, giving navigation instructions and celebrating the history and traditions of the center. The panels are part of the Construction Graphics Program, which is based in the Office of Planning & Budgeting.
Rebecca Barnes, the university’s architect, came up with the idea for the overall program, and Kristine Kenney, the university’s landscape architect, led the design work.
University of Washington / Mary Levin
This woman had her face painted as part of a Day of the Dead celebration staged by the Ethnic Cultural Center.
“There’s so much activity on campus that to keep everyone safe, we’re constantly redirecting people and vehicles,” Kenney said. She added that people want to know what’s going on, so the panels both explain and make the site more interesting.
Kenney’s group included faculty, staff and students who worked with Kristine Matthews, an assistant professor of visual communication design who also runs Studio Matthews, a Seattle-based graphic design firm.
"The concept was 'Create History',” Matthews said. “We wanted to look both forward and back, so there is a nod to the history of each site and its relevance to UW, but also a look forward.”
University of Washington / Mary Levin
This image was part of a mural in the original Ethnic Cultural Center. The mural will be installed in the new center.
The panels include both generic and customizable options. Along with the purple “W,” for example, the ECC graphics echo the groups – blacks, Chicanos, Asians, Native Americans – depicted in four murals in the original 1971 building. By the way, the murals have been preserved, and will be mounted in the new building.
The ECC panels, which cost $180-$220 apiece and were mounted in early December, are the first test of the program. They will be followed by panels at construction sites for Mercer Court Apartments, the student housing just below the northeast end of University Bridge; South Lake Union phase 3.1, the new UW medical research complex; and the Rainier Vista/Montlake Triangle Project, which will remake the area and include a Sound Transit station.
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