Gas Works Park

Author's Comments

The rusted machinery is the trick of this place. Most city parks try to hide what was there before, and Gas Works does the opposite - it lets the old gasification towers stand right where they were left, dark and skeletal against whatever the sky is doing on a given evening. That is the photograph. The skyline of Seattle sits across Lake Union to the south, and on a clear summer evening the towers go nearly black while the downtown buildings catch the last warm light. The contrast is the picture. Without the industrial bones in the foreground, this would just be another skyline view. I climb the sundial hill first when I arrive. It is not high, but it is high enough to read the geography - the lake below, the city beyond, the towers anchoring the middle distance. From up there I plan the evening. Then I come back down and work the towers themselves, looking for the angle where the rust catches a sliver of side light and the skyline stacks behind the structure rather than beside it. The reflection on Lake Union is its own consideration. Calm water happens more often than you would expect here, especially in the hour before sunset when the wind drops. When it happens the seaplanes lift off and leave wakes that take five minutes to settle, and if you are patient the city doubles itself in the water. Winter has its own argument. Fewer people, harder light, and the towers read more starkly against a flat gray sky. Not every evening here is golden. The ones that are not can be better.

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