A Sound Garden, Sound sculpture on the NOAA campus in Seattle, United States
A Sound Garden is a wind-powered sound sculpture located on the NOAA campus beside Lake Washington in Seattle. The installation consists of twelve steel towers, each fitted with organ pipes and weather vanes that turn with the breeze to produce musical notes.
Douglas Hollis created the work in the early 1980s for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grounds. The piece took shape during a period when regional artists explored wind and natural forces as creative materials.
The Seattle rock band Soundgarden took its name from this installation. After frontman Chris Cornell died in 2017, the sculpture became a makeshift memorial where fans gathered and left tributes. The site lies on the NOAA campus, which has been closed to the public since April 9, 2023.
As of April 9, 2023, the NOAA Western Regional Center campus, including all trails and art installations, is closed to the public. The sculpture stands on the grassy shore of Lake Washington, adjacent to Warren G. Magnuson Park. The twelve towers rise 21 feet (6.4 m) and are visible from outside the closed campus.
A well-known Seattle rock band adopted the name of this installation in the late 1980s. Each tower produces its own sequence of notes depending on wind direction and speed, so no two listening moments are ever the same.
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