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Monday, December 22, 2008

City Sagrada Familia of Green Lake

Posted by Unpaid Intern on Mon, Dec 22, 2008 at 6:55 PM

Posted by Aaron Pickus

An architectural wonder made of impermanent snow has been erected for the ages (or at least a week) on the north shore of Green Lake. When asked what his inspiration was for the project, chief architect Ben Van Citters said, "Notre Dame. Especially the flying buttresses." Van Citters is also known for his critically acclaimed effort to transform a nearby footpath into a harrowing bobsled course. The cornerstone for the castle, cathedral and impenetrable fortress was put into place sometime around midnight during the storm last Saturday.

Work has progressed continuously since then (full disclosure: these losers are my housemates). "At first I was just doing it out of boredom, but I worked on it today to meet some wenches" explains principal designer Chris Church. No word yet on his success. Inside, tourists will find archways and turrets. Weary gawkers will also notice benches, inside the main chamber, on which to sit while contemplating the energies of our nation's youth. The Sagrada Familia of Green Lake is located on the lawn surrounding the lake between Latona and Sunnyside. This successful project challenges the conventional wisdom that new construction is not occurring in Seattle.

Comments (14) RSS

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There's also an igloo on Boylston near Harrison on Cap. Hill.

Posted by keshmeshi on December 22, 2008 at 7:16 PM

just walked by it at twilight. magnifico!

Posted by sonya on December 22, 2008 at 7:39 PM

simply awesome.

Posted by nixor on December 22, 2008 at 8:12 PM

Hmmm. It looks more Medieval than Castilian.

Posted by John on December 22, 2008 at 8:30 PM

Uh, yeah.

Look, there's stuff like this in at least one corner of every named neighborhood in the city, right now, what with the combination of snow and a weekend and a populace that's actually pretty creative in general when they're not otherwise obliged to do stuff.

It's great that you Stranger Staffers know some people well enough to fast-track their photos to the SLOG while you're snowed in, but come on. There's tons of ridiculously good snow-sculpture all over Seattle right now, and all of it ephemeral. You're missing 90% of the good stuff.

I don't think anyone will begrudge the Stranger staff's decision to file this week's stories (or blog posts) from home. But when it comes to ad-hoc local arts coverage in this snowy interregnum, it seems pretty fucked up to pass the local-arts-reporting torch via nepotism instead of opening it up to your readership at large.

It doesn't take much. Just a little blurb in the "morning news" saying "send us your cool snow-art photos, and we'll give you a whole slog post, if we like it."

Posted by robotslave on December 22, 2008 at 8:41 PM

Mr. Slave, they're already in the flicker pool.

I'm glad somebody found a reason to complain about this post, though.

Posted by elenchos on December 22, 2008 at 8:55 PM

Bullshit. They've obviously drawn inspiration from (if not outright ripped off) San Chapelle.

Posted by Jessica on December 22, 2008 at 10:20 PM

My favorite part of the post is how the "Unpaid Intern", while posting about the labor and detail of several days work, describes the people involved as "these losers".

See how early it starts? If you care, if you try, if you are anything other than fashionably (poorly) dressed and bored, you are ridiculed.

Posted by John Galt on December 22, 2008 at 11:45 PM

@8- I noticed the same thing. At least they weren't referred to as "fuckers", but I suppose it will only be a matter of time if Intern stays at Slog much longer.

Re the castle: spritz it with water for more staying power.

Posted by hartiepie on December 23, 2008 at 3:23 AM

@ 8-9... i think he's entitled to refer to his housemates as losers

Posted by nixor on December 23, 2008 at 6:48 AM

I like it

Posted by Snow Whistle on December 23, 2008 at 7:33 AM

@4: why should it be Castilian?

@8: they're his friends, which I think is more of the reasoning behind the epithet rather than some cool hipster posing. Those who have never called their friends losers have no recent memory of being young...

Posted by Abby on December 23, 2008 at 8:11 AM

I love flying buttresses. Modern archetecture is greatly lacking such lovely features.

Posted by wigmore on December 23, 2008 at 9:05 AM

And if the inspiration in Notre Dame, why is he calling it the Sagrada Familia of Green Lake? Should it not be called the Notre Dame of Green Lake? Just sayin'.

Posted by ac on December 23, 2008 at 11:55 AM