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The Atlas Obscura Podcast

A Sound Garden

The Atlas Obscura Podcast

SiriusXM Podcasts & Atlas Obscura

Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.61.6K Ratings

🗓️ 30 May 2022

⏱️ 16 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

An orchard of metal poles sits on a hill overlooking Lake Washington. And when the wind blows, this musical sculpture "sings the world into existence" with its unique sound. READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/a-sound-garden

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Do you hear that?

0:09.0

That's a sound garden.

0:10.9

It's a sculpture here in Seattle at the Western Regional Center for NOAA.

0:16.4

That's the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

0:20.6

And at first glance, this sculpture does look kind of like a piece of weather forecasting

0:26.1

equipment.

0:27.7

It's made up of 12 tall steel structures planted in a group.

0:32.6

And at the top of each pole, about 20 feet up in the air, there's a sleek metallic fin.

0:38.6

It works like a windvane.

0:40.4

So as a breeze blows through this orchard of metal poles, the tops all turn to face it.

0:47.3

On each sculpture, there's a steel flute that's taller than I am, hanging perpendicular

0:53.1

to the ground.

0:55.0

The sculptures release this halo of sound that hangs like a dome over the top of the

1:00.6

hill they're standing on, overlooking Lake Washington.

1:04.0

So in a way, sound garden is kind of a soundtrack to the lake too.

1:09.2

Doug Hollis is the guy who built these structures.

1:12.7

What do we call your work?

1:14.4

Art or science or architecture?

1:17.7

People call it a lot.

1:20.8

What's the broad term I use as environmental sculpture?

1:25.2

Today we're going to spend some time in this blurry art science music zone.

1:30.8

We'll hear from Doug about how the idea for a sound garden started with him flying

...

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