Do you hear that?

That's a sound garden.

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

That's the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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

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

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

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

sculpture, there's a steel flute that's taller than I am, hanging perpendicular to the ground.

The sculptures release this halo of sound that hangs like a dome over the top of the hill they're

standing on, overlooking Lake Washington.

In a way, Soundgarden is kind of a soundtrack to the lake, too.

Doug Hollis is the guy who built these structures.

What do we call your work?

Art or science or architecture?

People call it a lot of things.

The broad term I use is environmental sculpture.

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

We'll hear from Doug about how the idea for a sound garden started with him flying kites over a garbage dump.

And yeah, we'll also talk a little bit about the band that took its name from this sculpture.

I'm Sarah Wyman, and this is Atlas Obscura.

We're running.

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