Page 3 of 5
Tacoma, Washington
It seemed like the real thing but I was so blind
Putting the Tac in SeaTac, Tacoma is Washington's second biggest city, about 40 minutes south of downtown Seattle. When you get there you'll find a (relatively) impressive museum row with at least (or, more accurately, only) one interesting museum. The idea of a Museum of Glass is a good one, living legend Dale Chihuly lives in Seattle and everyone loves funky art glass. The museum itself isn't all it could really be, it is held back by small galleries, a "Bridge of Glass" that is surprisingly solid and no real connection with whatever Tacoma is really like.
Dale Chihuly is not represented inside the small galleries at the Museum of Glass but instead has produced a large installation on the Bridge of Glass, a wide, solid concrete bridge over the freeway and railroad tracks. The Chihuly parts are limited to two pavilions and two large blue ice cube towers. One of the pavilions contains individual vases and the other (pictured below) contains a ceiling of scattered stained glass pieces. If you're a fan of Chihuly and need to see more let me know, although admittedly if you're already familiar with his work then there's a damn good chance that you'll already be familiar with this.
The actual museum was designed by Arthur Erickson, the rarest of all types of architects, a Canadian who actually gets work outside of Canada (Frank Gehry doesn't count anymore). The centerpiece and really interesting space of the museum is the Hot Shop, an area inside the big cone where you can watch museum gift shop items being created.
As a Tacoma icon, the Museum of Glass works, although I will admit that I somehow expected a more interesting use of glass in a Museum of Glass and Bridge of Glass. Maybe that's just me.
Inside the Hot Shop, where a local artist (the woman in the green shirt) wields a fiery blue torch as she calmly directs a team (including possible guest star Carlos Valderrama) as they make a little blue ball with spiky orange things that can be used as, well, probably nothing useful actually.
