Shadow Caster, Commuter Rail Station, Sumner, Washington, Commissioned by Sound Transit, 2000.

Two steel trellises frame the pedestrian entrance to the rail station. Custom tree grate. Waterjet cut, painted steel, aluminum, cast iron.

The artist was involved from the master planning stage through construction and artwork fabrication for this commuter rail station. She served as a member of the design team that developed the conceptual master plan, influencing the overall site. Later, she worked with the design team for the actual design of the station and created the gateway trellis features and station tree grates. The tree grate design was adopted by the city as the official design for subsequent streetscape improvements to the downtown.

The roof panels of the trellises cast shadows on the concrete below of hops leaves and flowers as ghostly reminders of the area’s agricultural past. The architecture of the station draws on the vernacular building vocabulary of the hops kiln as its motif.

Shadow Caster, Sumner Commuter Rail
Shadow Caster, Sumner Commuter Rail
"Hops" tree grate, Sumner Commuter Rail