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.
There’s also an igloo on Boylston near Harrison on Cap. Hill.
just walked by it at twilight. magnifico!
simply awesome.
Hmmm. It looks more Medieval than Castilian.
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.”
Mr. Slave, they’re already in the flicker pool.
I’m glad somebody found a reason to complain about this post, though.
Bullshit. They’ve obviously drawn inspiration from (if not outright ripped off) San Chapelle.
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.
@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.
@ 8-9… i think he’s entitled to refer to his housemates as losers
I like it
@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…
I love flying buttresses. Modern archetecture is greatly lacking such lovely features.
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’.