Chihuly Garden Exhibition is official...at last!

Today’s is the day we’ve been waiting for. It’s been so hard to hold back the hurrahs but we’ve learned not to take anything for granted in Seattle’s process of public approvals. The Mayor has signed the lease and the Master Use Permit is approved. NOW we can begin to build the world’s most comprehensive exhibition of the magnificent glass art of Dale Chihuly. In spite of the open government process unique to Seattle and those who heard about it and thought they deserved the use of the space more, the Chihuly Garden Exhibition will open in time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our city’s coming out at the 1962’s world’s Fair.

This approval has been the longest 90-day process imaginable. We had the idea and began planning in late 2008. Throughout 2009, we met with Seattle Center, planned amongst ourselves and developed a timeline that would give us some breathing room to be open well in advance of the World’s Fair 50th anniversary in April 2012. In February 2010, we ran our design through the City’s design commission and then in March, we announced to the media the intention to place an exhibition of world renowned artist Dale Chihuly’s work on the south site of the Fun Forest amusement park next to the Space Needle. The idea was a great one from the beginning. It seemed like a slam dunk…a no-brainer. We made the salient benefits clear from the very beginning:

• There would be no cost whatsoever to the city of Seattle
• This would be a world-class exhibition of Dale Chihuly’s art that, by independent analysis, would bring 400,000 new visitors a year to view it.
• Over the life of a five-year lease with three possible extensions, the city could realize $24 million from tax and lease payments
• And over 400 family wage jobs would be generated throughout the construction period and beyond

After public meetings, more analysis, strong community outreach and extensive meetings with the City Council and the Mayor’s Office, we added:

• a $2 million dollar children’s play area in the north Fun Forest site,
• expanded opportunity for other artists to be displayed around the Seattle Center grounds,
• a major arts program for the schools that includes bus transportation to and from Seattle Center
• and assembled a group of deserving art-related community groups as partners that would benefit from the project.

Now some 16-months since first approaching the Design Commission, there is simply no way to count the endless hours that have been spent to get us to this point. It’s been like an expedition. When things are this intense and often stressful and the conditions are constantly changing, even the team starts to fray a bit around the edges. But the best always come out on top. Many, many people have played important roles in this process. The family of Howard S. Wright, who built and became the owner of the Space Needle, have joined with Dale Chihuly and his studio to bring an attraction of major magnitude to our city and its heart at Seattle Center.

There is a book in the happenings around this project over the past many months but I’m too happy to write it now. Even with the on-line nay-sayers, the foes of glass art, the biased vitriolic media, those who thought their ideas for the use of the space were the only answer, those who used the process to get their own way on the coat-tails of this project and those, including the mayor, who, now after throwing roadblock after roadblock in front of us, claim it as their own, we have achieved our objective and we’re proud and happy with the outcome. We’ve started something that will make our city, region and, in some respects, the world a more vibrant, exciting place. Whew!

All things Royal...

The buzz in London was getting louder when the date for the Royal Wedding was announced. We were there visiting friends for some pre-Olympic reconnaissance. “Official” souvenirs were being very tightly controlled. After asking in every place imaginable, we found the only item that was immediately available in a small Windsor shop across from the castle. It was a post card of the Royal Couple’s engagement photo, which you can see below. We mailed a couple back for the postmarks and brought a stack home for our friends. This was the beginning of the Royal Wedding adventure.

It was really my mother who was enamored by all things Royal. She watched the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II (Helen Mirren in the movie or William’s grandmother, if you’re not keeping track.) Next it was Grace Kelly’s rise to royalty through marriage and then Sarah Ferguson (you can’t just say Fergie anymore) and, of course, Diana. Mom followed the royal exploits through pre-Hello/People magazines in the 50’s and 60’s. And then when television turned from black-and-white to color, she never missed a report or special about European royalty.

Some of my mother’s devotion must have rubbed off on me because it wasn’t too hard for Jane to talk me into seeing THE wedding somehow. We started by hoping to be in London with our friends there but that just didn’t work out. Once we scrapped that idea then we started looking for a way to bring it close to home. Finally, I decided we could celebrate Jane’s birthday (She blocks out the whole month of April) and the Royal Wedding at the place where I shook hands with both the Queen and Prince Philip. They were in Victoria, BC, on my birthday (not “for” but “on”) during the Queen’s Jubilee. We were staying at the Empress and when they arrived for tea, we were right next to the entrance and they both “touched” the crowd, including me. I snapped these two pictures just after my encounter.

“Rise and Shine with the Royals” at the Fairmont Empress in Victoria was the idea of Theresa Dickinson, head of Food & Beverage there. She’s from Cambridge, England, and she told me that when she first voiced the thought, there was a somewhat quizzical look from management. But they did it anyway and what a success it was. The event sold out quickly and was even expanded to accommodate as many “wedding crashers” as possible. They came from coast-to-coast in Canada and many from the US as well. It quickly became THE place to see the wedding in all of North America.

Festivities in the famous Empress Tea Room were scheduled to begin at 2am but the crowd began to gather at 1:30. The invitation encouraged you to wear your pj’s and Empress Bath Robe, which many did, but there were quite a number of women dressed to the nine’s for the wedding, including very elegant hats and “fascinators”. I had never heard of a “fascinator” until Kate Middleton was photographed wearing one. My British friend referred to it as a “bit of fluff” in the hair and that’s a pretty apt description.

Men were definitely in the minority. In fact, I’ve never been in a room filled with so many women in their pj’s and bath robes and probably never will be again. The few of us sprinkled in amongst the hundreds of women offered a wide disparity in our reactions to the wedding. Many found it an ideal opportunity to catch one of those great “opera naps” (sit up straight and don’t drool) after enjoying breakfast. Speaking of breakfast, it was excellent. A full English breakfast including great bangers, bacon, kippers, baked beans, fried bread and pastries with eggs cooked to order was a hit with everyone. And as an added benefit, we got to eat on the Queen’s china, which had only been used once before at her Jubilee celebration.

In my opinion, the wedding was a 10. It could not have been better. I was texting with our English friends throughout and the tears came at about the same times…the wedding vows, the hymn written specially for the ceremony sung by the children’s choir and when they played the UK National Anthem “God Save the Queen”, we all stood up and sang just like we were there in the Abbey. (I noticed that the Queen wasn’t singing, but then I guess that makes sense, when you think about it. Who, me?)

Unless we could have stepped outside and watched the carriage go by, it could have not been a more perfect event. I thought for sure they would have some professional photographers there but Jane didn’t take any chances. She almost filled a 2GB photo card with pictures OF THE TELEVISION SCREEN! Unbelievable! She even got “the kiss”, although it was the second one. It came at 5:38am according to the camera and everyone was very happy. As the party broke up (we all got late checkouts from the hotel), Jane and I stopped for a quick photo with the Royal Couple. The man who took it for us had just purchased his official ceremonial, post-marked Royal Wedding stamps, so that required one more queue to stand in but I think my mother would have been quite pleased to have the souvenir.

I was tweeting throughout the ceremony but my last one said how I felt about the evening. “ Sealed with a kiss…ok, two. Well orchestrated. Well performed. Well done. A happy moment in our troubled world. Thank you, Wills and Kate.” Just two days later, things took another turn with the demise of the demonic man who started our troubles in the new century. But I hope the Royal Wedding will stand on its own in history as a time when we all came together to celebrate happiness, tradition and life. As my British friend said afterward, “One thing is for sure. We know how to put on a big event.” Amen to that. I wouldn't have missed it for anything.