VERDI
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Christian Moeller’s VERDI, a 65-foot sculptural tower at Brightwater’s Influent Pump Station in Bothell, Washington ingeniously encloses the odor control stack. The artwork encourages greater understanding about the environmental mission of King County’s clean-water utility and the civic and individual responsibility for wise use and re-use of water resources. Moeller is known for public artwork that is smart, elegant, simple in its material uses and extraordinary when encountered. Verdi is composed of more than 3,500 repurposed green glass water bottles. In developing his work for Brightwater, the artist considered the political and economic structure of water resources fueling a worldwide demand for bottled water. This “growing market for bottled water has exploded and hundreds of companies find themselves in competition, selling us a product that on deeper thought should be freely accessible to all,” states the artist. The sculpture’s scale speaks to the enormous amount of water that is conveyed to and from Brightwater. Its form also makes visual and conceptual connections to the traditional architecture of water towers, landmark structures that play historical roles in conservation and sustenance and that are often a small town’s most prominent feature and source of civic identity and pride. During daylight hours, the glass reflects and refracts sunlight. At night, the sculpture is illuminated with customized fixtures designed to throw an intense glow only on the slender sculptural tower, minimizing light cast onto the surrounding property and pump station yard. Developing artwork in the form of a functioning odor control stack requires consummate fabrication skills, testing and research. All components must comply with industrial building codes and meet rigorous standards for chemical, fire and combustibility resistance. The amount of air moving through these stacks subjects the tower to constant vibration and stress.