Just what environmentally conscious Seattleites needed: a giant reminder in the middle of the city to illustrate that ice does indeed melt.
Seattle architecture firm Olson Kundig dropped its 10-ton Ice Cube in Occidental Park on Thursday night (as part of the Seattle Design Festival) and by Friday afternoon folks were sharing tweets and images about an art installation designed to define “temporary.”
The purpose of the piece — other than to remind us that we didn’t even need our AK today! — is to showcase “the stages of the natural water cycle as the ice shifts from opaque to translucent,” according to Kundig’s website. “The pure form of the cube will gradually erode in the summer sun, marking the passage of time as its waters slowly return to the sea.”
How fast that might happen even drew the attention of Cliff Mass, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington and all around weather nerd.
Mass launched a contest on his blog asking readers to guess the date and time of final melt-out. Don’t forget to take into account “condensation on the surface, which depends on the humidity of the air, the air temperature, wind speed, and more.”
In the meantime, while a city known for its sometimes chilly demeanor watches ice melt, check out the hashtag #ok_icecube on Twitter and Instagram.
https://twitter.com/KiyomiTaguchi/status/774320429817208832
https://www.instagram.com/p/BKI9qpQAswR/?tagged=ok_icecube
https://twitter.com/crovillos/status/774284215584231424
https://twitter.com/mitchhull/status/774270784365694977
https://twitter.com/DvBnt/status/774310168704094208
https://twitter.com/brucery/status/774322790979637248
https://www.instagram.com/p/BKJYTGqj6GL/?tagged=ok_icecube