Reading where they plan to put Skip Wallen’s whale sculpture just amazed me. Who is going to see it, let alone appreciate it, at the location they are talking about under the bridge? It has always been my understanding that it would go where everyone could enjoy it and be in a place of prominence like Marine Park. I really hope they will reconsider moving it to somewhere closer to downtown. What about the new (state library) project location. I will not donate more money for it until they come up with a better place to put it.
Carol Carlson
Douglas
Comments (2)
Add commentIf I recall correctly in the
If I recall correctly in the next 5 years they plan on building a pretty kick butt park in that area. Redoing that while beachf front. I'll bet that's what they are talking about.
When Alaskans and erratics
When Alaskans and erratics arrive by water in Juneau they can visit the magnificent statue of the whale at the Juneau Arts center. It isn't necessary to move the Wallen whale sculpture with a reflecting pool at the Douglas Bridge to remind boaters of what whales looked like before they were largely decimated at harassed by machine powered boaters with harpoons all over the North Pacific. That trophy whale concept should be replaced by a functioning very large wind turbine to provide electricity now and then for the city grid. It might also be a good idea to consider building a line of wind turbines down Thane Road.
The whale sculpture is not a Nimbus that should be hidden out-of-the-way, although it might be placed at the new state library in a fountain with water falling upon it and moving colored lights illuminating it.
The relocation of the Juneau Public library to a less crowded locale by the bridge would be better for scholars and others seeking to avoid the downtown summer crowds and tourists that surge up to enjoy the view from the library. Even though some Alaskan politicians degrade the value of liberal public education, the pursuit of intellectual capital has real value that pure materialists may fail to recognize. Anchorage has some of the worst library footage per capita in the nation, and Juneau needs to set a good example for making competitive public libraries support development of intellectual capital in an era of video and Internet saturation with decreasing public respect for popular scholarship.
The new library location would better serve the Ray Center and other area educational facilities as well as people from the harbor looking for reading material, charts, maps and videos. The library grounds should offer some restful landscaped viewing areas, a fishing pier and small boat dock for the rural Alaskan seeking to get a quick book checkout before returning back to the blessed road-less areas of S.E.
The port H.Q. could be in the present parking garage-library at the cruise ship dock sharing the top floor with a Juneau Maritime Museum. The port could also have space on the ground floor and second story (or classrooms could be placed there) of the new Juneau Public Library.