Landscape

The Olympic Sculpture Park celebrates a site remarkable for its dual connections to the city and the surrounding region. These connections are also reflected in a series of precincts that create several distinctive, archetypal landscapes found in the Pacific Northwest.

Discover the park flora.

The Valley

Adjacent to the PACCAR Pavilion and the Gates Amphitheater, the Valley is an evergreen forest most typical of the lowland coastal region, featuring tall conifers such as fir, cedar and hemlock, and flowering shrubs and trees associated with moist conditions. Living examples of ancient trees once native to Washington, such as the ginkgo and majestic metasequoia (Dawn redwood), are also found. Flowering perennials, groundcovers and ferns define forest edges and pathways.

The Henry and William Ketcham Families Grove

The Grove is a forest of native aspen that defines the park’s transition from city to shore. Although most closely associated with the dry landscape east of the Cascade mountains, it is also found in dry coastal sites in the Puget Sound region. The Grove, with its understory of native currant and iris, dramatically reflects the changing seasons, in contrast to the Valley's continuously green backdrop.

The Barry Ackerley Family East Meadow and
the Kreielsheimer North Meadow

On both sides of Elliott Avenue, Meadow landscapes with expanses of grasses and wildflowers meet the bordering sidewalks to achieve the “fenceless” park that SAM conceived from the start. Both the Meadows and the Grove were intended as regenerative landscapes that provide flexible sites for sculpture and artists working in the landscape.

The Shore

At the Shore and newly created beach, plantings support habitat for salmon recovery, enhance public access and generate interest in the Puget Sound’s unique shoreline ecosystem. The naturally developing tidal garden features kelp, algae and other intertidal-zone plants that are revealed and concealed with the changing tides.

A seal pup visits the beach!