Bellevue Bound

 

CAMPUS TOUR: Friday was a mostly dreary day, but about noon, the rain stopped for bit, so I suggested we go for a little walk. Our destination: Bellevue College.

Annabelle is contemplating attending Bellevue for Running Start, and CJ has been accepted into Eastern Washington University's satellite campus there, to finish his 4-year degree.

We parked at the north end of campus, near the baseball field and soccer pitch.

We wound our way south, toward the center of the campus. In one plaza, I spied the roof of the college's planetarium.

There's a fair amount of art on campus. I apologize in advance for not knowing all of the names of the artists or the pieces. I figured I could find that on the BC website, but I just spent a few minutes trying to locate that info, and I couldn't find it. I did finally find a YouTube video on the topic, which was helpful. 

CJ and Annabelle checked out this duo. It's Doorway by sculptor Ray Jensen. It was installed in 1992.

An untitled veterans' memorial near the college's library was topped by bronze combat boots. I was able to find out the sculptor was Bellevue College art instructor  Ross Brown, along with some Bellevue students who were veterans.

The series of white circles below is called Psalm 61. It's by Stu Branston, from 1976.

When I spied the photo of Japanese American children held in an internment camp during World War II on a brick wall, Iremembered reading awhile back that this display sparked a controversy.  A college vice president altered the description the artist, Japanese American Erin Shigaki, provided along with the work, first whiting out and then altogether deleting a reference to anti-Japanese agitation by Eastside businessmen being part of Bellevue's history.

Over by the campus' medical-related classrooms, we found sculptures that reminded us of DNA.

The work in the below was my personal favorite of the public art we saw. The scale was enormous, and that's not conveyed very well in my photo. It's by Annie Han and Daniel Mihalyo, installed in 2009.

We also spied a couple of curiosities during our visit. "A payphone phone booth?" I marveled aloud upon seeing this relic.

Turns out, you can't plug a quarter into it and make a call. It's an emergency phone box, presumably connected to campus security.

The oddest thing we saw was this sign on a smoking pavilion. 

Recycling cigarettes is a thing? Ew... I mean, don't get me wrong. Recycling is better than throwing things away but ... Eww. But it's a thing. I checked out an article on the topic at Terracycle.com.

The grounds of Bellevue College are exceptionally well maintained. The trees and shrubs  - mostly Northwest natives - are so well cared for. Overall, the campus grounds were a lot more Pacific Northwest forest-like than I expected. Most of the buildings kind of had a mid century modern aesthetic (the school was founded in 1966).

One bush that caught our eye was an Arbutus andrachne, better known as a Greek strawberry tree (thanks, Google Lens, for letting us know what it was).

Our overall impressions of the campus were that it's attractive, a nice size - definitely a manageable walk from end to end, and that it's pretty convenient from our house to there. We didn't go in any buildings because the campus is closed due to COVID. (In fact, we had to register online ahead of time to visit.)