The renovation and expansion of the Seattle University library was the largest project in the school’s history. As part of our comprehensive environmental communications work for the building, we created this donor wall. Placed in a prominent position in the expanded part of the building, the 18-foot long wall combines old-school materials with new-school concepts, much as the architects blended the 40-year old original building with an up-to-the-minute, modern addition.
The Namesake Panel forms the left part of the wall. Here Fathers Lemieux and McGoldrick, the two Jesuits for whom the library is named, are recognized. The metal panel features silkscreend intepretive copy, metal letters, and commissioned illustrations by Bruce Morser.
The Donor Names panels along the right side of the wall is inspired by the word clouds commonly found on websites: larger gift amount, larger name; smaller amount, smaller name; in a five-tier hierarchy. Large donors are mixed in with small donors for artistic balance; the same as more popular words are mixed in with less popular words in a word cloud with their prominence represented by size. Breaking away from the traditional presentation of donor names separated into individual lists defined by giving amounts the “word cloud” creates the sense of community that was required to make the library a reality: decidedly a new-school approach to donor name listing. The craftsmanship of the names panels themselves, on the other hand, are firmly old-school, fabricated from etched, infilled, and artisan-patinated steel.
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