Documented artwork / landscape and gathering-space installation
9 Spaces 9 Trees
Credit as documented: Robert Irwin
Robert Irwin arranged nine gathering areas within a maze of fences and trees. Their apparent openness changes with the viewer's angle: fence surfaces can seem transparent or nearly solid, while passing light produces rippled effects. Seasonal foliage further alters the balance between enclosure and openness. Originally created for Seattle's Public Safety Building rooftop plaza in 1983, the work was removed for redevelopment and re-conceived for the University of Washington.
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At a glance
- Year / version
- 1983; re-conception dated 2007 in heading and 2003 in narrative
- Materials
- concrete, vinyl-coated steel, weathering steel, aluminum, Ipe wood, Winterking Hawthorne trees
- Documented setting
- outdoor
- Dimensions
- 20 × 54 × 54 ft
- Dimensions apply to
- ArtsWA overall dimensions; axes are not labeled.
- Availability
- Unconfirmed
Places & versions
Installation history
Historical presentations. A past installation does not establish the current location or suitability for a new site.
1983
Public Safety Building rooftop plaza, Seattle, Washington
- Site
- Public Safety Building rooftop plaza
- Start year
- 1983
- Date meaning
- documented
Installation details checked 2026-10-17.
Date not documented
University of Washington, near Odegaard Undergraduate Library and Henry Art Gallery, Seattle
- Site
- University of Washington, near Odegaard Undergraduate Library and east of Henry Art Gallery
- City
- Seattle
- State / region
- WA
- Country
- United States (inferred; not independently confirmed)
- Setting
- outdoor
Installation details checked 2026-10-17.
Materials and construction
ArtsWA lists concrete, coated steel, weathering steel, aluminum, Ipe wood and Winterking Hawthorne trees. Its heading dates the re-conception to 2007, but its narrative says 2003; this unresolved discrepancy is retained rather than selecting an installation date.
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Sources
- www.arts.wa.gov ↗ · Checked 2026-10-16
- www.arts.wa.gov ↗ · Checked 2026-10-17