Expanding Opportunities for All

This is so much bigger than a building. This is about, culture, families, and so many stories of triumph and stories of pain too. I think Vulcan did the right thing by listening to the community. We need spaces to be reflective of Black culture, that’s the heart of the Central Area right there on 23rd and Jackson.

In our mind all of these different cultural elements melting together in such a historically significant neighborhood like Yesler is not an opportunity that comes around every day, especially in Seattle… [We think] newcomers to Seattle will want to live at Yesler for the diversity as much as for its close-in location.

Vulcan engaged art consultants and neighborhood advocates Vivian Phillips and Leilani Lewis to curate the [Jackson Apartments public art installation] experience and commissioned more than a dozen Black artists, many of whom were born, raised, and still live in the Central area, to create the artwork, which will be permanently displayed throughout the apartment complex. One piece…is a life-size 78 rpm record…that celebrates the once-thriving Seattle jazz era. Artist Paul Rucker, a musician and multimedia artist who has lived on Jackson Street since 1998, did extensive research on the city’s jazz history before designing the piece. Visitors can sit on a bench-like arm and recall the names of famous musicians and venues along the record’s spiral.