Growing Up

Get the Story

Richard Beyer picked up stone and woodcarving tools as a way to express his feelings about history, folk tales and current events. Growing Up was the first of the three pieces he created for the city.

Artist: Richard Beyer

Medium: Cast aluminium

Date: 1995

Fun Fact

Richard Beyer created Seattle’s perhaps best known public artwork, Waiting for the Interurban, an image reprinted on millions of cards and posters promoting Seattle.

Where Is It?

Near the Coldwell Banker office where two other Richard Beyer’s sculptures greet the Islanders as they come and go at perhaps the busiest intersection on the Island.

Connected Stories

Two years after the city commissioned Growing Up, the Council encouraged McDonald’s to commission another Beyer work. Their idea was for a little boy sharing his hamburger with a bum. The artist thought the idea too sentimental so he instead created a boy lounging with an alligator, a fantasy that appears perfectly plausible. Several years later a new QFC grocery store commissioned another Beyer piece, Figures With Basket, completing the design concept for the T intersection where two other Beyer sculptures stand.

The sculptures greet Islanders as they come and go at perhaps the busiest intersection on the Island.