Tacoma Museum of Glass and the Bridge of Glass
— — a tilted cone, and a bridge the sky comes through.
Not only on a wall.
“A leaning stainless-steel cone on the Thea Foss Waterway, and a five-hundred-foot pedestrian bridge over the freeway that connects it back to downtown Tacoma. The Museum of Glass opened in 2002; the Bridge of Glass, designed with Dale Chihuly, opened the same year and carries his Seaform Pavilion overhead, two Crystal Towers, and a long Venetian Wall. Visitors look up walking under the ceiling of glass and the light shifts with the weather. Inside the cone, glassblowers work at the Hot Shop most days. From the studio.
Tacoma Museum of Glass and the Bridge of Glass, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Museum of Glass opened on Tacoma's Thea Foss Waterway in July 2002, designed by Canadian architect Arthur Erickson. The building's most recognisable feature is a 90-foot stainless-steel cone that leans 17 degrees toward the water and houses the museum's working Hot Shop. The Chihuly Bridge of Glass, designed in collaboration with Tacoma-born glass artist Dale Chihuly, opened the same year. The 500-foot pedestrian bridge crosses Interstate 705 and reconnects the museum to the Washington State History Museum and the downtown core. The pairing anchors Tacoma's Museum District.
The Bridge of Glass carries three distinct Chihuly installations along its length. The Seaform Pavilion runs overhead as a long ceiling of suspended glass; pedestrians look up walking beneath it and the light passing through the forms reads differently in sun, rain, and dusk. Two 40-foot Crystal Towers rise on the downtown end like cut blue ice. Between them, the Venetian Wall holds 109 sculptures behind clear glass on a long display run. After dark, the cone of the Hot Shop glows orange from the working furnace inside. The waterway holds the reflection.
The Museum of Glass sits at 1801 Dock Street on the Thea Foss Waterway and is open Wednesday through Sunday, with hours that shift seasonally; current hours and admission are listed at museumofglass.org. The Hot Shop is the working heart of the building and visitors can watch resident artists and visiting artists work most days the museum is open. The Bridge of Glass is a public pedestrian crossing, free, open at all hours, and the easiest way to walk from downtown Tacoma to the museum without crossing freeway ramps. Both reward an unhurried visit.