I’ve been continually impressed with Sound Transit’s STart Program, Sound Transit’s program that uses light rail construction sites to cultivate and curate art installations. One in particular caught my eye just recently. 

Mapping Capitol Hill is part art and part historical cartography, mapping the changes in Capitol Hill’s transportation infrastructure over a period of more than 100 years. Artists Jess Rees and Nicole Bernard are hoping to engage passers by with maps showing the continual evolution of transit on Capitol HIll. 

One compelling thing for Capitol Hill residents will be running a finger along streets to find familiar land marks or addresses and tracking what’s changed; what’s there now, what used to be, and what might be on it’s way. 

From the press release: 

We tend to think of a neighborhood as ours. Timeless, changeless, and pure. But of course cities and especially the Capitol Hill neighborhood are vibrant and dynamic places. It is the nature of a living neighborhood to develop and grow- sometimes the changes are celebrated, sometimes painful, and sometimes bittersweet. When something we love seemingly disappears, it’s hard to see how transformations are always positive, but its in the character of a lively neighborhood like Capitol Hill to be in a constant state of flux.

That says it really well. And more change is coming with the arrival of light rail in 2016. Those of us who are light rail and Transit Oriented Development fans are looking forward to more people, more activity, and more new places on Capitol Hill. But in order to make that happen a whole block had to disappear. Change is good, but not always easy or certain, no matter how much we plan for it. 

Mapping Capitol Hill will be on the big red wall through 2012.