Wish You Were Here: 13 Faces of Cascadia

Illuminating the Promenade Level check-in area of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport’s Main Terminal, Wish You Were Here: 13 Faces of Cascadia is a monumental architectural glass installation by Seattle-based artist Morgan Madison. 

Commissioned as a cornerstone of the SEA Gateway Project—a modernization partnership between the Port of Seattle and Alaska Airlines—the work comprises 13 horizontal triptychs, 39 panels in all, integrated directly into the terminal’s exterior curtain wall between Skybridges 4 and 6. Spaced with clear-glass bays between each triptych so the art can breathe, the panels span a combined 92 feet and weigh over three tons, catching the shifting Pacific Northwest light in patterns of emerald, gold, and deep cerulean across the terminal floor. Madison placed the work within the existing curtain wall rather than as a freestanding piece for two reasons: the natural light pouring in from outside illuminates the glass for everyone inside, and it keeps the artwork safely clear of the operations in one of the terminal’s busiest corridors.

For the millions of travelers who pass through it each year, the installation is a striking introduction to the region. For Madison, it’s also a homecoming. Twenty-five years ago, he was a recent graduate of Lewis & Clark College with no glass experience, answering a classified ad for the Bullseye Glass factory in Portland because he needed a job. What he expected to be a brief stint turned into a seven-and-a-half-year education, working as a caster on the factory floor, learning how the material behaves, flows, and holds color. Almost two decades later, having built an artistic practice through residencies and Seattle’s Public Art Boot Camp program, Madison won his first major public commission: the SEA Gateway Project. He turned to his former employer to help solve the challenges of scale. “I always imagined Bullseye is where I’d go for help with a project of this magnitude,” Madison says. “Bullseye makes the glass. They test it. They develop the color. There’s nowhere better.”

The conceptual framework for Madison’s installation draws on the Cascadia Field Guide, which maps the Pacific Northwest by ecological zones and watersheds rather than political boundaries. Madison set out to capture the character of 13 such zones—from the rugged Montane peaks to the fog-bound Coastal Urban Woods to the volcanic profile of St. Helens—translating the sensory energy of each into layered, geometric abstraction rather than literal landscape. He designed the overlapping compositions digitally in Sketchbook, building his raster layers directly in Bullseye’s glass color codes. “Every drawing teaches you something,” he says of the iterative process. “Even the dead ends help refine what you’re reaching for.”

Translating those digital drawings into glass without losing the warmth of the handmade mark fell to Bullseye Studio. The team traced vector lines over Madison’s raster art, turning those paths into precisely cut sheet-glass templates. Before committing to full production, the studio fired a scaled test panel using the exact process planned for the final work. The test revealed faint halos where color layers met, caused by the order in which they’d been fired. A second test, fired in a different sequence, eliminated them. Production panels were then fused at 1,500 degrees into structural, three-quarter-inch assemblies, in kilns large enough to fire multiple at once. Some panels measured as large as 89 by 26.5 inches.

Because local and international building codes require glass of large sizes within certain proximity of the floor to be safety laminated or protected by a barrier, Bullseye Studio laminated two fused design layers with a polyurethane resin interlayer—a cold process, to avoid thermally shocking the glass—producing an assembly tested to the industry standard for safety glazing: a four-inch sphere must be unable to pass through the glass once broken. In testing, panels often didn’t break at all, even under a dropped 100-pound bag of shot. 

“I can’t speak enough about the level of craftsmanship,” Madison says. “These really intricate lines, these gentle curves, these geometric shapes all fit together so nicely that there aren’t bubbles trapped in there. It’s a testament to the level of execution they have at Bullseye Studio. Just a dream to work with them.” Seeing the first finished panel emerge from the kiln, he recalls, “it was incredible. I got goosebumps.”

Herzog Glass, glaziers who work at SEA year-round, installed the panels using anodized aluminum channel set into the top and bottom of each curtain wall opening. Each piece was lifted into the upper channel, then dropped into place below, sealed with silicone caulk. A set of three panels went in within a couple of hours. Madison designed the work to reward viewers at any distance, whether they’re standing close enough to touch the glass or watching it catch the light from across the terminal or the parking structure outside. The deeply textured, kilnformed surfaces filterdaylight into an ambient reflection of the weather. As clouds move over Seattle, the artwork shifts with them. Spaced out across the terminal rather than massed in one place, the 13 triptychs give travelers room to pause, if only briefly, on their way from the stress of departure toward the beauty of arrival.

“Individually, each artwork stands alone, evoking a unique experience,” Madison says. “Together the artworks tell a story of rich interconnection—how the diversity of flora and fauna, geology and humanity come together to form this special region known as Cascadia.”

Wish You Were Here: 13 Faces of Cascadia is on permanent view at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport’s Main Terminal between Skybridges 4 and 6.