"Artifacts from a Coal Mine" a 10,000 pound-plus stainless steel sculpture designed by Seattle artist Mark Stevens was hauled 12 stories in the air and affixed to the side of the building at 177 Townsend at Third Street in October of 2007. Five separate pieces— three of which are four stories tall— shaped as flames, a ghost, a gingerbread man, a whale skeleton, and a series of small circles inside a larger one - are characters in an allegory:
"They evoke a lost world and the uncertainty of climate change," said Stephens. "It's about fueling our future by consuming our present" ... "The ghost represents us," he continued. "Fire is the fuel that powers. The rings inside the big circle represent the various ages of man, starting with the Stone Age. This is all of human achievement"... "I should have thought this through better. I think that we, meaning humanity, put ourselves in a situation where we think something will save us. The little character that looks like a gingerbread man represents our faith in redemption."
