The Awakening……(Edited for correction)
The Awakening is leaving D.C. This is a sad moment for me. It has become a focal point of interest to visit. It has become a fun piece to visit and children love to play on this sculpture. It calls out to any who visit…..My son said it begs to be climbed, scaled and explored. The Awakening is a 100 foot sculpture done in 5 pieces. It is a giant who is trying to pull himself out of the ground or buried in the ground. It is open to interpretation and kids love to give theirs.
The Awakening is a sculpture created by J Seward Johnson. The sculpture was placed in Hains Point in 1980 for the International Sculpture Conference. The park was given a temporary 2 year permit. 27 years later after becoming a landmark of D.C. the sculpture was sold for a whopping $750,00. Hains Point is no longer what it used to be and Mr. Johnson apparently has veto rights. He too must feel that this is a better move for his gigantic piece of sculpture. It is being moved to the newly developing National Harbor.
The sculpture will be moving to Prince George’s county MD and will become part of a 2 Billion dollar waterfront project. It is part of a 300 acre development project that is just a little ways down the Potomac River. Still within the D.C. area…but as I don’t live in the D.C. area it will still be a trip for my family and I. Mainly this is due to the amount of traffic we have. We are not centrally located for the metro and have to drive 20 minutes now to the nearest metro station.
My children (the youngest being 10) remember taking a field trip and The Awakening was part of that trip.
We will be visiting the sculpture one last time on Monday. We will combine a trip to Mount Vernon along with this visit. Entrance to Mount Vernon will be free on Monday due to it being President’s Day.
The sculpture will be dug up on Wednesday of this week.
Thanks Gwadzilla for pointing out the needed correction…. 🙂 I just had Baltimore stuck in my head for some reason….
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yes
it is a wonderful sculpture
the ability for people to interact with it makes THE AWAKENING what it is
looking at it is one thing
touching it is the real thing
we will also be saying our goodbyes this week
I know it isn’t going too far but the landscape at Hains from the road and the river won’t be the same………Thanks for sharing the picture. I am assuming that would be one of your children running up his leg? Great picture!! I checked out your blog. My husband’s company just moved from the Foggy Bottom area in September. I love the life in D.C. and the architecture. I like to sit and people watch……but I WON”T drive in D.C…… 😛 I am now addicted to the metro.
that is my older son…
thanks… I think that photo turned out pretty cool as well
there is much to love about DC
the Metro is cool
biking is better
we took the Metro to Chinatown last weekend with the kids
the whole subway is a bit of a novelty to us
car or bike
then the occasional cab so we can have a couple of drinks on those rare nights when we get a sitter
yes
DC has plenty to offer
luckily… most people don’t take advantage of what dc has to offer
I am glad I got those shots when I did
good lighting and the sculpture without a thousand people and a hundred wanna be photographers
We live near Quantico…..so we catch the Metro at Springfield. We are planning a homeschool trip to check out more of D.C. with just the kids and I. I am just really not that brave to drive in myself. I have always wanted to do Chinatown. I think my kids would have a blast there. Thanks for mentioning that ….I will have to put that on our to do list for D.C. I also want to visit the Holocaust Museum. I think the kids are old enough now that we could go there.
oh…
you have the right link to the national inner harbor
but you typed Baltimore Inner Harbor
the proposed National Inner Harbor will still be very DC local
I did? I thought I caught that….thanks for pointing it out….I kept thinking the Inner Harbor which is actually Annapolis I believe? I will go in and fix that….no sense in confusing everyone. Thanks again… 🙂