Seattle Post-Intelligencer globe, photo by Jim Gates. View more Seattle P–I photos.

Global Icon

03/16/2009

It's an old joke in the Seattle Post–Intelligencer's newsroom: The paper's most valuable asset is the giant globe on its rooftop. This sphere of metal and neon rounds out the city's skyline, and many locals view it as a cultural anchor of our hometown. But now, with the end of the paper version of the P–I, many people wonder about the fate of this global icon and what it really means to the city.

The Seattle P–I globe is truly a landmark of epic proportions. It's 30 feet tall from the south pole to the north. The eagle perched on top of the world adds an extra 18 feet. The capital letters in the spinning neon slogan are more than eight feet tall. The slogan simply says, It's in the P–I. But to many people, the globe's message is far greater.

Garfield: "The P–I globe is really one of those landmarks that tells people who grew up here, 'I've come home.'"

Leonard Garfield is executive director of the Museum of History and Industry, a place dedicated to telling Seattle's story. To him, the globe symbolizes the city's coming of age.

Garfield: "The P–I was one of those institutions that allowed us to understand the world beyond us, let the world beyond us come in. And the globe reminds us of those aspirations, of a vision that we had of Seattle as more than just a small maritime community, but really a player on the world stage."

This international idea also inspired the globe's creation some 60 years ago. The concept came from local art student, Jakk Corsaw. In 1967, he won the P–I's contest to create a new promotional symbol. Corsaw suggested a world map with a flashing line connected to Seattle. That idea evolved into the 18–and–a–half ton globe we see today.

Over the years, the globe has withstood a major relocation and Seattle's rainy weather, but its age is really starting to show.

Dave DeFrank perhaps knows that better than anyone. He's been the globe's main caretaker for the past 40 years.

DeFrank: "The letters are in very bad shape and skin, or what you see with the continents painted on it, is in bad shape, and that's due to salt deterioration."

Up on the P–I's roof, my first glimpse of DeFrank was actually through a rusted–out crack in the globe. He was inside, at work on the trolley track that carries the slogan around the equator.

Outside the globe, DeFrank's co–worker, Andy Colton, chimes in about how rust gets in the way of cosmetic repairs.

Colton: "It's very much like trying to screw into a saltine cracker, in a sense."

Jones: "It would just crumble apart?"

Colton: "Yeah. The screw has nothing really to bite to. It's just all so rusted."

Up close, you can see where the blue paint is chipped and peeling. Trails of rust trickle down the lower hemisphere. But the good news, DeFrank says, is the structure is solid.

DeFrank: "The steel structure itself — on the letters, on the ring, on the interior of the globe — are all in real good shape. "

Jones: "Do you think it would survive another move?"

DeFrank: "Yeah, it would withstand a move, but I would never put it back up the way it is somewhere else. It would really have to be refurbished."

That makeover would likely cost more than a million dollars, according to officials at the local sign company where DeFrank and Colton work. DeFrank doesn't know what's in store for the globe.

P–I staff say they can't comment on how the globe factors into the sale. Hearst is also silent on this point, but the company has previously said it would not sell off the globe separately. If the paper goes under, DeFrank hopes the globe won't fall with it.

DeFrank: "It's like saying we're going to take the Eiffel Tower down, or the Statue of Liberty. We're not going to throw it in the junkyard. This has been around for years and years and years. I wouldn't want to see it just scrapped. I wouldn't want to see that."

Graves: "People's attachment to physical objects is so profound."

Jen Graves writes about art for the local news weekly, The Stranger.

Graves: "Especially when those objects have links both to art, which they see as very frou–frou, and to architecture, which they see as very practical and serious."

The globe clearly has sentimental value. But, what about its value as a piece of art?

Graves: "God, in terms of artistic value, it's an object, with meaning."

Jones: "But also just a hunk of metal."

Graves: "Yeah, a hunk of metal with some meaning. It's true."

Graves seems stumped to put a price on the globe. But one thing she's certain of, the city would feel its loss.

Graves: "Something that large and physical, it leaves a hole. I think what that kind of art does is just calls out for some kind of response."

Graves suggests one response is to put the globe in the Olympic Sculpture Park, if it needs a new home. But whether the three–story hunk of metal would fit there is another question.

There's plenty of speculation about the globe's fate. It could just stay put. Some want it designated as a historic landmark, although the city hasn't received an official nomination yet. But if the globe needs to move, its likely destination seems to be the Museum of History and Industry. Director Leonard Garfield says they've been flooded with calls and letters from people who want to save this prized icon.

Garfield: "I'd say interest in the globe is as high as for any historic artifact I can recall in the last decade. People understand that this is a part of who we are. And the thought of a Seattle without a P–I is a sad thought, but the thought of Seattle without the globe is something people don't even want to consider."

The museum would be a fitting place, since it already houses the P–I's photo archives, its first printing press and the original neon sign. Garfield says he'd be thrilled to take on the globe. But if it were up to him, he's got another location in mind.

Garfield: "I would want it to be in Seattle. I'd want it to be spinning, and, ideally, I'd love to see it spinning above a robust P–I."

The Seattle P–I will likely print its final edition later this month. Liz Jones, KUOW News.

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