Colorful painting of a woman with a snake around her, with two globes of the Earth on each side of the scene, and a golden background featuring intricate patterns and flags.
Hotel hallway with elevators and exit door, decorative ceiling above.
An artwork depicting a lighthouse, a ship on the water, a crescent moon, and a starry night sky, inspired by Vincent van Gogh's style.
Colorful abstract artwork featuring overlapping shapes, patterns, and flags, including the U.S., Brazil, and Mexico flags, with vibrant green, red, and gold tones.
Close-up of a colorful abstract painting with gold, pink, blue, and purple hues, depicting a brick wall and swirling patterns.

Pacific Tower — Night, Present, Day


Oil paint and 24K gold on canvas; wall painting with 24K and 14K white gold gilding; decorative lighting
Pacific Tower, Beacon Hill, Seattle, WA
2017 · Commissioned by Cedar River Group.

The Pacific Tower is one of Seattle's most architecturally significant landmarks, a 1933 Art Deco masterpiece originally built as a US Marine Hospital and long dedicated to health care, education, and community service for all people regardless of background or class. Ari's permanent installation across the building's north entrance lobby brings three interconnected works into dialogue with the building's history and its living Beacon Hill community, drawing on the same Art Moderne lineage that shaped the tower itself.

Beacon of Hospitality (63 × 63 in., oil and 24K gold on canvas)

The left wall represents the past as night. The Pacific Tower is reimagined as a lighthouse casting golden light across a starry sky, guiding an incoming steamship modeled on the ocean liner SS Normandie. The lighthouse is among the most universal symbols of knowledge, hope, and discovery, appearing in the crests of universities and institutions worldwide. Here it ties the building's name to its legacy: a beacon for merchant seamen, military personnel, Native Americans, and the underserved since 1933, and a continuing source of light for health care, education, and opportunity today.

Liberated Knowledge (87 × 63 in., oil and 24K gold on canvas)

The right wall represents the future as day. A radiant figure personifying Beacon Hill stands with arms outstretched, her form a subtle transformation of the US Public Health Service emblem still visible on the building's south facade. The winged staff becomes a winged figure, the serpent becomes a dragon, and the anchor becomes a sun disk, representing the collective consciousness of knowledge and the light of the world. Flags of many nations extend from her arms, acknowledging the ethnic diversity of Beacon Hill and the students of Seattle College who move through this building daily, carrying what they learn outward to every corner of the globe.

Moderne Welcome (wall installation with latex, 24K gold leaf, 14K white gold gilding, period lighting)

The center passage represents the present, and is the connective tissue between the two canvases. A bold geometric design painted directly on the wall draws from the north facade's own architectural details and the existing floor pattern below, extending continuity from floor to ceiling and unifying the entire entrance as a total artwork. Cool Pacific blue tones are anchored by 24K gold leaf framing that traces the three-tiered crown molding and flows into the adjacent elevator corridor.