Where is Everett’s Pacific Avenue Gateway mural?

The Pacific Avenue Gateway mural is planned for the north wall of the Pacific Avenue underpass in Everett, Washington. The underpass serves a commonly used entrance for drivers arriving from the south on Interstate 5. New signage will point visitors toward downtown Everett and the waterfront.

When is the Everett octopus mural expected to be finished?

Artist Will Schlough began painting on September 14, 2026 and estimated a working period of about three weeks, according to the Everett Herald’s September 16 report. At the time of publication, the Pacific Avenue Gateway mural was still in progress; the report did not confirm completion.

Why does the Everett mural show an octopus building a rocket?

Will Schlough chose a rocket-building scene to reference Everett’s manufacturing industry. The Giant Pacific Octopus has a hermit crab as its customer. Schlough said the cavernous space underneath the highway inspired the octopus, bringing the location and the city’s industrial identity into one narrative.

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Everett gateway mural puts an octopus to work

2026년 9월 16일 오후 11:000

Pacific Avenue is becoming an entrance with a story

A large octopus mural is taking shape beneath the highway at an entrance to Everett, Washington. According to the Everett Herald’s September 16, 2026 report, Seattle artist Will Schlough began painting the Pacific Avenue Gateway on September 14. Schlough estimated that the work would take about three weeks. The project pairs a painted scene with new signage, giving the approach to the city both a visual identity and directions onward.

The freeway exit serving the underpass is a commonly used route for drivers arriving from the south on Interstate 5. Sean Kennedy, a retired project manager who helped organize the project, described an entrance that lacked a clear welcome to Everett. Once the project is finished, a new sign incorporating the Everett city logo will direct visitors toward downtown and the waterfront.

For people who follow public art, the setting is part of the work’s significance. This is a mural conceived for an arrival route: its audience includes people encountering the city through road infrastructure. The painting and sign together give that transition a subject and a destination.

An octopus building a rocket connects sea life and industry

The planned scene shows a Giant Pacific Octopus constructing a rocket ship for a hermit crab. Measuring 120 feet long and 15 feet high, the mural will occupy the wall on the north side of the underpass. Its scale makes the surrounding structure an essential part of the composition rather than a neutral backdrop.

In a September 15 interview reported by the Herald, Schlough linked his choice of an octopus to the cavernous space beneath the highway. The rocket, he explained, brings Everett’s manufacturing industry into the image. Instead of assembling separate local symbols into a collage, he chose a single narrative in which the creature is busy making something for a customer.

That approach offers a useful way to look at the design. The octopus, rocket and hermit crab form a relationship, so the viewer can follow an action as well as recognize individual subjects. Read alongside the route toward the waterfront, the marine imagery also provides a connection between the painted scene and the destinations named by the project. The manufacturing reference comes from the artist’s explanation; the relationship between image and route is an interpretation of the setting.

Public and private contributions support the gateway

The mural has a budget of about $100,000, funded through public and private donations, according to project organizers C.J. Ebert and Kennedy. Contributors include the City of Everett, the Port of Everett, Ebert, Kaiser Permanente and Skotdal Real Estate. The funding brings civic organizations and private donors into the same place-based project.

Ebert, an Everett real estate developer who originated the idea, told the Herald in a September 8 interview that he had considered a welcome sign at the location for roughly 20 years. Work on the project began in earnest about two years before the report. His stated aim was to connect Interstate 5 more clearly with downtown Everett and the waterfront.

Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin presented the mural as an investment in a welcoming entrance, community pride and economic vitality. Catherine Soper, the Port of Everett’s chief of business development and tourism, also emphasized the gateway’s role in shaping a first impression. Those statements describe the participating institutions’ ambitions for the project. They help explain why this commission combines an artwork with the practical task of orienting visitors.

The reported schedule places the mural in progress

As of September 16, 2026, the Pacific Avenue Gateway was being painted, with approximately three weeks of work anticipated. That estimate is a production timetable, not confirmation that the finished mural is already available to view. Anyone planning around the completed image should keep that distinction in mind.

The location identified in the report is the north wall of the Pacific Avenue underpass on the route into Everett from Interstate 5. For a public-art itinerary, the most revealing context is the relationship among that wall, the entrance to the city and the directions toward downtown and the waterfront. The project invites attention to how an ordinary approach can carry a local story.

Explore other mural locations through the Wallscape map.

Source: Everett Herald

Read original— Everett Herald