Delicately balanced at the exterior edge of Bellevue City Hall's concourse is Alan Storey's 63'' kinetic and interactive Compass. While paying tribute to the city's earliest manufacturing company, a marine compass-maker, it also serves as a compelling metaphor for a young city looking to its future. Renovating a telephone company building, city leaders, project designers and design team artists used art and architecture to transform a utilitarian structure into the community's civic heart. Compass functions as a key architectural feature, a key element of the building's narrative, and an elegant, commanding work of public art. From the street, Compass is a landmark creating a strong visual connection between the building's deck and the ground 40 feet below. It catches the eye as it turns in the wind. From inside the building, Compass is equally compelling, with its upper half creating a mobile focal point at the end of the building's 300' concourse. Mounted on the 22' rail at the deck's edge, a viewfinder is focused on Compass' central mirrored disk. As visitors enter City Hall, the viewfinder moves to the left or right, depending on which doors are opened. A person standing on the deck can choose to look at the view or through the viewfinder at an alternative view reflected on the central disk, a view impacted by the simple act of entering City Hall. Compass completes a suite of four art works (2 installed) providing yet another layer of meaning to City Hall's campus: a poetic journey from Bellevue's past (a silver tree upended to show its roots); to the water's edge, (a fiber optic boat/nest form rising from reeds), along a river of today's activity (the concourse's 10,000 s.f. terrazzo floor), and to the views beyond and our future.