Port Angeles Fine Arts Center
  • Home
  • About
    • Mission, Vision, & Values
    • Board & Staff
    • Esther Webster
    • Press
    • About the Architect
    • 2017 990 Tax From
  • Esther Webster Gallery
  • Webster's Woods Sculpture Park
    • Park Tours & Park Map
    • New Growth Open Air Exhibition
    • Poetry in the Park 2022
  • Programs & Opportunities
    • Summer Art Camps
    • Field Trips
    • Kids Workshops
    • Virtual Programming
    • Nature Check-out Kits
  • Events & Exhibitions
    • Farther Afield
  • Volunteer
    • Sign Up!
    • Gallery Host Schedule
  • Membership
  • Donate
  • Artist Opportunities
    • Wintertide Light Art Call 2022
    • Wintertide Makers Market Call for Entries 2022
  • Facility Rental
About the architect, Paul Hayden Kirk

The Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, originally the private residence of Esther and Charles Webster, was designed in 1951, by Paul Hayden Kirk, as both a residence and artist’s studio. The Webster house is a plate-glass-and-timbered classic of modern Northwest architecture.

Kirk’s generous use of voids and indigenous materials offers a low-impact structure - which ushers indoors the abundance of the natural world. Perched on the lip of the Olympic foothills, the house’s great-room-turned-gallery affords a regal vista of the city and a vast territorial view of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Vancouver Island. In the other direction, the snow-capped spires of Olympic National Park cast an inspiring shadow, like silent sentinels.

Paul Hayden Kirk, one of the most widely recognized architects of the Post-War Northwest, developed an eclectic style which adapted the principles of Mies van der Rohe, to the nature-drenched environment of the Pacific Northwest.
​
He designed many private residences in the Puget Sound region, including one other in Port Angeles. Kirk’s great sense of integration and the use of native building material, the merging of the outside and the inside, a blending of public and private space, allows the Webster House to work so well as a showcase for art. With its arching walls of glass and shining concrete floor, it presents an atmosphere conducive to observation and reflection.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Volunteers, click here to view the gallery schedule
Hours of Operation
Esther Webster Gallery: Open Thursday–Sunday from 11am–5pm

Webster's Woods Sculpture Park: Open daily from sunrise to sunset
1203 E. Lauridsen Blvd.​ | Port Angeles, WA 98362 • pafac@olypen.com • (360) 457-3532
​Find and compare accommodation deals nearby, via HotelsCombined.