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Two in Tow & On The Go | Nori Kimura’s skybridge mural is a ‘serene portal’ through Tacoma

Posted on May 15th, 2026 By: Tonya Strickland

Quite a few people over the last two weeks have told me how much they enjoyed “my” recent piece about all the cool murals in Tacoma. And while I do appreciate the support, I had to tell them that it was actually Gig Harbor Now columnist Mary Williams who wrote the mural story for her popular Day Tripper series.

But, get this: at the very same time Ms. Williams was flexing her journalism skills in the research wonderland of South Sound art, I, too, was preparing a little art-centered column of my own — not even knowing she was doing the same thing. So now it looks like I get to confuse our reading audience even more by writing about the same-ish topic.

But, you know, it’s still totally worth reading. Here’s the story of how seeking a less stressful theater drop-off routine helped us find hidden critters and calm in Nori Kimura’s Tacoma skybridge mural.

Theater rehearsal

It all started last year when Bowen and I were carting Wyatt, our now-10-year-old, to and from Tacoma’s downtown Theater District from Gig Harbor.

Wyatt has been in a number of musicals with a local children’s theater group over the years. We’ve loved it. Clara even joined him in one. But by the time opening weekend rolls around, it’s a 30-mile round-trip commuting disaster from Casa de Two in Tow to the backstage entrance of the group’s rented venue, Theatre on the Square at 915 Broadway. I’m perhaps being a bit dramatic, but opening weekend means twice-a-day drop-offs for rehearsals, call times, showtimes (and, unfortunately, a serious lack of nap times) for a few days before and during the production.

Last December, on my fifth theater trip in 48 hours, I’d had just about enough of the curbside Hunger Games that is downtown theater drop-off: near-misses, rushed hugs and some pretty optimistic interpretations of just how long one can double-park if they have their hazards on. Alternatives had to be found.

Which brings us to … the skybridge. * The clouds part. A choir sings.*

Park Plaza North Garage at 923 Commerce St. has a pedestrian skybridge over Commerce Street. Photo by Tonya Strickland.

Park Plaza North

The skybridge is a key feature of Park Plaza North, a public parking garage at 923 Commerce St. built about 50 years ago with federal urban renewal funds in an attempt to make downtown popular again. Business vacancies, safety issues and dwindling foot traffic were spelled out in local news reports as chief concerns among the era’s civic leaders. Access to convenient covered parking emerged as a possible answer, so the city built two structures within four months of each other in its downtown core. Situated alongside the light rail and bus station between 9th and 11th streets, Park Plaza North still connects motorists to the areas around Broadway, Commerce Street and Pacific Avenue. Whether the garages saved downtown is a history lesson for another time. But in 2025 and 2026, a key feature of Park Plaza North sure saved my sanity.

The News Tribune, March 14, 1971

I’m of course referring to its fifth-floor pedestrian skybridge over Commerce Street that stretches to the courtyard just outside Theatre on the Square and the Pantages Theatres. Wyatt and I now consider it a secret passageway for theater kids, farmer’s market peeps and folks trying to avoid the downtown rush. You still have to pay to park there, and the city contracts with Republic Parking Northwest to manage it. The daily parking rates are listed here. But Republic’s associated parking kiosks and phone apps make paying easy. Just remember to snap a pic of your license plate before leaving your car because you’ll need the plate number to process the payment.

After you pay, it’s off to the skybridge! Which is so handy for its convenience and utility, but it also brings calm.

View over Commerce Street.

That’s because the walkway is now a “Koi Pond in the Sky” thanks to Tacoma artist Nori Kimura’s green-toned mural inside it. The public art is the result of a two-part project over 2024 and 2025 where Kimura hand painted koi fish, lily pads and wisps of long grass on concrete along the lower walls of the skybridge. Later, Kimuri got the opportunity to continue the project up its glass panelling, where he added digitally-drawn art scenes of a forest. The upper part is visible from both inside and outside the bridge.

According to Spaceworks Tacoma, a creative nonprofit that coordinated the piece, Kimura’s vision was to make “a serene portal, a way to weave nature and calming greenery into our urban landscape … a moment of peace suspended above the city.”

Wyatt checking out the upper panels. Photo by Tonya Strickland.

On his Instagram page, the artist posted additional insight into how he made his scene, showing a photo of regular-sized pieces of paper lined up on a table as he tried to sort out his vision, marveling that the finished mural would be 87 feet long upon installation.

Kimura’s Instagram post.

Families

With all the elements now in place in the skybridge, the effect is dreamy – especially in the ways light plays through the glass panels at sunset. The artist made the whole stretch feel surprisingly peaceful for a well-populated box of concrete. (Public art is fun like that.)

Kimura creates everything from fun family greeting cards to nature murals, often painted with the help of kids. He says he’s inspired by moments of joy, nature and everyday life in Tacoma. Examples of his other work are greeting cards for sale at the Washington State History Museum gift shop in Tacoma; a “Let’s Go to the Library” mural on a city of Kent utility box at W. Smith Street and Second Avenue S; and animal scenes painted on the exterior of 809 Pacific Ave. in Tacoma.

“His subjects are always focused on loving and caring for children, families, communities and nature,” according to a spaceworkstacoma.com article on Kimura’s work.

A local father, many of Kimura’s works carry a childhood whimsey theme. This is evident from a slideshow he presented in January to Tripod Slideshows, a local group that showcases fast-paced visual talks. Kimura’s presentation is posted to YouTube and starts around the 58-minute mark. He talks about many of his murals and his motivations behind them. He paid special attention to his 2018 piece titled “Welcome to Tacoma and the Memory of Old Japan Town.”

At that time, I was teaching Japanese language at the Tacoma Waldorf School, so I brought my students to help paint,” he said in the clip. “I like to have people participate in my drawings … I want them to connect more to art. I don’t want them to feel distant from it.”

The group painted two scenes on a former information kiosk in at South 13th and Market streets to honor Tacoma’s early Japanese population. The imagery features PNW-inspired characters welcoming visitors to Tacoma on one side and children celebrating cultural traditions on the other. Both sides are intended, Kimura said,, to symbolize joy and unity. “The drawing is very simple,” he told the audience. “to be more inclusive.”

Tripod Arts Video – Tacoma, WA – YouTube

Back at the garage

Clara checks out the scenes.

Back at the parking garage, the kids and I noticed something different in the imagery every time we passed through. They enjoyed pointing out how all the koi fish have shadows — and so do the birds in flight. Not only that, but the birds in the pond (at least one of which is protecting a duckling under her wing) each have reflections looking back up at them from the water.

We also soon discovered that we loved playing “spot the critters” along its walls. Little frogs hidden behind lily pads, the black and white masks of curious raccoons peeking out from behind rocks — and even a PNW Sasquatch. Things like that are always fun and I appreciate that Kimura turned something practical for commuters into something memorable for families.

Apparently, this was all part of his plan.

“Since I love photography and wildlife, what I put there are creatures you can see around Tacoma. … I hide them here and there, kind of like a treasure hunt,” he said in his Tripod presentation. “… I wanted to create a kind of portal between commuting and work. I wanted people to have a transitional space that feels calm and natural. When the sun hits, the trees create different shadows and shapes, and the clear spaces let light come through. If you have a chance, please go over there and take a look and see what kind of creatures you can find.”

Just like the coincidence of Mary Williams and I writing about the same thing at the same time without knowing, here the kids and I were with our critter-spotting expedition and that was the artist’s intent all along. How fun is that?!

See ya out there!

xo,

Tonya

peek-a-boo. Photo by Tonya Strickland.

Bird shadow.

Bird reflections.

Mom and two kids standing with water and boats in the background.

Tonya Strickland is a Gig Harbor mom-of-two and longtime journalist. Now in the travel and family niche, her blog, Two in Tow & On the Go, was named among the 10 Seattle-Area Instagram Accounts to Follow by ParentMap magazine. Tonya and her husband Bowen moved to Gig Harbor from California with their two kids, Clara (12) and Wyatt (10) in 2021. Find them on Facebook for all the kid-friendly places in and around town.