Adjacent to the Space Needle, Chihuly Garden and Glass is a permanent exhibition of Dale Chihuly's glass sculpture that is far better than it sounds. Chihuly is a Pacific Northwest native who lost sight in one eye in a car accident and subsequently invented a way of making glass he could no longer blow himself — working with teams of assistants on pieces of enormous scale and baroque complexity.
The museum's Glasshouse shelters a 100-foot-long suspended sculpture and provides a view of the Space Needle framed through glass. The garden outside uses the glass pieces as if they were plants, with chandeliers buried in flowerbeds and reef-like structures rising from ponds. The combination of natural light, colour, and Chihuly's genuine formal invention makes this one of the best small museums in Seattle. Go in the afternoon when the light through the Glasshouse is at its best.