A new President Apartments mural highlights tulips and more.
Downtown Mount Vernon recently implemented bright paintings of flowers into the windows of the President Apartments building, combining the floral culture of Skagit County with a burst of public art that enlivens the historic First Street.
The tallest structure in downtown Mount Vernon, the President Apartments building, stands at five stories tall. Currently, the first floor, which used to hold many lively businesses, is vacant due to plumbing issues — leasing in these spaces will not begin again until an infrastructure project can restore it, said Ellen Gamson, Mount Vernon Downtown Association’s executive director.
Half a block of First Street in downtown Mount Vernon is empty. The President Apartments building is over 100 years old, built in 1909, and fixing the plumbing may take up to six figures to complete. However, bringing vibrancy back to this space through the window mural project encourages interactivity with the space again, Gamson said.
“I’m super excited to see the difference it is already making,” she said. “We are able to have the space brightly lit, and it is a great way to mitigate an otherwise empty space.”
Painting to connect
Kimberly Chan, a Seattle-based artist and founder of Cute Fun Joy Designs, specializes in digital floral designs in a gouache-inspired style. Flowers bring people together, Chan said.
“My art celebrates the quiet strength of becoming — the light we amplify when we allow ourselves to bloom, exactly how we are.” Chan’s website said.
Chan was selected for this mural project out of 14 other applicants. Her lush paintings add the needed striking color that a vacant space lacks, Gamson said.
“The floral motif is invocative of the tulip festival and of our agricultural culture without being overly saturated with what is already there,” Gamson said.
Mount Vernon holds North America’s largest tulip festival, the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, annually. Skagit Valley’s climate and rich soil allows for prime tulip farming conditions, according to the website. Tulip themes are implemented throughout the city, including The Tulip Stack — a painted smokestack — tulip engrained crosswalks and the Tulip Dance sculpture.
Chan’s artwork that decorates the vacant windows furthers this theme and keeps it fresh by displaying a variety of other flower types.
Chan grew up in Hong Kong and moved to Seattle to attend the University of Washington. She studied marketing and economics and worked in the corporate world until late 2024, when she founded Cute Fun Joy Designs and decided to focus on art, Chan said.
While growing up in Hong Kong, Chan lived next to a wholesale floral market.
“I used to pop over as a child and pick out different flowers and make a bouquet just for my mom,” she said.
The area of Hong Kong that she lived in also held one of the largest night markets in the world around Lunar New Year, Chan said.
“Floral choices and their arrangements are very symbolic and signature during Lunar New Year,” Chan said.
People will buy flowers that are grown to bloom on the Lunar New Year, she said. This symbolizes luck and prosperity. The annual tulip festival in Mount Vernon shares this sentiment, as people get to enjoy tulips while they are still growing throughout the season.
The window project display is titled “Peony Reverie.” Peonies thrive in the Pacific Northwest climate, which makes them a popular flower in the area — Chan painted peonies because she saw many of them in a public garden in Bellevue.
The window displays the many colors of tulips, through the artwork “Tulips Season.” When Chan moved to the Seattle area, she began coming to the Tulip Festival each year.
The final window display, “Cosmos Garden,” celebrates a “down-to-earth flower,” Chan said. She loves seeing them on her walks through her neighborhood.
These paintings were transferred to vinyl wrap and applied to the windows. Files of her work were sent to Kevin Hartman, a local photographer who owns Westar Solutions, a business that produces vinyl for car wraps. He produced and installed the panels for each window, Gamson said.
“Glass reads as black to the human eye,” Gamson said. “When there’s nothing to look through, there is a psychological impact of that. We wanted something that was bright and engaging to offset the feeling that the space is vacant.”
Amanda Hashagen, executive director of Seattle’s Urban Artworks, noticed that a “perfect storm” of events created the ideal situation for public artwork. Many stores closed, allowing for artwork in those spaces. Additionally, artwork reflected the George Floyd protests and the Black Lives Matter movement during 2020. Another important factor is that mural artwork is typically outside — allowing people to connect with art projects in a safe way.
“It really stuck around,” she said.
Urban Artworks focuses on supporting and training youth in artistic projects. A recent project involved designing and painting a mural on the back of a Safeway in Renton, simultaneously centering young artists and discouraging graffiti.
“I won’t say that murals always deter graffiti, but very often they do,” Hashagen said. “If an area needs uplifting and focus, they can bring that. Artwork brings community to a space.”
Impactful murals
Mount Vernon holds many other murals that pushed the idea of this project, Gamson said.
“I see people posing for photos all the time in front of these murals,” Gamson said. “This is such a busy street, we get lots of visitors around the year.”
One mural of note decorates a parking lot off of First Street downtown. Benjamin Swatez, an executive art director and international artist, along with volunteers and youth members of the YMCA Oasis Teen Shelter, painted it together. The impacts of immigrants in Skagit County are depicted through this mural with vibrant green farm fields and significant public figures.
Just 30 minutes north, Bellingham is home to the largest mural in Washington. Created by Gretchen Leggitt, it covers one side of the Encogen Generating Station on Cornwall Avenue, spanning 540 feet. This mural paints the picture of the Cascade Mountain Range in blue against an orange sky.
In Friday Harbor, the Friends of San Juan office building displays a community mural made of tile. Eelgrass, a sea plant that plays a key role in the Salish Sea habitat, is depicted through ceramic tiles made by 150 residents.
Public art to come
The President Apartments window mural project is not the last of its kind for Mount Vernon
“This is just the first level of the beautification project,” Gamson said. “We’ll be doing phase two on Myrtle Street in 2026. We will put out another call for artists.”
This second phase of beautifying the President Apartments facade will continue with more art, or possibly historic photos, on the left side of the building, Gamson said.
This first round of the project was made possible through donations, she said. The Mount Vernon Downtown Association may look for sponsorship for phase two.
“All artists deserve to be paid,” Gamson said. “It’s an investment, but totally worth it.”
— By Allie Van Parys
Also read in Salish Current:
• “Ferndale’s ‘Metallica Bridge’ offers ‘a bit of light’ for all,” Dec. 22, 2025
• “Artists, firsthand,” Oct. 3, 2025
• “Children of the Setting Sun expands vision in new space,” July 7, 2025
• “Secrets — revealed — of Whatcom County artists,” Oct. 9, 2024
• “Showtime in Mount Vernon: Lincoln Theatre is a star in downtown renewal,” June 30, 2023