New mural project to welcome drivers into Everett

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, September 16, 2026

EVERETT — Within a few weeks, a sprawling mural depicting an octopus will cover a once-bare underpass leading into the city of Everett.

A Seattle artist, Will Schlough, began painting the mural, known as the Pacific Avenue Gateway, on Monday. When the project is complete, the underpass will have a new sign including the Everett city logo, directing visitors to the city’s downtown and its waterfront.

The freeway exit leading to the underpass is commonly used entrance for drivers heading into the city from the south on I-5. Sean Kennedy, a retired project manager who helped put together the mural, said the goal was to give a welcoming feel to the underpass.

“When you come off the main entrance to Everett there, there’s really no sign, no welcome,” said Sean Kennedy, a retired project manager who helped put together the mural project. “The only thing you see as you go under the underpass is ‘Seattle, this way.’”

The project was the brainchild of C.J. Ebert, a real estate developer based in the city. For about 20 years, he had considered the idea of putting a welcome sign there; work began in earnest on the project about two years ago, Ebert said in a Sept. 8 interview.

“The whole idea is to really tie Interstate 5 to downtown Everett, to the waterfront,” Ebert said. “… It just adds more of a feel-good fabric.”

Alongside the wall on the north side of the underpass, the mural, measuring 120 feet long and 15 feet high, will show a Giant Pacific Octopus. The mural, with a little bit of creative license, will depict the octopus building a rocket ship. (Its customer will be a hermit crab).

In an interview Tuesday, Schlough said the octopus was inspired by the “cavernous space” underneath the highway, and the decision to show the octopus building a rocket was included to highlight Everett’s manufacturing industry.

“It’s sort of a playful way to speak to these things without making a classic collage mural or something like that,” Schlough said. “It’s more of a narrative that just has all of these things in a single story.”

The budget for the mural totaled about $100,000, funded by both private and public donations, according to Ebert and Kennedy. The city of Everett and the Port of Everett both contributed funds to the project, along with private donors like Ebert, Kaiser Permanente and Skotdal Real Estate.

“This project is a great example of how placemaking investments make a real impact,” Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin wrote in a statement Tuesday. “Public art helps create a welcoming, memorable entrance to our city, which enhances local quality of life, builds community pride and supports economic vitality.”

In a statement, Catherine Soper, the chief of business development and tourism for the Port of Everett, wrote that it was an honor to collaborate on the mural.

“As a key gateway to downtown and the waterfront, this Pacific Avenue glow-up offers not only an impactful first impression, but a lasting one that builds Everett’s community pride and character, while offering a welcoming spirit. We can’t wait to see it come to life,” Soper wrote Tuesday.

Work on the mural is expected to take about three weeks, Schlough said Tuesday.

“It was a big kind of community-driven idea to do this,” he said. “It was just really cool to see so many people be excited about it and come out to support it and make it happen.”

Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.