Help Pick A Name For Renton's Downtown Dragon

RENTON, WA — What's more fun than Renton's new rooftop dragon sculpture? Getting a chance to name it.

The Renton Municipal Arts Commission is accepting name suggestions right now. But you better hurry up because the deadline to send a name is Tuesday, April 30.

To enter, email your suggestion to arts@rentonwa.gov. Members of the commission will pick five top names, and then will conduct a poll on Facebook to pick the winner. The winner will be announced on May 7 at the Hero's Feast exhibit at the Renton History Museum.

The dragon debuted at the building at South 3rd and Wells Avenue on April 13, but he (or she) has been years in the making.

In early 2016, arts commission members Marsha Rollinger and Mitch Shepherd noticed a downtown building that had a repaired crack along the roof line. They thought they might be able to incorporate the damage into a work of art.

They could've picked a range of figures, from a giant robot to a pterodactyl or maybe a coal miner wielding a pickax (given Renton's history as a coal town). But they eventually landed on a dragon in honor of Wizards of the Coast, the Renton-based game company behind "Dungeons and Dragons" and "Magic: The Gathering." The dragon is also a nod to the nearby Boeing 737 plant.

Rollinger built the 710-pound aluminum dragon with Dylan Neuwirth and other artists from Seattle-based Western Neon. You can see the dragon today peering over the roof of the 109-year-old building along Wells Avenue.