SeeSawSeat is a public artwork by Germaine Koh that crosses a bus bench with a teeter-totter. Waiting for the bus is transformed from a passive pause into a modest social activity. Made of wood and metal and resembling the benches in Vancouver's bus shelters, the artwork is located in close proximity to an existing transit shelter with an integral bench making the visual references clear.

A transit bench as teeter-totter creates a playful situation full of possibilities for interaction and negotiation. Uncomfortable when used by only one person, the artwork is best experienced with another person and thus becomes a tool for whimsical social exchange.

SeeSawSeat is built with the fulcrum of the bench slighly to one side, so that when then bence is unoccupied, it drops to one side, a clear sign that it is not a fixed bench. The highest point of teh 8-foot-long bench is approximately 28" above grade when fully tilted.

SeeSawSeat was one of three public art projects developed through the Main Street Urban Transportation Showcase (UTS), a plan to encourage reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and more energy efficient transportation practices by improving pedestrian and transit services along Main Street. As part of the Main Street UTS, an art plan was created which led to the commissioning of three public art projects to be installed in the Main Street corridor, including temporary artworks for three Main Street articulated trolley buses. Artists were selected by a panel consisting of three art professionals, and one representative each from Translink and City of Vancouver.

This artwork is part of a transit and corridor improvement project and funding partnership between Translink, the City of Vancouver and the Federal Government