x

x

x

x

Two Communities, One vision

Belltown and Denny Triangle are adjacent neighborhoods in Seattle’s center city. Connected by the streets that run inland from the edge of Elliott Bay, Belltown and Denny Triangle share many characteristics and aspirations. Both would benefit from a high quality public realm—parks, streetscapes, restaurants, and shops where people can enjoy their neighborhoods and each other.

This project brought together community leaders from both Belltown and Denny Triangle to initiate discussions, identify opportunities of mutual interest, and set out a framework of actions.

Three public events expanded the discussion to include a wide range of people who live and work in the two neighborhoods. The recommendations of the report lay the groundwork for the funding and implementation of the actions the community identified as their highest priorities.

As Durable and Timeless as Pioneer Square.

Custom bicycle racks designed to tie in to the historic neighborhood of Pioneer Square. The rack is a nod to Seattle’s industrial roots with a worn I-beam profile of cast iron.

Fabricators: Urban Accessories // Client: The Alliance for Pioneer Square

Big ideas for the Heart of Seattle

In 2035, the heart of Seattle will be a place for us all, with diverse neighborhoods, active streets, and inviting public spaces.

As we deconstruct the Alaskan Way Viaduct to foster a great new Waterfront for all, as new light rail lines, tunnels and stations expand our connectivity, and as a new convention center, hotels, offices, and thousands of new homes become a part of our urban fabric, the future begs the question: What’s next? How can we make Greater Downtown even better?

Imagine Greater Downtown identifies what we need to work on now to make sure that the heart of our great city is the best it can be. It is focused on streets as places for public life as well as movement. It is a vision that points us in the direction we want to go. It will guide our next generation of partnership opportunities and planning to ensure that the future heart of Seattle is a place we all love.

The vision framework is the product of hundreds of ideas gathered through community input and shared knowledge from Seattleites, Greater Downtown residents, and staff across coordinating agencies. This vision and ideas for a brighter future would not have been possible without the participation of so many.

READ THE FULL IMAGINE GREATER DOWNTOWN REPORT

Collaborators: Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates & Enviroissues // Client: City of Seattle, Downtown Seattle Association, King County Metro, Sound Transit, Washington State Department of Transportation, Port of Seattle

Reconnecting Seattle’s Most Historic Neighborhoods

Seattle’s iconic transportation landmarks, Union Station (1910) and King Street Station (1906) define a still-active transportation hub at the south end of downtown Seattle. Despite being the largest entry into the city of Seattle, the public realm is confusing, challenging to pedestrians, and downright ugly. This project is an effort to reclaim this area with the leadership of the Alliance for Pioneer Square, SCIDpda and Historic South Downtown. The project created a robust community-based planning and outreach project to envision a Jackson Hub that would welcome neighbors and visitors to Seattle.

The Jackson Hub concept design focuses on improvements that can be made to this important public space within the next five years. The project also looks forward to several visionary ideas the community embraced, to plant the seeds for future planning efforts. The project is a vision of Jackson Hub as a welcoming destination with the city, county, and regional transit agencies, creating an entry to Seattle that we can all enjoy.

Collaborators: DCI Engineers, Toole Design, ARC Cost Group, & BRH Surveyors // Client: Historic South Downtown, Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority, and the Alliance for Pioneer Square

Neighborhood Driven Design

The South Jackson Street Connections project considers how the waterfront connected to adjacent areas including Pioneer Square, Chinatown-International District and the transportation hub. An upswing in new construction, infill development, and redevelopment along the South Jackson corridor have highlighted the desire for a more cohesive vision for directing improvements in the public realm. Previous community outreach efforts have indicated a consistent desire from those who live and work in the area to celebrate and reflect the rich diversity of histories to be included in the public realm, particularly in connection to the Seattle Waterfront.

public space center (competition)

Physical Realm. Participatory Realm. Beautiful Policy.

Adjacent to the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Kendall Square is a premier center of biotech and high-tech research. In order to improve the quality of the neighborhood’s public spaces–parks, streets, and ground floor uses–the City of Cambridge launched a national design competition to create a unique and forward-looking neighborhood.

The Public Space Center was a proposal that married the unique resources of MIT to the real-world neighborhood of Kendall Square, testing and evaluating innovation in public space. Our intent was to use the public realm as a mixing chamber for the community, evoking the exciting work that goes on inside the labs and studios. The Public Space Center would serve as the central brain of the district, with distributed “outposts” where a wide range of activities occur, energizing the neighborhood’s creative innovators and the broader community.

Team: Santos Prescott & Associates, Magnusson Klemencic Associates (MKA), Charles River Watershed Association, ARUP, Invisible Playground, Scott Burnham, & MIT Media Lab

Client: City of Cambridge, MA

A fresh look in the very heart of seattle.

McGraw Square is located in the heart of Seattle at the intersection of Westlake Avenue, Stewart and Olive Street. The project was a true revitalization effort to address lack of use, bicycle theft, and vandalism. The updated space now attracts a broad range of users: tourists and locals, young and old, those passing through, and those staying all afternoon.

The ‘Wave’ benches and ‘Raindrop’ spinning chairs reinforces the original design concept in a playful manner. These elements were designed in close coordination with local fabricators. The ‘Raindrop’ chairs hang from an existing shelter that previously held bicycle racks where theft had become an ongoing concern.

Additional design constraints included avoiding existing in-ground lighting, maintaining pedestrian access, and keeping fixed furnishings outside the maintenance vehicle zone.

Collaborators: DCI Engineers, Praxis Builders, John Wolf & Joe Powers // Client: Downtown Seattle Association & City of Seattle

Streets Design For people, grounded in research.

This project included a strong base of research which informed the design of a series of Street Concept Plans. The project took a holistic, research based look at the Pioneer Square neighborhood.

In the research and inventory phase we conducted an in-depth review of all current plans and projects in Pioneer Square, spanning future planning efforts to near term construction projects. In addition, the team conducted an in-depth inventory of streetscape elements using GIS mapping digital tools to locate physical components and social activity hotspots. The second phase of work was the development of streetscape concept plans based upon research, mapping, and community input. The final design recommendations integrated input from community events, transportation agencies, the Pioneer Square Preservation Board, and targeted outreach from residents, businesses and property owners.

READ THE FULL PIONEER SQUARE RESEARCH & INVENTORY

READ THE FULL PIONEER SQUARE STREET CONCEPT PLAN

Client: The Alliance for Pioneer Square

From Awkward Intersection to Awesome Intersections

As part of the City of Seattle Pavement to Park program we re-designed an over-sized intersection in a high density residential neighborhood of First Hill. This quick win, rapidly deployed park is an opportunity to test ideas and gather input that can inform a long-term permanent design.

The site sits at the intersection of University Ave., Union Ave. and Boylston Street, and early outreach efforts highlighted that the surrounding neighbors couldn’t imagine the space could ever be made safe for anything more than cars. We hosted a successful Street Scrabble event which luckily paved the way to some re-thinking of that assumption.

Using simple, budget friendly materials created a space that is used regularly, and has been re-dubbed ‘Pool Park’ by the neighborhood.

Client: City of Seattle & First Hill Improvement Association

From Awkward Intersection to Awesome Interactions.

Street Scrabble was a community event designed to test an underutilized intersection as a community gathering place. The intersection of University, Union, and Boylston streets was an expanse of asphalt that was confusing to cars, bikes, and pedestrians alike. Identified by the Department of Transportation as a potential pavement-to-park opportunity, some in the community were unable to imagine the intersection as quality open space. To change the conversation we built a giant word game that became the center of a very successful event to test possible use of the space.

Planters were brought in to enclose a portion of the intersection. With food trucks and music, the game brought together neighborhood residents of all ages in friendly word play competition.

The event made the potential of the space clear to all; several months later we re-designed the space, re-dubbed by neighbors as ‘Pool Park’ so that people could use the space on a daily basis.

Collaborators: City of Seattle, First Hill Improvement Association, The Better Block Program, Fehr and Peers

Bringing the Party Back to the Shore of Seattle’s Only River

The Duwamish currently has multiple superfund action sites which need to be cleaned into healthy, humane environments for people to enjoy. Superfun Superfund approached this topic by providing a fun moment connecting people to the river and inspiring conversations.

We built a set of colorful, remote controlled “word boats”–like large scale, floating refrigerator magnets. These boats were available for people to drive via remote control. The words engaged in the complexities of the current environmental state of the river and could form new word strings, for instance the “clean” boat can be joined with either the “up” boat or the “un” boat.The installation connected participants to the river’s industrious past and provided an engaging activity for the community to converse about the future

Client: Duwamish Revealed

who says dark & stormy nights are no fun?

Wee Pixels celebrated subcultures that uniquely highlighted the five quadrants that border the Willamette by 3D printing hundreds of LED embedded mini sculptures that attach (via magnets) to a metal facade on site. These 3D printed light sculptures were assembled and arranged into a larger collective piece that spoke to the power of many small strange things. In adhering the sculptures via magnets, we allowed the small 3D printed objects to be interactive—encouraging folks to move and rearrange pieces and even pocket the pieces (whether they be destined for the fridge at home or randomly attached to steel infrastructural elements elsewhere in the city on the way to work).

Collaborators: Tera Hatfield & Nate Horstmann // Client: Portland Winter Light Festival

once upon a time in a city not so far away…

Fairy-tale scholars Pauline Greenhill and Sidney Eve Matrix (2010) have defined fairy tales as “fictional narratives that combine human and nonhuman protagonists with elements of wonder and the supernatural”. This intensive design studio was inspired by the Fairy Tales design competition (www.blankspaceproject.com) and tackled real world issues through the lens of creativity.

The studio focused on presenting different interpretations of urban and urbanization to consider the social, economic and environmental transformations underway in our cities. The rise of negative social processes is most evident in cities, where key social conflicts often center on socio-spatial rights and needs.

Students each selected a city that they held extensive personal experience and during the course of the studio they developed a text based fictional fairy tale (800-1400 words). Each fairy tale identifies a unique challenge and uses narrative to present landscape architecture responses.

Students: Jude Brown, Stephanie Sells, Tim Spenser, Rachel Yahn, Basalt Li, Omar Estrada, Sofia Segebre, Lauren Homer, Ky Hong Nguyen, Stephanie Roh, & Adrianna Scott

Review Team: Jeff Sandler, Donny Donoghue, Sierra Druley, Jean Ni, Chih-Ping (Karen) Chen, Dick Hemmen P.E., Ariana Cantu, Katie Idziorek, Kristi Park & Nina Mross

Designing for more than humans

“Birds are early responders to climate change and can be important indicators of large-scale ongoing and future ecological change. [The Audubon Society] found that 41% of Arizona’s 302 bird species are vulnerable to climate change across seasons. A rapidly changing climate could lead to population declines and local extinctions if species are not able to adapt”

- National Audubon Society, Survival By Degrees

The Sonoran Birds + Climate Change Studio worked in partnership with the Tacoma Audubon Society and Tucson Clean & Beautiful to support the Sierra Estates Community re-envision a small neighborhood park space.

Students & Birds: Zach Andre / Cactus Wren, William Glockner / Red-tailed Hawk, Krista Planinac Lesser Goldfinch, Blake Caldarera / Broad-billed Hummingbird, Will Leipold / Cooper’s Hawk, Nadia Sarneyzehdoost / Anna’s Hummingbird, Waverly Brown / Curved Billed Thrasher, Cordell Lee / Western Screech Owl, Oscar Rodriguez Ponce / Black-chinned Hummingbird, Jessica Eppard / Gambel’s Quail, Selenne Yescas / Common Raven

Review and Support Team: Nichole Casebeer, Tucson Clean & Beautiful / Kari Hackney, Tucson Audubon / Olya Weekley, Tucson Audubon / hKenneth Kokroko, Assistant Professor, PLA / Dr. Shujuan Li, Associate Professor / Erik Schmahl, Lecturer + Designer / Bret Smith, Materials Lab Manager / Kenny Wong, Lecturer, MUP / Kathleen Prudic, Assistant Professor, Citizen and Data Science / Greg Corman, Artist, Designer, Botanist / Catherine De Almeida, Assistant Professor CBE UW

the canaries in the coal mine

As climate change becomes an increasing challenge there is still opportunity and hope for ensuring resiliency for our birds and the natural world. National Audubon’s Climate report suggests about 2/3 of the birds in peril can be helped by acting now. This provides hope and a pathway for action.

The Birds + Climate Change Studio worked in partnership with the Tahoma Audubon Society at their small wetland park site in the South Puget Sound region, Adriana Hess Audubon Center. We tasked students with a series of questions. How can design balance the intersection of habitat specific solutions and urban public space? How might the Audubon Society create bird habitat while still ensuring the safety of park visitors? How can we creatively incorporate traditional park elements with natural habitat spaces and stormwater management?

Students: Yuqing Zhang, Alicia Kellogg, Kayla Powlesland, Claudia Sackett Hennum, Danielle Dolbow, Liang Huang, Stefanie Hindmarch, Lauren Homer, & Zian Zheng

Client: Tahoma Audubon Society

Review Team: Matt Mega, Emily Perchlik, Jordan West Monez, Duane Dietz, Jean Ni, Magda Hogness, Matt Jones, Britt McGrath, Rob Faucett

Design Activism studio

The UW LA Winter 2018 Design Activism Studio is a partnership with the Ethiopian Community Center of Seattle (ECS) and City of Seattle Equity & Environment Program, Office of Sustainability & Environment to develop a series of projects that engage the Ethiopian and broader East African communities that live, work, and come together in the Rainier Valley. The Studio was developed in collaboration with Sara Cubillos (City of Seattle), Meron Kasahun and Rahel Gaguro with the Ethiopian Community in Seattle. It served as an exploration of a human centered co-design approach to address issues and challenges of designing in the urban public realm. The site is centered in the Rainier Valley which is undergoing rapid change and is one of the most culturally and economically diverse neighborhoods in the Pacific Northwest. Focus of the process recognized the multiplicity of social identities, the complexity of a sense of community belonging, designing for authentic sense of place, and support the development of a critical race and social justice lens. The Rainier Valley is a microcosm of many of the challenges faced by many cities today that are undergoing rapid growth including gentrifi cation, homelessness, transportation congestion, environmental degradation, and unequal access to public goods and services. Effort will be directed towards moving beyond static representations and understandings of identities, borders, and territories into depictions and design responses that refl ect a fl uid and ephemeral reality. Th e hope is for alternate futures and readings of the territories in question to emerge.

Students: Richard DeSanto, Yunxin Du, Roxanne Glick, Yang He, Juliana Hom, Yutong Hu, Mo Li, Kevin Van Meter, Nina Mross and Ariel Scholten

Client: Ethiopian Community in Seattle and City of Seattle Equity & Environment Program, Office of Sustainability & Environment

Collaborators: Sara Cubillos (City of Seattle), Rahel Gaguro (Ethiopian Community in Seattle), Meron Kasahun (Ethiopian Community in Seattle), Ariana Cantu (UW School of Social Work)

Reviewers: Biruk Belay (Site Workshop), Stephanie Hsie (Weinstein A+U), Malika Kirkling (Miller Hull), Sergio Max-Talamoni (Environmental Works), Rico Quirindongo (DLR Group), Roma Shah (Olson Kundig)