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