Landscape Information
Extending from Western Avenue to the shore of Elliott Bay in Belltown, this topographically varied, nine-acre park transforms formerly contaminated post-industrial waterfront land that spans an arterial road and railroad tracks. In 1999 the Seattle Art Museum acquired the land and following an international design competition engaged architects Weiss/Manfredi and landscape architect Charles Anderson to design a sculpture park. Completed in 2007 the design offers panoramic views of the Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains, and a dramatic setting for temporary, permanent and site-specific works by Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, Ellsworth Kelly, Beverly Pepper, and Richard Serra, among others.
Accessed from the east via a wedge-shaped pavilion sited atop a below-grade parking structure, the park is navigated via a Z-shaped path system dressed in crushed stone that descends 40 feet from east to west. Edged by angled, geometric landforms and slanted, concrete retaining walls, the paths, and viewsheds, are often defined by native tree plantings (e.g. a grove of 100 quaking aspens planted in a grid) and non-native (an allée of Patmore ash along the main walk reminds visitors that the park is artificial). The landforms and paths were designed to be viewed from above and at ground-level and to provide a choreographed experience that introduces visitors to a “gallery” of thematic landscapes reminiscent of natural habitats: “Greensward, Valley, Grove, Meadows, Shore and Tide.” Open expanses of lawn afford uninterrupted western waterfront views, while views of the downtown and the looming Space Needle define eastern views.
The choreographed journey from city to restored shoreline includes an outdoor amphitheater and twenty permanent works that concludes at a shoreline “beach” and protected cove that is not only a thriving marine habitat but offers a rare opportunity downtown for visitors to touch saltwater. In 2007 the project received an Honor Award in Design from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA).
