URBAN WATERFRONTS 27, an annual international conference on waterfront planning, development and culture, will take place in Seattle, WA at the Seattle Marriott Waterfront from October 22-24, 2009. 

Representatives from 27 states, eight Canadian provinces, New Zealand, Australia, China and South Korea will converge in Seattle for three days to confront the challenges of waterfronts world-wide. The nonprofit Waterfront Center annually brings together a dynamic group of experts focused on waterfronts to exchange ideas. Seattle will host this year’s event. 

Two notable headliners will be featured at the Waterfront Center’s 27^th annual international conference here October 22 to 24, 2009, to be held at the Seattle Waterfront Marriott. 

Renowned aerial photographer Alex MacLean of Boston will open the session on Friday, October 23, showing images from his latest book, OVER: The American Landscape at the Tipping Point, a beautiful but disturbing portrait of America. The book is said to “compel us to reconsider our basic assumptions about how we live, work and play…” 

Closing Urban Waterfronts 27 on Saturday, October 24, will be Jane Jacobsen of Vancouver, WA and Johnpaul Jones of Jones & Jones Architects and Landscape Architects, Seattle, discussing the dynamic Confluence Project, a bold endeavor that involves seven

installations along a 450-mile stretch of the Columbia River. Working with the artist Maya Lin, best known for her design of the Vietnam Memorial on the Mall in Washington D.C., a group of artists and architects is collaborating with Northwest Native American tribes to select seven historic river sites for interpretation. Ms. Jacobsen is executive director of the project; Johnpaul Jones, who worked on the American Indian Museum in Washington, is the architect of the Vancouver Land Bridge, a dramatic feature of one of three completed installations. 

Bringing speakers from around the world, the conference will have multiple sessions running concurrently on Friday and Saturday. Session topics include:

• Waterfront Brownfields
• Watershed Management Promises and Pitfalls
• Waterfront Access – The Everlasting Issue
• The Role of the Arts in Waterfronts
• The Greening of Waterfronts
• Sustainable Solutions
• Outmoded Industrial Facilities: What’s Being Done
• Natural Hazards: Different Ways of Coping with examples from South Korea and FEMA
• Ports in the 21st Century – Technology Changes
• The Challenge of Multi-jurisdictional Collaborations
• Alternative Transportation From Bikes to Water Transportation.    

Sessions of special interest to the Northwest include presentations by the new King County Ferry District, Mark Carey from FEMA, and the ending Charrette on a Seattle Site, a discussion of what lies ahead for the Seattle Central Waterfront. Details for the sessions are available on the Waterfront Center website: http://www.waterfrontcenter.org/. 

Preceding the conference is an optional full-day workshop and boat tour of the Seattle waterfront. In one of the most extensive waterfront tours ever offered, experts from the City of Seattle, Port of Seattle, and the historical and architectural communities will provide a glimpse of changes along Seattle’s waterfront from the central waterfront, up the Duwamish, through the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, and into Lake Union. 

On the Saturday afternoon, four additional waterfront tours are offered: a bus tour of Magnuson Park as it evolves into a diverse, destination urban park; a walking tour of Seattle’s waterfront; an in-depth tour of Lake Union, including the new Lake Union Park, and a water tour from Kirkland to Bellevue and Renton exploring the wide range of parks and developments along the east side of Lake Washington. 

On Friday evening, Mike Burke, attorney for the Port of Kansas City, MO and 2009 jury chairman, will make the first announcement of the 2009 “Excellence on the Waterfront” award-winning projects, plans, citizen efforts, and student work. 

For information, please call THE WATERFRONT CENTER at 202-337-0356, or visit the web site at www.waterfrontcenter.org. 

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