Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) is happy to announce the Hing Hay Park Expansion opened today, Thursday, June 29. The community is encouraged to visit and enjoy the new park space located at 423 Maynard Ave. S at the corner of 6th Ave. S and S King St., in Seattle’s Chinatown International District. Hing Hay Park means “Park for Pleasurable Gatherings.” The park has doubled in size and serves as an important community gathering place for the neighborhood.
The new park design includes a cultural performance space, with custom integrated seating that punctuates the terraces and provides micro-stages. Activity areas for all community members to enjoy include ping pong tables, seating, exercise machines and shade trees. Additional features include planted terraces, lighting, necessary utilities and sidewalk improvements with ADA accessibility through the park. The design of the park is the result of a series of community outreach meetings, input from local organizations and Friends of Hing Hay Park. The team of MIG | SvR, a local design firm, plus Turenscape, a Beijing-based firm, created the park design that reflects the many cultures of the neighborhood and seamlessly embraces the old with the new. SPR purchased the International District Station Post Office site with funding from the Pro-Parks Levy to expand the original park. The 2008 Parks and Green Spaces Levy provided the development funding and brought the community vision alive.
The design includes an iconic artistic gateway structure on the southwest corner. This structure will be installed in late summer. The gateway is being fabricated off site and the artist will install it in July through August. During installation, this section of the park will need to be fenced for public safety. After the gateway is complete, Mayor Murray, SPR and the Chinatown International District community will hold a celebration to officially open the park expansion.
For more information, please visit http://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/hing-hay-park or contact Kim Baldwin, Project Manager, Seattle Parks and Recreation at kim.baldwin@seattle.gov.