View the Vietnamese and Traditional Chinese press releases.
Seattle Parks and Recreation and Friends of Little Saigon invite you to a community ribbon cutting celebration for the new Hoa Mai Park in the Little Saigon neighborhood on Saturday, July 27, 2024 from 12:30 to 3 p.m. The free celebration will offer music, food, neighbors, Lion dance performance by Mak Fai Kung Fu and children’s activities.
“Activated with new art installations, a play area for youth, and accessible gathering spaces for events, the new Hoa Mai Park will help foster stronger community connections in the heart of our cherished Little Saigon neighborhood,” said Mayor Bruce Harrell. “This project exemplifies our One Seattle value of collaboration with community, and I’m grateful for the partnership with Friends of Little Saigon to make this park a vibrant place that honors the history, culture, and character of this special part of our city. I am looking forward to the many Lunar New Year and other community celebrations that will occur in this park!”
“Little Saigon has dreamed about a green and open space for the community to gather for over a decade. This park is a place for elders to hang out, children to play, and employees in the neighborhood to enjoy lunch or a break away from work. FLS is excited for this to be open and will be working with our community and City partners to keep it safe and activated”, Quynh Pham, Executive Director of the Friends of Little Saigon.
The park is designed to provide different size spaces for accessible community gatherings and events. The new park will have good sight lines and night lighting. The park will feature a play area with a resilient rubber surface and concrete seat walls with colorful and supportive play structures for small children. SPR purchased the .27-acre site in 2013 to provide the neighborhood access to more open space in this urban area. Funding for park development is provided by Seattle Park District.
Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS) commissioned Seattle artist, Kalina Chung to create an art piece for the park. Chung’s artwork is a free-standing piece that was created through many conversations with Little Saigon and CID community members and will serve as an entryway to the park from S Jackson St. It is inspired by Vietnamese Tube Houses – narrow multi-story homes – she encountered during her travels to Saigon and the buildings adjacent to the park.
“In many traditional Pan-Asian homes, the openness of windows are placed to create flow and connect us in our interior space to the beauty of the exterior, or the natural world. Each culture has its own traditional designs and motifs related to accomplish this, as seen in the window lattices of homes and temples. I’m interested in showcasing a range of motifs (patterns recognizant of Pan-Asia), that together unify our shared notion of home, in relation to Seattle, this land, our ancestry, and our connection to the outdoors. Not everyone in the city has access to nature right outside their windows, but this park can do that for its visitors,” said Kalina Chung.
The Friends of Little Saigon is a nonprofit organization with a mission to preserve and enhance Little Saigon’s cultural, economic and historic vitality. To learn more and to get involved in the future park visit www.flsseattle.org.
For more information please visit http://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/little-saigon-park-development or contact Sai Fang at Sai.Fang@seattle.gov.
