Parkways Seattle Parks and Recreation

Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) invites Lakewood/Seward Park neighborhood to an Open House and final meeting for the play area renovation at Lakewood Playground. Please join SPR staff on Tuesday, December 10, 2019 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Lakewood Seward Park Community Clubhouse, 4916 S Angeline St. Please note, this is a new time and location from the previous announcement.

This final meeting is an opportunity to learn about the project and provide input on the preferred design. Thank you to everyone who participated in the first meeting and the online survey. The SPR landscape architect incorporated previous community input into the preferred design.

Lakewood Playground is located at 4800 50^th Ave. S on the corner of S Angeline St. and 50^th Ave. S. The project includes installing new play equipment that meets current safety and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards. The castle motif wall at the park will remain, and the basic layout of the play area will remain the same.

This park project is made possible by the voter-approved Seattle Park District, which provides more than $47 million a year in long-term funding for SPR, including maintenance of parklands and facilities, operation of community centers and recreation programs, and development of new neighborhood parks on previously acquired sites.

For more information please visit https://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/lakewood-playground-park-play-area-renovation or contact Libby Hudson at Libby.hudson@seattle.gov or 206-256-5988.  

Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) and Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) invite the Delridge and High Point communities to participate in creating better pedestrian connections in the Delridge neighborhood. Please join us on a community walk and provide your input on Saturday, December 7, 2019 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.  Please meet at Greg Davis Park, 2600 SW Brandon St., Seattle, WA 98106, on the corner of 26th Ave. SW and SW Brandon St.

This design project will provide a plan for improving pedestrian paths along SW Brandon and SW Findlay streets and make trail entries to Camp Long and Longfellow Creek more open and welcoming to the public. One of the goals of this project is to improve access for the future new RapidRide H Line stop that will begin service in 2021 at SW Findlay and Delridge.

Following community input at this December meeting and walk, the design team from HBB Landscape Architecture will develop options and present concepts at a second community meeting in early 2020.

For more information about the project please visit http://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/sw-brandon-and-sw-findlay-streets-trail-improvements-and-wayfinding.

For more information on the future RapidRide H Line please visit www.seattle.gov/transportation/delridgetransit and https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/transportation/metro/programs-projects/fares-routes-and-service/rapidride-expansion/h-line.

For questions about the project or if you need an interpreter or accommodations please contact Ed Pottharst, Ed.Pottharst@seattle.gov or 206-386-4232.

Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) invites the community to participate in the renovation of Cottage Grove Playground on Monday, December 2, 2019 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Delridge Community Center, 4501 Delridge Way SW. Please join us and review the proposed design for the play area renovation.

As part of the Your Voice, Your Choice program, the play area at Cottage Grove Park, 5206 26th Ave. SW, Seattle, WA 98106, is being improved to make the playground more usable for younger children. SPR will replace some of the play equipment features and move others. 

Your Voice, Your Choice: Parks & Streets is a participatory budgeting initiative in which Seattle residents decide how to spend a portion of the City’s budget on small-scale park and street improvements. This program is a partnership between the Department of Neighborhoods (DON), Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), and SPR.

For questions about the project or if you need an interpreter or accommodations please contact Pam Kliment at pamela.kliment@seattle.gov or 206-684-7556. To review other SPR Your Voice, Your Choice projects please visit http://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/your-voice-your-choice.

Seattle Parks and Recreation, the Friends of Hing Hay Park, and the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority (SCIDpda) invite the community to celebrate the new art piece at Hing Hay Park on Monday, December 9, 2019. Please join us from 5 to 6 p.m. to view the newly installed Celebrate Happiness Lantern. There will be a short program beginning at 5:15 p.m. with small snacks to be handed out after the program. Cantonese interpretation will be available. 

During the community engagement process for the Hing Hay Park expansion between 2013 and 2016, the Chinatown International District community expressed a desire to have an artistic sign to communicate the name and meaning of Hing Hay Park. Translated into English, “Hing Hay” means “celebrate happiness.” After the expansion was completed in 2017, the Friends of Hing Hay Park facilitated a request for qualifications process and local artist George Lee was hired to design and build a public art piece for Hing Hay Park. Throughout 2018, George, the Friends of Hing Hay Park, and the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority (SCIDpda) conducted a comprehensive community engagement program that resulted in the final design, inspired by a sky lantern.

The new lantern artistically brings together the older and newer halves of the park. The design is an eight-sided aluminum red lantern with bright yellow signage and gold trim. On three faces primary text is displayed, each on one face: 慶喜公園, Hing Hay Park, and Celebrate Happiness. On two panels, adjacent on each side of primary text panels, are additional languages of communities within the CID. At night, the lettering is illuminated, and all of the same languages are projected below the lantern onto the ground below.

This was an exciting collaboration between artist and community to showcase the festivity of the Park’s name for all to appreciate in different languages and in the sculptural, illuminated interpretation of a sky lantern.

This project is funded by the Seattle Office of Economic Development and administered by SCIDpda. This event is sponsored by Seattle Parks and Recreation. 

Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) invites the Fremont community to review and provide input on design options for the B. F. Day Playground Play Area Renovation project on Thursday, December 5, 2019 from 6 to 7:30 p.m.at B. F. Day School in the cafeteria, 3921 Linden Ave. N. This meeting is an opportunity to learn about the project and provide input on play equipment.

The community is encouraged to participate in the meeting and in an onlinesurvey (https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BFDayPlaygroundRenovation) for the project that will open on Dec. 2, 2019.

The play area renovation project will replace the play equipment and improve the adjacent picnic area, including replacing the drinking fountain and making accessibility improvements in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and national safety standards.  Thank you to everyone who participated in the first meeting and survey.

Funding for this park project is provided by the Seattle Park District. Approved by voters in 2014, the Seattle Park District provides more than $47 million a year in long-term funding to tackle the $267-million major maintenance backlog for Seattle Parks and Recreation as well as other facilities including the Aquarium and Zoo. In addition, it provides funding to improve and rehabilitate community centers, preserve the urban forest, perform day-to-day maintenance of parks and facilities, provide more recreation opportunities for people from underserved communities, provide programs for people of all ages and abilities, and acquire and develop new park land.

For more information about the project please visit http://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/b-f-day-playground-play-area-renovation. For questions about the project or if you need an interpreter or accommodations please contact Colin Campbell, colin.campbell@seattle.gov or 206-256-5604.

Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) awarded the construction contract to Terra Dynamics, Inc. for the Christie Park expansion project. They will begin demolition work of the existing park features by Friday, November 22, 2019. This park expansion project provides more open space for the University District by doubling the size of the existing Christie Park located at 4257 9^th Ave. NE.

The new design addresses safety and accessibility, and promotes park activities. Many of the existing park elements will be demolished, opening sight lines and improving visibility. The new park will feature an open lawn, plantings, trees, a multi-use plaza with donated art, a loop trail, and a fitness area. The “Explorer Voyage” art piece by Paul Sorey, donated by Friends of Christie Park, celebrates the community’s connection to the Taiwanese Community, James Christie, and University of Washington.

SPR anticipates celebrating the completion of the park expansion with the community in late spring 2020.

Funding for this park project is provided by the Seattle Park District. Approved by Seattle voters in 2014, the Seattle Park District provides more than $47 million a year in long-term funding for Seattle Parks and Recreation including maintenance of parklands and facilities, operation of community centers and recreation programs, and development of new neighborhood parks on previously acquired sites.

Thank you to the U-District Partnership and the Friends of Christie Park for their support of this project and assistance during the public process.

For more information about the project please visit http://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/christie-park-addition or contact Katie Bang at katie.bang@seattle.gov or 206-684-9286.

Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) invites the community to participate in the design for the new plaza and park in South Park on Saturday, November 16, 2019 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the site, 8456 Dallas Ave. S. Please join us to learn about the project and provide your input to the design team. Community involvement is essential in developing this new park and plaza, and we need to hear from you. Light refreshments and children’s activities will be provided.

In 2014, as part of a community-initiated acquisition, SPR purchased the .83-acre site at 8456 Dallas Ave. S, just west of the South Park Bridge to provide the community more open space. SPR is ready to move this new park and plaza project forward and we are excited to work with the South Park neighborhood to develop a design for the community gathering space.

Following input at this November meeting, we will develop site options. These options will be presented at a second community meeting in early 2020. A preferred community-informed design will be presented at a third and final community meeting in the spring of 2020.

This project was made possible by the voter-approved Seattle Park District, which provides more than $47 million a year in long-term funding for SPR, including maintenance of parklands and facilities, operation of community centers and recreation programs, and development of new neighborhood parks on previously acquired sites.

Our City partners, Seattle Office of Housing, Seattle Public Utilities, the Office of Planning and Community Development, will be present at the event.

For more information about the project please visit http://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/south-park-plaza-landbanked-site-park-development.

For additional questions or if you need an interpreter or accommodations please contact Ed Pottharst at ed.pottharst@seattle.gov or 206-386-4232.

Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) and Freeway Park Association invite the community to participate in the Freeway Park Improvement project. Please visit the website www.seattle.gov/parks/restorefreewaypark to review project information and take a short survey. Your feedback is important and will be incorporated into the design for the future repairing, restoring and enhancing of Freeway Park. The survey closes November 27 at 5 p.m.

SPR and the Freeway Park Association would like to thank everyone who attended the Open House in October and we encourage those who missed the event to watch it on the Seattle Channel (http://seattlechannel.org/videos?videoid=x108063). The program features the presentation of the project by Walker Macy followed by a lively moderated panel discussion with Randy Gregg, Portland Parks Foundation Executive Director; Alison Hirsch, USC School of Architecture Director of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism; Kenneth Helphand, University of Oregon Professor Emeritus in Landscape Architecture; Charles A. Birnbaum, President + CEO of The Cultural Landscape Foundation, and Iain Robertson, Associate Professor and Adjunct Faculty, University of Washington, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences.

Designed by Lawrence Halprin and constructed in 1976, Freeway Park (700 Seneca St.) was the first park to ever be built over an interstate highway. The park is a respite from the city’s urban environment and is a result of community activism, forward-thinking, and Seattle’s civic process.

SPR has $10 million in funding from the Washington State Convention Center Expansion Project as part of the public benefit package associated with the Convention Center expansion. The funding will repair, restore and enhance Freeway Park. Of the $10 million, $750,000 is for activation within the park and $9,250,000 is dedicated to capital improvements which includes actual construction (approximately $6 million), as well as design and project management, permitting, sales tax and contingencies. The initial scope of the capital improvements is based on the Finding Freeway Park concept plan, produced by the Freeway Park Association, and identifies infrastructure upgrades, lighting, wayfinding and possibly a new restroom. The design phase is expected to be complete with all necessary permits/approvals and construction bid documents by June 2021.

For additional questions about the project please contact David Graves, Seattle Parks and Recreation, at 206-684-7048 or David.Graves@seattle.gov  or visit http://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/freeway-park-improvements.

In 2019, Freeway Park Association celebrated 25 years as community stewards of Freeway Park. To learn about all they do and to get involved please visit https://www.freewayparkassociation.org/.

After completing needed improvements, Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) will re-open Amy Yee Tennis Center (2000 Martin Luther King Jr. Way S) on Saturday, November 9, 2019. Indoor Court Reservations may be made starting November 7 by calling 206-684-4764.

To celebrate the improvements and re-opening, SPR is offering a FREE Grand Re-Opening Tennis Clinic on November 9, from 10 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. and Open Match Play on November 10 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The community is encouraged to attend the free tennis activities.

The majority of improvements are complete; however, the new main lobby entrance doors and windows will be installed on Monday, November 25 and Tuesday, November 26, requiring the facility to be closed until 5 p.m. both days. The facility will be open and reservable for tennis from 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. on both those days.

Facility improvements include installation of a new fire alarm system, accessibility improvements that meet the American with Disabilities Act (ADA), a new raingarden/stormwater facility to treat parking lot runoff, and remodeled fully accessible toilet and locker rooms. Additional work completed includes exterior painting as well as parking and entrance plaza accessibility improvements. Upgrades were also made to the parking lot lighting, and steps were taken to address the foundation leak at the east wall and insulation was added to all exterior building walls. A future major maintenance project will replace the roof of the facility.

This project was made possible by the voter-approved Seattle Park District, which provides more than $47 million a year in long-term funding for SPR, including maintenance of parklands and facilities, operation of community centers and recreation programs, and development of new neighborhood parks on previously acquired sites. The building wall insulation was funded in part by the Seattle Office of Sustainability and the Environment, Municipal Energy Efficiency Project Program.

For more information please visit www.seattle.gov/parks/find/centers/amy-yee-tennis-center. For questions about Amy Yee Tennis Center court reservations and lessons please visit www.seattle.gov/parks/find/centers/amy-yee-tennis-center or contact Matt Look at Matthew.look@seattle.gov.

Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) invites the community to participate in the final design process for the Madrona Park beach play area renovation project. Please join us on Wednesday, October 30, 2019 from 7 to 8 p.m. at Spectrum Dance Studio, 800 Lake Washington Blvd., to review the preferred design.

This project provides a unique opportunity to restore the lakeside beach play features and to improve access to the park. Thank you to everyone who participated in the online survey and joined us at the meeting in August; your input was incorporated into the preferred design. Madrona Park is located at 853 Lake Washington Blvd.

For more information about the project please visit http://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/madrona-park-beach-play-area-renovation.

For additional questions or if you need an interpreter or accommodations please contact Libby Hudson at libby.hudson@seattle.gov or 206-256-5988.