Parkways Seattle Parks and Recreation

Seattle Parks and Recreation(SPR) is happy to announce the completion of the final concept design for the new play area at Hiawatha Playfield. To review the design visit https://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/hiawatha-play-area-relocation or view a large concept design board at the park near the adult fitness equipment. Karen Kiest Landscape Architects worked with SPR and input from the community to develop the final design concept. Thank you to the community for their participation in this design. Hiawatha Playfield is in West Seattle at 2700 California Ave. SW.

The goal of this project is to transfer the location of the play area from the north end of the park to the grass area just south of the wading pool. The project includes new play equipment for children 2 to 5 and 5 to 12 years, swings, a small plaza, and restoration of the old play area site. The new location will improve visibility and access for all.

Play area construction is planned to start in the summer of 2021 and end in December 2021, along with restoration of the old play site. Other areas of Hiawatha Playfield will remain open during construction. However, there are other projects in the planning stages for this area (community center renovation and athletic field turf replacement).

Funding for this play area project is provided by the Seattle Park District. 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. The Seattle Park District helps improve and rehabilitate community centers, preserves the urban forest, performs day-to-day maintenance of parks and facilities, provides more recreation opportunities for people from underserved communities, supports programs for people of all ages and abilities, and acquires and develops new park land.

For more information or for meeting notification translations, please visit https://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/hiawatha-play-area-relocation.

For questions about the project or if you need an interpreter or accommodations, please contact Shannon Glass at shannon.glass@seattle.gov or 206-733-9319.

Thank you to the Hiawatha Community Center and the Associated Recreation Council (ARC) for their partnership with the community engagement for this project.

Seattle Parks and Recreation(SPR) is renovating Spruce St Mini Park Play Area, a neighborhood park in the central area (21st Ave. and E Fir St.) and needs community feedback on three design concepts. Please review design concepts and provide input by taking this survey https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/H5L7TLB (translated into Spanish) and help shape the future play area.

The design team incorporated the community’s early input into the three play area concepts designs. In addition to the online survey SPR will host an informational pop-up at the park on Saturday, October 24, 2020 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. to provide an additional input opportunity. We encourage everyone to participate online as much as you can but also invite you to meet the design team and provide feedback at this event. Due to the COVID-19 and if you choose to attend the pop-up event, face masks and social distancing is required. If you, or anyone in your family, are feeling sick or have a fever, please stay home. We want everyone to be safe.

We wanted to thank the 70 people who participated in the first survey for this project. Your input helped jumpstart the play area design process. When asked to rank what features would improve your enjoyment of the play area and the park, we heard the community’s top priorities include play features for both younger and older kids, more benches/picnic tables to sit or gather, incorporation of art, and better lighting for safety. When we asked what is the community character or identity that best reflected in the park, many expressed a strong support in honoring the African American community and the local culture and history of the Central District neighborhood.

SPR is partnering with the Office of Arts & Culture and will collaborate with the community on public art to be included in this play area renovation project.  The Office of Arts & Culture has hired the artist team of Hasaan Kirkland (www.hasaankirkland.com) and Damon Brown (www.creativelou.com) to work with the community to decide what type of artwork (e.g., murals, small sculptures) would best reflect the neighborhood. Visit the project website to get involved.

For more information please visit http://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/spruce-street-mini-park-play-area-renovation or contact Janice Liang at Janice.liang@seattle.gov or 206-507-3058.

Seattle Parks and Recreation is happy to announce the opening of Fritz Hedges Waterway Park, 1117 Northeast Boat Street. The new 3.5-acre waterfront park on Portage Bay with one pier and a kayak launch point offers a range of experiences within a compact area, a small beach, open lawn space, terraces, picnic area and the pier with colorful park furnishings. SPR will be organizing an official opening celebration next spring in conjunction with boating season.

The project provided extensive shoreline restoration and enhancement to support native species including juvenile salmon. The building on site was demolished and building elements were re-used throughout the park. The new park project also made improvements to the right-of-way and is seamlessly integrated into the University of Washington campus and the adjacent Sakuma Viewpoint.

“This park truly captures Seattle Parks and Recreation’s values of Healthy People, Healthy Environment and Strong Communities,” said Jesús Aguirre, Seattle Parks and Recreation Superintendent. “The park offers shoreline access and a place for launching kayaks, the project improved the shoreline habitat for salmon and the park as a whole offers great recreation opportunities in the dense urban environment.”  

Interpretive elements will be located throughout the site that tie into one of two historical narratives – the use of the Portage Bay Trail by Native Americans and the more recent maritime history. The interpretive elements are planned to be installed later this year. 

Walker Macy, the design team for the park project worked with Seattle Parks and Recreation and the community to design the park. The park offers the University of Washington (UW) campus a Portage Bay connection and will connect UW’s open space system with the City’s overall open space network.

“Access to parks and green spaces is essential for healthy communities, especially now that the pandemic has made outdoor recreation so important to our happiness and well-being. This new waterfront park is a beautiful and welcome addition to our neighborhood and the UW community appreciates all the hard work and collaboration that made it possible,” said President Ani Mari Cauce, University of Washington.

In 2013, UW transferred the property to the City of Seattle as part of a series of transactions among the UW, the City and the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) in connection with WSDOT’s SR 520 Program. WSDOT provided funds to the UW to facilitate the property transfer to Seattle Parks and Recreation so the property could be developed into a park as mitigation for the SR 520 Program’s impacts to the Washington Park Arboretum and East Montlake Park. WSDOT also provided funding for the development of the park.

Dawn Yankauskas, SR 520 & AWV Director of Project Development with WSDOT, shared her strong support for the park. “We’re thrilled that WSDOT could provide significant funding for this incredible new park along Portage Bay, as part of our SR 520 construction mitigation efforts. The park will offer a great resource for the community to enjoy water access and open space and is a result of WSDOT’s strong partnership with the City of Seattle, as well as the University of Washington. We look forward to celebrating with everyone in the future when we can all safely gather together.”

The site began as a lumber mill owned by Puget Sound Box & Lumber Co. until it was purchased and turned into Bryant’s Marina and boat sales. The UW then purchased the property in 1970’s and was used for various activities including the UW Police Station and recycling center.  

The new park in Portage Bay is named after Fredrick “Fritz” Hedges who was a long-term Seattle Parks and Recreation professional, last serving as the Director of Policy, Planning and Evaluation. Fritz dedicated his life to the idea that parks and recreation are vital components of urban life for all residents.

For more information please visit http://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/portage-bay-park.

Seattle Parks and Recreation(SPR) awarded the construction contract to FieldTurf USA to replace the aging synthetic turf with new state-of-the-art synthetic turf systems at six Seattle Parks and Recreation playfields. The playfields include: Lower Woodlands Playfields 2 & 7, Magnuson Park-Mickey Merriam Playfields 6 & 7, Loyal Heights Playfield, and Queen Anne Bowl Playfield. To increase the project efficiency, these synthetic turf field replacement projects were packaged together.

Each playfield replacement includes the removal of the old ‘worn out’ synthetic turf and will address any structural repairs to curbing, sub-subsurface, and drainage. 2020 synthetic turf systems will be installed for recreational play. During construction, each field will be closed. SPR and the contractor hired for the project will work to minimize impact to the roadways and neighborhoods. 

SPR conducted condition assessments on all SPR synthetic turf fields in 2018 and the results of these assessments informed both immediate maintenance action as well as the order in which needed replacement projects were funded.

For more information or to contact the project manager please visit:

• Lower Woodland Playfield #2 & #7 Closed mid-Oct through December 2020
  • http://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/lower-woodland-park-playfields-2-and-7

• Magnuson Park – Mickey Merriam Playfields 6 & 7- Closed September through December 2020
  • http://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/magnuson-park-mickey-merriam-playfields-6-and-7-

• Loyal Heights Playfield – Closed September through November 2020
  • http://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/loyal-heights-playfield-turf-replacement

• Queen Anne Bowl Playfield – Closed October through November 2020
  • http://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/queen-anne-bowl-playfield-turf-replacement

While we cannot meet in person right now, your input is important to us! Seattle Parks and Recreation(SPR), Seattle Department of Neighborhoods and Seattle Sports Complex Foundation invite the community to participate in an online meeting on Monday, October 19 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.  to review the community survey results and concept alternatives for Lowman Beach Racket Court. Please register at https://tinyurl.com/Lowman-Mtg2  or Number 146 733 7298 Password lowmanbeach  or call in at 1-206-207-1700 Code 146 733 7298. 

At Lowman Beach Park, 7017 Beach Dr. S W., the existing court will be removed as part of the Shoreline Restoration and Seawall Replacement project. The community has come together to explore options to install a new racket court that would provide recreation experience for all ages and will be ADA accessible.

During the first online open house, held in August, the design team presented the challenges and opportunities in locating a new racket court at the park and gathered community feedback. The community expressed a variety of desires including, finding a place for a full-size tennis court, adding something smaller, like Pickleball courts, or not making changes additional to those in the Shoreline project. Funding for the planning and design of the racket court is provided by the Department of Neighborhood Matching Fund.

The Lowman Beach Park seawall began to fail in 2015 and needs to be addressed. As visitors to the park have seen, the existing seawall is slowly falling over/sliding towards the water. SPR’s goal is to remove the existing seawall and continue the shoreline restoration work that began when the south half of the seawall failed in the mid-1990s and was removed.

For more information or to review the meeting in August please visit https://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/lowman-beach-racket-court-design or contact Pam Kliment at pamela.kliment@seattle.gov or 206-684-7556.

Seattle Parks and Recreation invites the community to participate in a short survey http://bit.ly/CalAnderson2 and join the third online discussions for 2020 Cal Anderson Park. This project engages the public on how changing assumptions and language can affect the design of park spaces and create a sense of belonging for everyone. Please participate on-line in a conversation and vision for the future of Cal Anderson Park on Wednesday, October 7 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at https://dlrgroup.zoom.us/j/96794281610 or Thursday, October 8 from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. at https://dlrgroup.zoom.us/j/93691483865. Choose either day to participate.

What is important to our community must be reflected in our parks. Our goal is to engage community around how we can use Seattle’s parks spaces to support better outcomes for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) and LGBTQIA+ communities in our city and our region.

Together with the community and Seattle Parks and Recreation, Rico Quirindongo will lead the consultant team of DLR Group and HBB, Inc. to discuss, inventory, and prioritize ideas for interventions to Cal Anderson Park. On October 7 and 8 we will discuss survey results, integration of public input, strategies for early and long-term implementation to enhance the sense of belonging in the park, as well as new ideas and next steps in this process for Cal Anderson Park.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the first two online conversations. Recordings of the meetings and additional information are available for review here https://2020calandersonpark.com/.

The survey is translated into six languages and closed captioning will be provided for the online meetings. For additional questions about project or meeting assistance/accommodations please contact 2020CalAnderson@seattle.gov.

Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) will begin construction of the Duwamish Waterway Park Improvements at 7900 10th Ave. S in South Park in October 2020. SPR purchased the 1.3-acre site from King County after a community-led process to make the property a permanent neighborhood riverfront park. Working with the Seattle Parks Foundation, the Friends of Duwamish Waterway Park raised over $1 million for park improvements and catalyzed the renovation effort.

The community vision provides significant improvements to the park to make it a healthy and welcoming space for families, young people, and seniors. The final design provides more welcoming park entries and includes:

• an improved perimeter pathway with a series of interpretive artwork boulders that enhance the river view with messages relating to the community and area history; 
• an all-ages accessible playground including a climbing structure and zip line as well as boulders, logs, and benches; and
• new park furnishings with accessible picnic tables, barbecues, drinking fountain and foot wash, additional benches, and bike racks. 

The park has been carefully laid out to maximize open space for recreation and festivals and to preserve river access for launching hand-carried boats. Vegetation management will improve sightlines throughout the park and will include new riparian plantings that control erosion and supplement the native shoreline plantings installed by Seattle Parks and Recreation over the years.

During the purchase of the property, SPR was made aware that the soil beneath the grass next to the river in the northeastern portion of the property contained elevated levels of arsenic contamination. In preparation for construction, SPR submitted a cleanup plan to the Washington Department of Ecology and is finalizing the plan for the property with Ecology. 

SPR will begin soil remediation work prior to construction. The soil in the northeastern portion of the park site will be removed and replaced with clean fill.  After consulting with SPR arborists and in order to preserve the large trees at the park, SPR will use air spading to remove soil around critical root zones of trees. SPR arborists will oversee this work to minimize impact to the trees and to see that clean soil is correctly placed around them. We anticipate removal of approximately 80 cubic yards of soil or more in this initial action. Most of the cleanup work will be completed before the park renovation begins; any remaining cleanup on SPR property will be coordinated during the construction of park improvements. Cleanup on non-Seattle Parks and Recreation property is not included in this project.

We anticipate awarding the construction contract for park improvements in late September 2020, with construction starting in late October 2020 and completed in summer 2021.

For more information please contact Jessica Michalak, Capital Projects Coordinator, Seattle Parks and Recreation, at Jessica.michalak@seattle.gov or 206-470-9147 or visit http://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/duwamish-waterway-park-activation.

Seattle Parks and Recreation will partially close the I-5 Colonnade Off-leash Area(OLA), 1701 Lakeview Blvd. E, 98102 as part of a maintenance project that will replace the gravel in the dog park. The maintenance project will begin in the north section of the park and start Tuesday, September 22, 2020. Access to this park will be available from the opposite entrance from the work site.

The nearest two OLA’s are Denny Park 100 Dexter Ave N., 98109 and Plymouth Pillars Park located at the corner of Pine St and Boren St., 98101.  Please visit http://www.seattle.gov/parks/find/dog-off-leash-areas for other off leash area opportunities.

The Seattle Park District’s Maintaining Parks and Facilities funding initiative provides funding to improve OLAs throughout Seattle. This initiative provides $100,000 annually until the end of this year, 2020 and will improve existing off-leash areas through increased maintenance while providing updates to aging infrastructure. In 2016, we completed a capital plan for all OLAs, People, Dogs and Parks Plan. This plan provides a scope and prioritization of projects.

Several maintenance improvement projects were completed over the last two years at Magnuson Park, Genesee Park, Regrade Park, Woodland Park and Blue Dog Pond Park OLAs. 

For more information about the project please visit http://wwwqa.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/dog-off-leash-areas

For more information please contact Peggy Tosdal at peggy.tosdal@seattle.gov or 206-419-3136.

Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) invites the community to review the proposed schematic design for the future Terry Pettus Park and provide final design input. The proposed schematic design incorporates the newly acquired property to the south of the park. Please register for the online Zoom meeting http://bit.ly/pettusparkmeeting2 and join us online Wednesday, September 23 at 4 p.m. Once registered, you will receive a confirmation email with a link to join the meeting. While we cannot meet in person right now, your input is important to us!

At the last meeting, the design team from Jones & Jones Architects and Landscape Architects heard from the community that they preferred the two concept alternatives Terraces and Restoration. The design team combined the features of these two concepts along with other public input, and developed the proposed schematic design. The proposal improves universal access across the site and includes multi-level terraces for sitting and picnicking, restored upland habitat areas, a new dock, and a new beach.

Terry Pettus Park is located in the Eastlake neighborhood at 2001 Fairview Ave E.

For additional questions about project please contact Karen O’Connor at 206-233-7929 or karen.oconnor@seattle.gov or visit http://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/terry-pettus-park-renovation.

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 take a tour of the site by watching this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_OsfnhbZIY&feature=youtu.be and visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/C9HBJCF to provide input.

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 stops that will begin service in 2021 at SW Findlay and Delridge.

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 please contact Ed Pottharst, Ed.Pottharst@seattle.gov or 206-386-4232.