Waterfront Seattle Design Update

Here's a video of the 10/27 meeting to present the real waterfront design progrss.

Viaduct Party

The Department of Transportation is having a contest for exclusive access to the viaduct before a 9 day demolition. Read about the contest rules here.

Digging Light Rail Tunnel

Here's a story from the Seattle Times about digging the light rail tunnel.

It's not on the waterfront, but it is about digging in Seattle!

Friday Tour #2

The second waterfront tour included some interesting sights.

First we looked through binoculars on the roof of Pier 66.

We saw a boat at the Pier 66 marina that holds 6,000 gallons of fuel in its main tank. It costs $24,000 just to fill the tank!

Quinn's sharp eyes quickly spotted crabs, starfish, and salmon in the water.

We saw this cool bike stand/sculpture at the aquarium.

We will come back on another Friday to see Duncan Moore dive in the big fish tank.

Lauren spotted this plaque in the sidewalk at Pier 62/63.

We talked to Rick Williams while he carved a totem for his brother John. We smelled the cedar of a smaller version he was carving and sniffed the sage in his smudge pot.

We ate lunch at Ivar's and read a story about Ivar Haglund by Seattle painter William Cumming. Cumming told about Ivar's bedroom being filled with bees.

We stopped at a Stonington gallery to view Tlingit artists's work, especially a green glass octopus.

Martin picked our last stop at the Klondike Museum where we saw a replica of 1 ton of gold bars worth over $14 million at today's prices.

Seattle History Resource

I found this great online resource for Seattle waterfront history. The site is maintained by Paul Dorpat, Jean Sherrard, and Bérangère Lomont. Not only are there posts about and pictures of the waterfront, but other Seattle and Washington history topics as well.

Surveying the Landscape

I picked up a Seattle waterfront map today at Metsker's Map in the Pike Market.

Scobie gave me the idea of putting a transparent grid over the map. Each box of the grid works out to about 13 minecraft blocks on each side.

We will find a point in our Minecraft world that corresponds to a point on the real map. Then we can create a 13 block grid in the game to locate the edges of the piers and building areas.

Simple, right?

Field Trips

Here are the field trip ideas and the votes:

8 – Aquarium
7 – Underground Tour
7 – Tillicum Village
6 – Ferry
6 – Arcade
4 – Waterfront
4 – Klondike Museum
4 – Container Port
3 – Pier 66
3 – Department of Transportation

History Topics

Here are the history topics we can investigate and the number of votes:

8 – Great Fire of 1889
6 – Century 21 (World Fair of 1962)
5 – Gold Rush of 1896
4 – Logging/coal
4 – Alaska/Yukon/Pacific Exhibition of 1909
2 – Railroads
2 – Chief Seattle

Cool Videos of the Tunnel and Waterfront

Katey Bean shared these video links to computer simulations from the Department of Transportation:

- Inside of the tunnel
- Tunnel in relation to various existing underground structures
- Simulation of driving along the waterfront without the viaduct

I wish Minecraft had this level of detail!

Photos from Friday Tour

Here are some shots from our trip today.

We saw City Hall Park from the bus. Cannonballs from the battleship Decatur shooting at natives in the mid 1800's have been uncovered as recently as 1995.

We learned that Kinnear Park was sold to Seattle for $1.00.

We listened to Chief Seattle's address to the Department of the Interior and realized we were walking on the ashes of many ancestors.

We visited a machine shop on Elliot Avenue. A sign says, "If you have a complaint, ask Mr. White." I asked, "Who is Mr. White?" They said, "We're all Mr. White." It has been in the same family for three generations. They showed us old photos of Elliot Avenue. First it was water, then it was a wooden logging road. We visited a chicken coop behind the shop!

We saw herons, a seagull swallowing a starfish, smelled a rose that reminded us of Scotch Tape, spotted a gribble in driftwood, listened to waves, learned about the importance of intertidal environments in the reconstruction of the seawall, saw a totem pole with a bear and mosquito, and saw sculpture titled "Adjacent, Against, Upon," and had lunch at Anthony's Fish and Chips. It was Joshua's first ever fish and chips.

We learned that Myrtle Edwards was a musician and open minded advocate for public parks.

Cary Moon and Katey Bean helped us understand what important issues we need to confront in our waterfront design.

We spotted fish, starfish, and crabs in the water.

We saw a mime on Alaskan Way. He mirrored Joshua and Quinn.

And we took the bus back to school.

Stay tuned for part 2 next Friday!

Old Seattle Maps

When the Denny Party arrived here in 1851, about 500 Duwamish Indians lived around Elliott Bay, and hundreds more in villages from Shilshole Bay to present-day Renton. Elliott Bay appears here as drawn by a U.S. Navy coastal survey in 1854. At that time, these shores were blanketed with a coastal forest of Douglas firs, cedars and hemlock, interspersed with open spaces maintained by the natives. (from the Seattle Times).

More maps can be seen here.

Back in the Day

Check out this map of the Native settlements before Seattle was a city. Later land fill and landmarks are included for reference.

Friday Tour Map

Here's the route for Friday. I broke it into four parts.

The first part is getting from school to Queen Anne via bus (in black) That will take about half an hour.

The second part is walking from Queen Anne to the waterfront via Kinner Park and a big footbridge across railroad tracks (in red). That will take about half an hour.

The third part is walking along the waterfront via Myrtle Edwards Park and the Olympic Sculpture Park (in green). That will take about an hour.

The last part is walking along the waterfront via Alaskan Way and through Pioneer Square (in blue). That will take about two hours (including lunch).

We Might Not See These on Friday

These flea sized insects are called Gribbles. They are eating the wood in Seattle's seawall. The city needs to replace the wall so that the next earthquake doesn't flood downtown!

Sites We Will See Friday

We are going to use all five of our senses on our waterfront tour.

We will see the first totem pole being carved in Seattle in 70 years and look at the waterfront through binoculars on the roof at Pier 66. We will listen to water, birds, and traffic. We will smell different roses. We will taste Ivar's clam chowder and "keep clam." We will touch the water and sculptures.

We will walk through a helix.

We will see mummies, a bear holding a mosquito, an orange eagle, a miniature light house, a double mobius strip, a huge yellow letter C, and if we are lucky, even a unicorn!

Not only will Tanya join us for biology discussions, Cary Moon from the Seattle Waterfront Coalition, and Katey Bean from the Washington State Department of Transportation will join us to teach us about design, traffic, and political issues. I have a bunch of historical information to share about the waterfront as we walk.

Wear good walking shoes, bring a camera, and something to eat or money for lunch.

Scroll down to see some of the photos a took on my dry run through the tour on Wednesday.

People's Waterfront Coalition

Check out this site by local activists and urban designers. There is some great information on the waterfront ecology, economics, and design. I invited Cary Moon from this group to come with us on our Friday waterfront tour. Mouse over the images here to see before and after ideas.

Current Waterfront Structures

Here's a list of existing structures we should consider for our design:

Grain Elevator
Myrtle Edwards Park
Olympic Sculpture Park
Pier 70 – Waterfront Seafood Grill
Pier 69 – Victoria Clipper
Pier 67 – Edgewater Hotel
Pier 66 – Bell Harbor Conference Center
Pier 63/62 – Summer Nights on the Pier concert stage
Pier 59 – Seattle Aquarium
Pier 57 – Gifts and Restaurant
Pier 56 – Argosy Cruise and Restaurant
Pier 55 – Argosy Cruise and Tillicum Village
Pier 54 – Charters, Ivars, Ye Olde Curiosity Shop
Pier 52 – Ferry Terminal

And some important icons:

Space Needle
Smith Tower
PSCS

Which ones are interesting to you? What should we skip? What should we add?