Olympic Sculpture Park Could Use More, Cheaper Parking

The Seattle Times ran a nice special section Sunday on the new Olympic Sculpture Park that is scheduled for a Grand Opening next weekend.

In the past few months I've been fortunate enough to work within walking distance of the new park, and have been regularly checking out the progress. Today landscaping crews were still working hard to get done in time, yet I would have to guess that they won't be completely done by this weekend as there remains a lot to do near the waterfront, most particularly with regards to the need to remove the temporary pedestrian areas. But we'll see.

All the artwork is in place, and even from the park exterior you can see much of it. However, today it appeared that a number of well dressed groups of people were walking within the park. Perhaps an advanced viewing for SAM members?

Undoubtedly the park will be a welcome addition to Seattle.

However, not wanting to rain on the parade of some "critics" (who have been anything but) writing about the park over the past few weeks, I'm not as convinced as they are that this will be the magnificence they portray. Take this article by Valerie Easton in the Seattle Times from a couple of weeks ago:

The sculpture park has been planted to form a variety of habitats stretching from Western Avenue to the water. You'll stroll through archetypal Northwest landscapes, including a grove of quaking aspen, a coniferous forest and meadows of native grasses and wildflowers.

I'm not so sure we will be able to call what grows there a "forest". Perhaps to a person who lives in a concrete forest it may seem that way.

Then there is this:

But it took a while before the architects got the full impact of the location. "There are great views of the Olympics, but when you make the first turn on the z-shaped route, and there for the first time, clear as a bell, is Mount Rainier!" Manfredi said. "It was almost as if it were some biblical siting."

Haven't these people spent any time at Myrtle Edwards Park just north of this plot of land? You have those same views, but in an neglected park. It would be nice if the city would consider just a little love and attention for that long waterfront park, to spruce up the grass areas, to improve the water access. After all that has been said about the new park, it will come over as hypocritical if they continued to neglect the older park.

There is also constant talk about "wandering" within the new park. Yet today I saw little of that. It seemed instead that people we being forced to walk along well established pathways. Any wandering that will be going on will be predetermined. We'll all be wandering the same route.

But the main problem I have with the new park is what they did with the public access to it.

It used to be that you could park in any of about 80 parking spots at the southern entrance to Myrtle Edwards Park, paying regular street parking fares to do so. When the new park was announced they indicated that underground parking would be provided, and it has under the pavillion at the south east corner. However, there are two problems with the new parking: there are only 50 spaces, and it will cost $6 to park there for zero to two hours ($22 for the whole day). We are told that metered parking is available on Western Avenue and Alaskan Way.

Except the parking along Western Avenue is hard to come by, and the Alaskan Way parking isn't any more abundant. You'd have to drive well over half a mile south on Alaskan Way to cover 80 parking spots, which would add well over a mile walk to any visit to the park, and of course you'll be competing with other downtown visitors not going to the park for those parking spots.

Few will want to pay $6 to park at the park, that's simply way to expensive, but I've not read about any transit additions or changes that will be in place to assist, given that the city is obviously trying to entice people out of their cars. At the very least they need to run the waterfront streetcar bus route more frequently than they currently do. Every 30 minutes is just too long a gap between buses on such a well traveled road.

I suspect the crowds this weekend, and for the first few that follow, will be significant at the new park, so I'm probably going to choose a weekday while I'm still working nearby near the end of the month, to explore it for the first time in depth. However, come spring it will be interesting to see how the plants bloom and add a little more green to a grey downtown.

One thing that is certain is that if people think that turning a dumpy waterfront property, such as what this park was before, into a feast for the eyes and soul, then perhaps they'll better come to appreciate just how a similar transformation could occur along the entire Seattle waterfront if the viaduct is torn down. I am sure that Mayor Nickels will be hoping as much. I know I am.