On Thursday, May 19th, the reshaping of Seattle’s Central Waterfront took one more step forward with a public meeting hosted by the City of Seattle at the Bell Harbor Conference Center. The event was attended by over 900 people, who took in a presentation, asked questions and gave feedback on the new design ideas, and enjoyed food from mobile vendors and a spectacular sunset on the pier apron.
Lead designer James Corner and the waterfront team presented their first design ideas, which addressed how to make Elliott Bay the center of the new waterfront, while ensuring the new design is authentic to Seattle. Their presentation included ideas that create vibrant new public places right on the water, providing access to and interaction with the water’s edge, places to see the activity of the bay and places to simply sit in the sun and enjoy a coffee. The design team also introduced ideas for new uses and activities that could make the waterfront a truly great place to be, including event spaces that bring back the magic of the concerts on the pier. Finally, the team shared ideas on how to make the new waterfront more accessible to other parts of the city, for example by physically connecting the Pike Place Market at Victor Steinbrueck Park to the waterfront near the Aquarium.
The ideas and analysis presented on Thursday reflected input from nearly 2,000 public responses and meetings with stakeholders regarding the future vision and potential uses of the new waterfront.
To review the presentation, take the accompanying online survey and review the feedback we received after our last public event, please visit the project website at waterfrontseattle.org.