Freeway Park is a unique urban public park created as a lid over the freeway corridor of Interstate 5 between Spring and Union streets by designer Angela Danadjieva for Lawrence Halprin and Associates in1976. Although it has been altered and will continue to undergo change directed by its original designer, the park remains a worldwide precedent of landscape design. Long revered by landscape architects, and owned and maintained by the City Parks Department, this exceptional designed landscape will be considered for a City landmark nomination. The Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board will meet on Wednesday, October 18, 2006, at 3:30 p.m. in Room 4080 of the Seattle Municipal Tower, 700 Fifth Avenue. Historic Seattle supports this nomination and encourages you to send your letter of support to:

Mr. Stephen Lee, Chair
Landmarks Preservation Board
City Department of Neighborhoods
700 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1700
P.O. Box 94649
Seattle, WA 98124-4649

Because of its prominent placement over the City's primary north-south thoroughfare, Freeway Park has been an icon of Seattle's landscape design since it was built in 1976. Prior to the 1960s, Seattleites considered the western border of the First Hill neighborhood to extend along Sixth Avenue. Construction of Interstate 5's twelve-lane highway in 1966 gouged a chasm between First Hill and downtown. Many residents resented the intrusion of the freeway into the urban environment and wanted its effects to be softened. Although the total cost for construction of Freeway Park was almost $24 million, City government costs for the park were significantly reduced because the municipality did not need to purchase land, demolish buildings, or forfeit taxable property.

Freeway Park was unveiled on July 4, 1976 as part of the City's celebrations of the nation's Bicentennial and remains the largest and most prominent physical remnant of that occasion. The members of the park's design team are some of the most honored landscape designers in the nation who were working during the second half of the twentieth century. Lawrence Halprin's work has been recognized as revolutionary with his signature designs uniting urban spaces with human activity. The Halprin firm was responsible for total development and construction at Freeway Park.

Bulgarian born Angela Danadjieva designed the park as a member of Halprin's team and took her inspiration for Freeway Park from the "big changes in elevation" between downtown and First Hill. She set a precedent with her design for a park placed as a lid over a freeway—a feature now repeated in other communities worldwide. This park also created a new land use typology because it provided urban residents with a way to negotiate the gaping divide of the limited access freeway corridor. It was the first signal to community planners that urban amenities could be built to soften sterile freeways. The plantings in Freeway Park were considered to be a placement of the forest within the city.

Two concrete bridges were installed over 400 feet of Interstate 5 and contain the 23 largest pre-cast concrete girders ever transported on Washington's highways. The "bones" of the park were formed using over 12,000 cubic yards of concrete that was cast in place leaving intentionally visible traces of the original milled timber forms which has become a signature texture within the park. Designer Danadjieva chose concrete because she saw the texture of Seattle's cityscape dominated by concrete. Freeway Park is comprised of a series of linked spaces, with the major sections known as the Naramore Fountain and Great Box Garden, West Plaza, Central Plaza, and East Plaza.

Circulation throughout the park is organized around a series of exposed aggregate paths that meander through the park in stepped pads. These paths sit atop a layer of sand rather than directly on structural slabs above the freeway in order to prevent tree roots from being bound and to facilitate drainage. Pedestrians enjoy twelve entrances into Freeway Park. Sixty irrigated and drained concrete planter boxes stand as plinths for planting, adding visual depth to the visitors’ experience. These enclosures were filled with a special lightweight soil mix to encourage the trees to flourish, without placing undue loads on the structural members over the freeway. To further alleviate concerns about structural loading, trees are planted over vertical tubes that allow the tree’s roots to thrive while accommodating the added weight. Danadjieva stated that, “the elements of the park are designed to show contrast between the geometric architectural forms and the softness and lushness of the plant material.”

As expected from a microclimate as utterly unique as the one present at Freeway Park, the dynamics of plant growth did not adhere to the schedules and limitations envisioned by the designers. Some species have thrived, but others have languished. Additionally, because of the dynamic nature of landscapes, the original planting scheme of Freeway Park has been eroded and updated with time. Even with these changes, Freeway Park stands as one of the most intact extant projects to come from Halprin's studio out of his major urban works of the 1970s.

This construction achievement at Freeway Park received three engineering awards and two landscape design awards. The water features were lauded as a major triumph by critics nationwide because the sound of the fountains masks the noise of freeway traffic. Landscape designers worldwide recognize Freeway Park as significant and as a "progenitor of a landscape type." Experientially, the site is varied and complex providing a range of environments designed to function in all seasons and at different times of the day with water as the constant. It is the first project in the United States to convince city, state, and federal agencies, plus private developers, to convert freeway airspace to an open oasis that is usable for its citizenry.

The City Parks Department planned renovations at Freeway Park were designed by Angela Danadjieva and will feature plantings with increased seasonal color. The backbone of the planting scheme will be the Magnolia Walk, the Dogwood Walk, the Rhododendron Walk, the Cherry Walk, the Gateway Entries, the Canyon Fountain, the Pedestrian Crossroad Underpass, and the American Legion Fountain. Most of the new shrubs and small trees will be installed in front of existing plantings to avoid removals. Ivy will be replaced with new varied ground cover textures. Once Freeway Park has become a designated City landmark, all design changes will be required to be reviewed and approved by the City's Landmarks Preservation Board before installation.

Sources:

Freeway Park Draft Landmark Nomination 2005 by Brice Maryman and Liz Birkholz with plant identification assistance from Jason Morse viewed July 2005 at http://www.tclf.org/features/freeway/FPnominationdraftB.pdf

City Parks Department. Freeway Park Planting Renovation and Other Improvements. July 7, 2006

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