In 1980, Seattle's Landmarks Board recognized a 4.5-acre portion of the Kubota Garden in south Seattle's Rainier Beach neighborhood as a Seattle City Landmark. Today the entire 20-acre landscape is part of the Seattle Parks System and one of the many parks undergoing improvements funded by the 2000 Pro Parks Levy.

Nurseryman and landscape designer Fujitaro Kubota's informal Japanese style gardens reflect a unique design that adapts elements of Japanese style with Northwest plant materials.

Kubota made, designed, and installed many significant gardens and landscapes in the Seattle area. Besides numerous residential designs in Queen Anne, Windermere, Magnolia and Laurelhurst neighborhoods, he contributed designs for the Japanese Garden at Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island, the Seattle University campus, the Rainier Club, the Space Needle landscape and the Seattle Times Building landscape.

The landmark designation recognizes both the significance of the garden's design and distinctive characteristics of its style. The garden was also cited for its association with the cultural heritage of the community and as a significant open space in the neighborhood. The designation and subsequent acquisition of the larger cultural landscape by the city, that is, to preserve it as open space, was the direct result of community backlash to the threat of a condominium development on the property.

Cultural Landscape History

In 1906, at the age of 25, Fujitaro Kubota emigrated to Seattle from Japan. After a career in hotel management, he pursued his lifelong interest in gardening and bought 5 acres of land in south Seattle in 1929. Here he began to develop a garden to display his work for clients of his Kubota Gardening Company, which he had started in 1923. As a self-taught gardener, Kubota developed a unique style. He sought to enhance the Northwest landscape with Japanese influences, rather than create traditional, formal Japanese gardens. The garden served as a working display garden, nursery, and home. It was also a community space for the many Japanese Americans who had an open invitation from Kubota to enjoy the garden whenever they pleased.

The original 5-acre tract was logged swampland. Kubota's "improvements" began by filling in the swamp. He then diverted the water from a natural spring into a pond which was the garden's focal point. The original core garden is the area designated as a landmark. This first garden became known as the "Japanese Garden" and contains features such as a Japanese-style bridge, now called the "Heart Bridge." Two adjacent parcels to the west, totaling five acres, were purchased during the 1930's. Portions of this land were developed as part of the core garden as lawn area, planting beds for annuals and perennials, a lily garden and a rose garden. Other areas were used for nursery stock.

In 1940, the family built a house on a newly acquired parcel immediately south of the original core garden. The house sat vacant and deteriorated over time and was recently demolished. While it was not within the boundaries of the landmark-designated portion of the garden, it was still an unfortunate loss. A twist on the usual convention of losing a landscape and saving a historic building, the design of the landscape has brought merit to the garden, while the dwelling, significant in the context of the family's historic connections to the landscape, was lost due to its lack of aesthetic value.

During World War II, the family was interned for 3 ½ years and the garden was unattended. Upon their return, the family began to rebuild and continue to improve the gardens. Over the next several decades, Kubota made changes in the hydrology of the site. These changes have all become part of the unique character of the gardens. The combination of topography with the creation of an array of ponds and waterfalls that take advantage of the various natural springs and a creek, provides a rich setting for the plant materials.

The first of these creations was the original core garden pond. Subsequently, Kubota built an irrigation pond in the south end of the garden by diverting water from a spring from across 55th Ave South. Mapes Creek, which is spring-fed, runs through the site from south to north. It travels through a steep wooded ravine and then into an open valley where Kubota has diverted the creek into a series of five ponds. During this post-war development phase two more parcels were purchased, bringing the total size of the property to 20 acres.

In the 1960's, Kubota built the Mountainside garden, as part of the core garden, to the west of the creek. This was achieved by arranging 460 tons of rock on the site and constructing a series of waterfalls down the "mountain." These waterfalls are fed through a re-circulating pump and cistern system that draws water from the lower end of the necklace of ponds. This is one of the more formal design elements in the garden. It draws from traditional Japanese design principles. It includes: the indirect path, affording a changing sequence of views; the use of the Cascade Mountains as borrowed scenery; and three levels of repetition. These include: a near view of stone groupings collected from the Cascades; a middle ground dominated by the mature evergreens in the garden; and a distant view of the Cascades.

General circulation patterns within the garden developed gradually with the expansion of the property and display gardens, but were for the most part informal in character. The original main loop road allowed for a variety of vistas and opportunities to view the horticultural display beds along the route, rather than a formalized sequence of views employed in traditional Japanese gardens. In later years, after the relocation of the original entry through a torii gate at Renton Avenue, a more formal approach was taken with the entry drive. This entry incorporated elements of an "incomplete view" and an "indirect route" (FEIS 1993). Today the historic character of this entry at 55th Ave South is to be retained in new improvements to the site.

A Community Preservation Issue

Until his death in 1973, Kubota spent the last years of his life in a small house on the north portion of the property. The house has since been demolished. His sons Tak and Tom maintained the gardens up until the late 1980s, but the site deteriorated somewhat during these later years. When financial concerns led the family to consider selling a portion of the garden for a condominium development, the community became involved to stop these plans and preserve the garden for future generations. Besides the Rainier Beach neighbors, who were the core group blocking the sale of the property, subsequent involvement included Historic Seattle, from which the Friends of Kubota Gardens evolved, and the Kubota Gardens Foundation. The Foundation continues to work closely with the Parks Department to aid stewardship, help with funding and development issues.

After the landmark designation, community groups continued to work with the family to negotiate the city's acquisition of the property under a city-wide open space program. In 1986, as a result of community involvement and advocacy, the property became part of the Seattle Parks System. From 1988 until 1994 Murase Associates, Landscape Architects worked with the Parks Department to lead the design team through the master planning process. In reference to the Landmark Preservation Board's (LPB) involvement in the planning process, the Master Plan noted that the "language of the Controls and Incentives relates specifically to the historic preservation of an architectural landmark, but lacks the flexibility for a living and changing garden." (Kubota Garden Master Plan 1990). It further noted that any changes to the landmark core garden would be subject to the approval process of the landmarks board.

The Final Environmental Impact Statement, produced as part of planning review prior to approval, suggested that its own findings on historic and cultural resources should not be considered conclusive. It recommended that two surveys be undertaken, and stated that a thorough historic inventory would be beneficial, and that an inventory of historic vegetation was critical. The official report also recommended the development of preservation guidelines based on those developed by the National Park Service for the treatment of historic landscapes. The funding for such projects has never been secured from outside sources, nor has it been allocated within the Parks Department. and thus neither the inventories nor the guidelines have ever been produced. Following the public review of the FEIS, the Master Plan was approved in 1994.

The master plan identified key development goals aimed at creating a park that would attract greater regional interest, which would include a new cultural interpretive center. This included further development of numerous special gardens in areas outside of the core garden, including minimal development in a 17-acre portion of adjacent green space acquired by the city as protection for the Mapes Creek watershed in the 1990's. This concept was termed the "Extended American Japanese Garden." This concept also includes the creation of a World War II Memorial to promote understanding between Japanese and American cultures. This memorial and the cultural center honor a dream put forth by Kubota that his gardens would be a place to promote cultural exchange.

Pro Parks Improvements

Today the Pro Parks Levy has provided funding for the implementation of one of the early phases of development under the landscape architecture firm Nakano and Associates. This firm was on the planning team during the environmental review process and provided a detailed historic design analysis for the FEIS. Nakano's current design, based on the Murase Master Plan, has already been through three public hearings. The project team has presented the proposal to the Seattle Design Commission for comment.

General improvements are the focus of this phase of park stewardship and include infrastructural updates to irrigation and deal with drainage issues. Upcoming improvements include a new parking lot and formal entry area, and ADA access within the garden. An earlier project approved in 2001 included the development of an entry gate and wall along the main entry at 55th Avenue. Construction of the "Sungate" and wall is scheduled to begin sometime this year.

Preservation and Ecological Issues in Planning

Although the master plan stated that existing pedestrian circulation would be maintained throughout the gardens, accommodating ADA requirements will effect the historic landscape. Nakano and Associates proposed two new routes for access to the main circulation loop. In many sections it was impossible to re-grade the existing paths for accessibility without compromising the integrity of the gardens. This is a difficult issue in a landscape where steep topography is one of the defining historic characteristics of the garden. Thus, planned changes to routes are outside of the landmark area, but allow for connections to paths within the core garden. The design team consulted with Landmarks staff while developing their plans, but no formal board review was necessary since changes are outside of the landmark area.

In the design of the new parking lot, the design team is working with Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) to create a system of bioswales that would treat storm water runoff from the parking lot before releasing it into the existing historic irrigation pond, which ultimately feeds into Mapes Creek. This is especially aspect of the garden's hydrology. While the creation of man-made water features in the garden are a part of its historic, character-defining features, today the natural ecology of watersheds and salmon habitat are being carefully considered throughout the Puget Sound.

Currently SPU is conducting preliminary studies for the feasibility of daylighting the lower end of the creek, which is currently carried through pipes under a commercially developed area before it empties into Lake Washington. The ultimate desire would be to re-establish the natural delta and wetlands at the lakeshore. Such areas are considered important for the preservation of protective habitat for salmon migrating along the shores, even if they may not be able to enter the particular creek due to upstream obstacles.

Historically, according to the FEIS, Mapes Creek was salmon-bearing. While any attempts to restore the whole creek system to its historic capacity seem unlikely due to numerous obstacles, the ecological restoration of the mouth of the creek may be a possibility. Currently, the pond system Kubota created is suffering from erosion and the need to dredge due to over-sedimentation continues to be a problem. These sediments are precisely the materials needed to create a natural delta downstream in a healthy creek system.

Future of Past Environments

In the event that future restoration of the lower portion of Mapes Creek would occur, hydrologic improvements to the Kubota ponds, aimed at creating positive changes downstream, would be a very challenging design problem from a preservation perspective.

Improving the site's hydrology without compromising the integrity of the historic design's character, spatial arrangement, shape or size could prove extremely difficult. Of course, because the site operates as a natural system, improvements upstream and downstream cannot be successful unless conditions in between are conducive to moving sediments on through the whole system. Ecologists and preservationists working with landscape issues commonly face these sorts of problems. The environment is a dynamic system that is made up of many connected parts and is always changing and growing. Preservation efforts, including ecologists and cultural preservation advocates, are thus holistic and on the cutting edge of preservation practice.

To learn more about Kubota Gardens and Pro Parks improvements visit the at Parks Department's website, or the Kubota Gardens Foundation online.

The FEIS is available at the Seattle Central Library Reference Desk.

The Landmark Nomination Form is available from the Department of Neighborhoods.

For more information about the Mapes Creek watershed, development history and ecological design issues, go to the University of Washington's Department of Landscape Architecture's studio website.

Also, a Kubota Garden design-related project.

View last month's Preservation & Environment article

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