Design Process for Seattle's Planned Waterfront Park—Now Reaching Out to Native Americans

According to an article by Lynn Thompson, "with the Alaskan Way Viaduct slated for demolition and the city planning for a new waterfront park from Pioneer Square to the Olympic Sculpture Park, city officials have begun reaching out to local Indian tribes to involve them in the design and to incorporate their history and culture into the finished park."

"Involving the tribes and finding ways to tell their histories also could go a long way to answering critics who say the early design drawings seem too polished, more like San Diego than Seattle," adds Thompson.

The outreach effort marks the first occasion in the waterfront park's design process that the city has reached out for input into the design of the waterfront park. After Mayor Ed Walsh took office in January, he created the Office of the Waterfront "to coordinate the $1 billion in proposed investments that include the seawall, the currently stalled excavation of the Highway 99 tunnel, the viaduct removal and design of the new park where Alaskan Way now runs."