Editor’s note: Cary Moon is the founder of the People’s Waterfront Coalition, a longtime advocate for a non-highway solution to replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct.
This morning, the city announced that it will hire james corner field operations to lead the planning and design efforts for more than 20 acres of land that will be opened up on the downtown waterfront once the Alaskan Way Viaduct comes down. This is fantastic news; here’s why.
All four of the final teams chosen by the city were great, as 1,300 people witnessed last Wednesday night at Benaroya Hall. All are strong designers with excellent parks to their credit; all clearly grasp the issues; and all offered an impressive understanding of this place and the role the waterfront plays in Seattle’s future as a city.
Of the four finalists, though, the field operations team had the clearest and most compelling vision for how to organize the materials, forces, and elements to create urban fabric. James Corner convincingly described Seattle’s persona as a city, showing aerial photos of the muscular, industrial landscapes of waterfront Seattle, which he compared to his working-class hometown of Manchester. Corner is fascinated with the punk-rock creativity of Seattle’s culture, and the way we’re immersed in our weather. He laid out a coherent framework for how Seattle’s new waterfront will be physically organized, naming elements such as the Green Corridor, Little Bays, Front Porch, and Connections.
I think JFCO won at the moment when Corner framed the four big challenges as he sees them, and showed by example how his firm has approached similar conditions in its projects in other cities, which include High Line Park in Manhattan and Freshkills Park on Staten Island.
- Creating a new Public Realm is about focusing on what people might want to do there, and then figuring out settings and props that can accomplish that goal. When it’s built and people come, they will use the tools available to create the larger choreography that is public life.
- Green Urbanism is about mapping the natural processes of a place– both to enhance the health of these processes and to reveal them as singular traits of a place. Ecologies are the genius of a place, and amplifying them will keep Seattle’s waterfront from looking like it could just as well be in Baltimore or San Diego.
- Early Wins is about sequencing the delivery of the project piecemeal to build momentum over time, as individual parts come online. An evolving place, launched now, is the product the team is after.
- Public Engagement is about the team’s real commitment to listening to the wisdom of Seattleites who clearly know what they want to do on the future waterfront.
field operations won because of their mastery of planning, design, ecology, economic development, public art, strategy, event programming, and public engagement. Making public space is not like building a building, where the client has full control and all the means to make it happen. When you’re creating more than 20 acres of new urban fabric, it’s a shared effort. It will require many players, including city departments, neighboring property owners, supportive civic organizations, the public, local philanthropists, and politicians.
“They will be the soul of this project, and the glue holding all the elements together—the street, the water’s edge, the public spaces, the infrastructure,” Seattle Department of Public Transportation waterfront project manager Steve Pearce said. “We needed a team with an extraordinary range of talents. [field operations has] a strong commitment to creating public life. They understand what democratic public space is, and the role it plays in a city.”
What is most exciting for me, though, is knowing that someone so smart and experienced will decipher what Seattleites say we want and deftly, persuasively, show us a how to get to a solution richer and more thoughtful than we could have imagined. Sometimes in presentations like these, you get the feeling that the designer is too eager to give the client what want. Answers to impromptu questions can feel more shallow than the rehearsed presentation. But JCFO’s ideas cut through that sort of rhetoric. The team artfully explained how important it will be for the street to function usefully as a street while also feeling integrated into the waterfront itself.
On the phone this morning, Corner said, “We are truly thrilled to have won this opportunity. All four finalists were very strong, all presentations were great. The commitment made by each team proves the significance of this project. We can’t wait to get started.”
The city ran a tight selection process, starting with an request for qualifications that lured as much as 30 of the world’s top planning and design talent. The teams had to show strong civic chops in master planning, creating urban fabric, and desiging great parks. The eight-person selection panel didn’t have an easy decision. But in the end, it was unanimous.
Funding for the design work will come from a variety of sources, including $290 million from the state department of transportation (WSDOT) for street replacement; a shared commitment from the city and state for utility relocation; and whatever sources the city council and Mayor Mike McGinn ultmitaely agree on for replacing the seawall. Other potential sources include a local improvement district (LID); grants from government programs for transportation and shore improvements; the Army Corps of Engineers; and local philanthropy.
Why is this worth all this effort, and money? Because the viaduct is coming down, and what we do in its place will largely shape how Seattle develops in the coming decades. If we don’t give this opportunity the attention it deserves, staying focused on the public interest, our worst tendencies for laissez-faire development will likely prevail. The result could come out feeling like downtown Bellevue or a new subdivision in Dallas. We can’t afford to back away from the courage such a large and lasting project demands.
James Corner has earned his rock star standing among designers and urbanists by creating projects that are intelligent, beautiful, and provocative. This is going to be fun.
