Westlake Plaza – a well functioning public space?

Merit Lesta

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Located in downtown Seattle, Westlake Plaza is one of the places where different paths and travel directions intersect. It is also a place where the Christmas tree is located annually and most everybody takes their friends when visiting Seattle. According to these and some other characteristics, Westlake Plaza can be classified as “the grand public place”, according to Clare Cooper Marcus and Carolyn Francis.
Westlake plaza offers an open space for people to gather or meet their friends. Its function changes over different seasons as well as during different days. It hosts a carousel during Christmas and serves as a great brown bag lunch place during warmer seasons. It is a place for people to gather during different events – for parades as well as for different meetings. It doesn’t offer an escape from city life – on the contrary, it is a place where one can observe and enjoy busy life between buildings.
Seemingly well functioning and centrally located in the city center the following questions raised in my thoughts: Is this plaza as alive and well functioning public place as it could be? Could it serve better its current users and possibly attract more people?
From the analysis that I have conducted, it can be concluded that the Westlake Plaza has many advantages to function well and satisfy the needs of its users. Though the plaza works the way it currently is, there are a few things that could be improved to better the atmosphere of the plaza and bring the area more alive. Things like bringing different restaurants on the edge of the plaza and using movable street furniture can increase the use of the site as well as have a positive impact on currently present homeless people. These are just a few conclusions that can be drawn from short term observations and brief analysis of the site.

Seattle Dogs and Insurgent Space

Mackenzie Waller

Domesticated dogs are an embodiment of both culture and nature. In an urban setting, the domesticated dog becomes a centerpiece in the power and politics of manipulating the landscape. A less studied area of urban spaces fall on the border between the human/dog sphere. These are places that fall outside the boundary of these more standardized, structured spaces, and are important because they demonstrate ways that users (dog-owners) modify spaces and push legal boundaries in order to serve their needs.

The most important aspect of exploring the impact of loose space and insurgent space is to address its impact on public opinion. These spaces are often the site of behavior that is outside that which is recognized as ‘acceptable’. At times these activities have been deemed illegal, adding to a negative public opinion. This exposure to diversity allows for shifts in public opinions. Some examples of these types of insurgent spaces are shown here and they often have a much more powerful impact on public opinion than the legally sanctioned methods of programming activities.

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Urban Evolution

Patrick McCleary

Fall and rise of a structure in a neighborhood can alter the character and feel of the place. The persistent thumping of hammers and whining of saws drones on for days, weeks and months; to the point we begin to dismiss them, neglect to hear them stop. One day we find the construction site in the neighborhood silent and empty except for the partially erected skeleton of a building or rusting rebar protruding from a half completed foundation. It has been a construction site so long it went unnoticed that the saws and hammers had stopped. What can or should be done with these sites? Many have fallen derelict and become grand and elaborate dumpsters. Some become local harbors for drugs and prostitution at night and ball fields and impromptu play fields by day. Some of these places are dangerous, some of them are ugly, and all of them are interesting fragments of the neighborhood.

Contained here are snapshots of five sites in various stages of construction or neglect. Surely there is an interim state that benefits these neighborhoods other than being a large trash receptacle.

From Point A to Point B

Pedestrian Bridge over Delridge Way


The site that I selected to represent Seattle Aggregate Urbanism was a pedestrian bridge over Delridge Way near the intersection of Delridge Way and Oregon. The pedestrian bridge allows for a linkage between the Delridge Community Center and the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center. More importantly it bridges the gap that was hindered by Delridge Way which is a busy road.
The neighborhood of Delridge is a major neighborhood is adjacent to ridges on both sides. Delridge Way is a road that links most of West Seattle residents to the West Seattle Bridge. The result is a neighborhood, dominated by vehicles, that constrains Delridge into two neighborhoods flanking the street. The speed limit on Delridge Way is 35 miles per hour, has an elementary school, day care center, mini-marts, community center, green trails, library, and arts center the length of the street.
These problems have led to an opportunity. What is more important Delridge as safe neighborhood or a neighborhood that allows for efficient and swift accessibility to the West Seattle Bridge? The outcome was one pedestrian bridge that allows continuous movement between the two sides and for traffic. The pedestrian bridge works as a threshold/gateway and also is a place to display community banners. I chose this site because it is a space that seems simple but holds a lot of meaning.

Marginalized- a DIY skatepark

A community treasure forged from the will of individuals, yet it is hidden from the public eye. Marginal Way Skatepark resides under an overpass in the industrial neighborhood of SODO. Removed from residential neighborhoods, covered by an on-ramp, and flanked by rail tracks and a trucking route, it is an unlikely place for a community asset. Fed up with the city’s unpredictability, the DIY skatepark on Marginal Way was built by volunteer labor and public contributions. In the wake of the demolition of the Seattle Center Skatepark, boarders in Seattle rallied together to appropriate their own park in the margins of Seattle’s urban framework.

This unlikely location though, is what makes Marginal Way a viable space. Free of public scrutiny, the setting provides a loose site to build the park without fear of it being ripped out from under them again. The inconspicuous site had existed as a haphazard site of prostitution, illegal dumping, illicit drug use, and homeless camps. During most of the day it remained vacant and unused. Though the intervention to construct a skatepark would alter its composition, it does not inhibit continued transgressional behavior. It remains loose and unpredictable. The diversity of encounters now range from riders and junkies, to concerts and kids.

Michael Lewis

Fremont Aggregate Urbanism

Sam McIntyre

During my first visit to Fremont to take some photographs, I was sure that it was considered a “theme park city,” I knew it held much of its urban vernacular within the events that it held on an annual basis, but after reading the “Introduction: Variations on a Theme Park,” in Variations on a Theme Park, by Michael Sorkin, I got a clearer understanding of what an ageographical city is. Even though Fremont does not fall under this category of a “theme park city” it is still a place that shows off its own style. This area shows off its trademark/iconic pieces that make it one of a kind, like the Center of the Universe sign and the Fremont graffiti sign. During my second trip to take some pictures and see how Fremont had changed, I was shocked at the amount of changes that I saw, but not surprised at what had not been touched. During this trip I was also fortunate to see new things that help give Fremont its own unique urban feel. Some of these things include more English ivy growing on the sides of buildings in their own unusual fashion, an old pair of shoes placed near a big rock that makes it look like the rock fell out of the sky and landed on a bystander, and its dinosaurs that are made out of ivy growing next to the Burke Gilman trail. Even though Fremont is not an ageographical city, these small hidden treasures give Fremont its one of a kind feel.

Life Between Shopping Centers

This research is basically focusing on the open space outside Westlake Center, Westlake Park and slightly addressing the sidewalk in this shopping district. According to Franck and Stevens’ Theory of “Loose Space”, and Crawford’s concept of “Everyday Urbanism”, the space here can be seen as a loose space by a variety type of usage and an everyday space shared by urban residents’ randomly use in their everyday life pattern.

It is almost the most vivacious area in Seattle downtown. There are many department stores, hotels, and banks around. According to “From Everyday Urbanism”, the author said that everyday space “existing in between such defined and physically identifiable realms as the home, the workplace, and the institution, everyday urban space is the connective tissue that binds daily lives together.” And in “Tying Down Loose Space” article, the author mentioned loose spaces give cities life and vitality. It is a breath space of city life. Westlake Park can be seen as a tissue connecting the surrounding shopping centers. The space does simulate imagination and intervention. People’s action here does make a space loose, with or without official sanction and physical features that support those actions. Meanwhile, they enjoy the freedom in the spaces by avoiding and accepting each other.

Colorful Shadows

Public spaces throughout history have been the heart of cities. They provide a forum for the spontaneous exchange of thoughts and ideas between people. Historically used as a place to manifest both political control and social protest, controversy often arises over the motives behind the types of ideas and thoughts that are being exchanged. As a way to control the public’s uses of urban space urban forms are becoming more inward focused “…with the private and personal having taken precedence over the public and impersonal…” (Hou)
As regulation of urban public spaces increases and the scale of the urban form become less human, people are forced to find new ways of creating a sense of belonging and ownership in the urban environment. That expression manifests itself in many ways such as in how people dress and what kind of car they drive, or whether they choose to drive at all. Forms of expression can also be found marking the physical urban landscape. While looking for the spontaneous public hand in the urban fabric I noticed, not surprisingly, that these expressions tend to be found in urban alleyways, on abandoned buildings, and in industrial areas. Safely hidden in the shadows, it appears that these places have become the last frontier of the urban environment and people have chosen those places as a refuge to safely experiment with expression.

Outdoor Commercial Entertainment Malls: Disneyland or Genus Loci

Erin Berg

The West Coast population continues to grow and some of the most popular regions have become conglomerates of several auto-dominated municipalities that, from the eye of the driver, merge seamlessly. The backbones of these communities are freeways and the hearts of these communities are boulevards. Most of the time you leave your house, you are bound for your car door only to get out again when you have arrived at your specific destination. Therefore, a day-to-day experience involves little walking, only intended social encounters and a sensory experience limited to what is seen out of the windshield. Many people are not satisfied with this narrow experience and developers are recognizing a new market.
Outdoor commercial entertainment malls are gaining popularity and may soon pop up all over the country. The urban design techniques employed in these developments create a comfortable pedestrian experience and a vibrant urban landscape. They are places where you can park you car just one time, walk around, interact with other people, feel the sun, smell the restaurants and see the flowers. Santana Row is one of these developments. Although Santana Row shows us how good urban design can activate a place, it’s sense of place is contrived. Foreign imported artifacts create a Disneyland effect while the pear orchards previously on-site are forgotten with its authentic genus loci.

http://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=santana+row+map&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&split=0&gl=us&ei=n9u-SYNmivawA8zYxbYM&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=image

University Heights Center for Community

Josho Somine
LARCH 598
Winter 2009
Final Site Assessment

Site Summary
The University Heights Center for Community (UHCC) occupies a full city block north and west of NE 50th St. and University Way NE in Seattle. A large old building, formerly an elementary school, occupies the center of the block, and is surrounded by parking lots and a variety of small open spaces. The building facilities are managed by a nonprofit organization, and several other organizations rent spaces inside. Some additional rooms are available for classes and events.
The spatial and temporal uses outside the building are similarly diverse. Paved parking makes up about 2/3 of all the open space, and has multiple tenants with jurisdiction over certain sections of the lots. One large lot is turned over to the district Farmers’ Market on Saturday mornings, which is heavily attended year-round. The site also contains 2 playgrounds, one private and one public, a community garden, a small enclosed lawn, and a public entrance plaza. (See site diagram and context diagram for details of the layout.)
The Center’s stated focus is “our local community, children, arts and education, and continuing education” , and they encourage a changeable variety of tenant organizations and activities. (See current list in Appendix A) Although there is an effort to be welcoming, there is also some conflict implicit with the “seedier” aspects of the adjoining neighborhood, which is reflected in an abundance of fencing and regulatory signage all around the site.

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