Here’s another photo from The Junction, taken the other day and waiting patiently in queue since then: The site of Junction Plaza Park, northwest corner of 42nd/Alaska, with its brand-new lawn. The city has updated its official webpage, making note of the additional fundraising that’s needed before further park improvements are possible, and projecting that design work will resume next spring.
Here is an excerpt from the Park’s Dept web site …
BUDGET The Pro Parks Levy Opportunity Fund provides $200,000 for this park development project.
SCHEDULE Planning:2006
Design:2006
Someone please, please, please tell me that the $200,000 expended included the cost of the land and that it didn’t cost $200,000 solely to bring this piece of land to this condition in the last two years.
The West Seattle Junction Association is involved with that and we will be seeking an update soon – also, several of the developers who are working on the major Junction-area projects have chipped in some $ (I have to check on the exact amounts). Re: the $200K – that would actually be low for a parcel of land in this area. From the many park-project meetings we’ve gone to, development costs seem to consistently be startlingly higher than we would have imagined before we started covering neighborhood-level news. There’s a whole lot of process involved, too (just ask the folks behind everything from Statue of Liberty Plaza to Ercolini Park), especially on the city side.
As a lifelong resident of WS, I can’t remember the last time I saw anything there other than a pile of dirt, save for the occasional pony rides or Christmas tree lots.
It’s great to see the Parks Department helping this patch finally “go Green.”
They should do a levy or something so they can add a tree and a bench or something, or a mural on that wall.
I’d gladly help pay for that! :-)
Is this now an official park with a Parks Service maintenance plan for the space while they’re waiting for more funds to complete the design?
It’d be a complete shame if the work already put into it was lost by it deteriorating back into a weedy trash filled lot.
Didn’t there used to be a fire station on that lot a million years ago?
It was a gas station. Neighborhood kids used to pump up our bike tires there.
Well the grass is indeed an improvement, but I doubt it will grow very well in the shade of the TALL buildings that will soon surround it.
It would be nice if the developers of the high-rise condos/apartment projects would show a degree of social and civil responsibilty and make donations to the park project to make up for the negative impact their projects will bring to the area.
Since it is such a small space with very defined borders, it will be a challenge to design well.
Some interesting scuplture art and permanent furnishings for a usable public gathering place would be nice.
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