From Friends of Junction Plaza Park, that’s Junction Neighborhood Organization president Erica Karlovits and West Seattle Junction Association executive director Susan Melrose. You might dub them the godmothers of Junction Plaza Park. They didn’t start the project – but they led the push to raise the money to finish it (here’s where things stood a year ago), more than five years after the city bought the site at 42nd/Alaska. They’re there today to preside over the volunteer planting party:

They’re working today in two shifts – morning and afternoon – to get about 1,000 native plants (purchased from the money raised for the project) into the ground. The construction of the park itself is almost done – the pavers just went in, and it turns out these are not your average bricks:

As JPP’s landscape architect Karen Kiest explained to us – she’s there today too – these are “pervious clay pavers” – water can soak through. Not easy to find, she said, but they managed to find a source in South Carolina. The pavers make up one “oval” of the park, while grass makes up the other, and there is a circular “performance area” on its north side.

The Junction Plaza Park dedication is 5:30 pm June 29, and everybody’s welcome.