VIDEO: Students explain their visions of how Schmitz Park’s creek could be brought fully back to life and light

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

If you didn’t get to Alki Bathhouse Friday or Saturday to see UW students’ visions for Schmitz Preserve Park Creek‘s future – we can show you what you missed.

Their professor, landscape architect Paul Peters, explained that the inspiration for the “studio” in which his master’s-degree students created their proposals began when he read about the grassroots effort Schmitz Park Creek Restore on WSB, shortly after their launch event last May. Peters is a West Seattle resident and had been looking for something to assign his students to work on. Over 10 weeks, amid site visits, his nine students worked on plans for how the creek could come back to life.

Friday afternoon, on the first day of a two-day open house, the students presented their concepts. We recorded each group’s presentation so you can see for yourself, starting with the two-part introduction and acknowledgments by Daniel Nye from Schmitz Park Creek Restore:

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Nye turned it over to professor Peters, who told the story of how the project launched, and how – when they saw the creek undergrounding – they all agreed “there’s a lot of opportunity here”:

Peters explained that the students worked in three groups, focused on the forest, on the park (Whale Tail to Alki Playground), and the beach. The forest group gave their presentation first:

The forest presentation continues in this clip:

Next, the park group:

They continued in the next clip (as everyone switched locations to see the second set of renderings) and explained how they’ve designed their idea to a “100-year storm surge” situation:

Finally, the students who reimagined Alki Beach:

Keep in mind, none of these ideas is an official proposal yet – they’re ideas, visions, even dreams of what could be, so there’s no official feedback process, though Schmitz Park Creek Restore would certainly love to hear from you about these or anything else relevant to their dreams and goals – here’s how to reach the group.

5 Replies to "VIDEO: Students explain their visions of how Schmitz Park's creek could be brought fully back to life and light"

  • Myrna December 9, 2024 (11:39 am)

    Wow! What a beautiful thing. Thank you so much for sharing it here with us. And to Paul Peters and his students. 

  • nate December 9, 2024 (2:06 pm)

    I fully support this idea, and its always seemed very odd that the creek was “undergrounded” in the first place.  Does anyone know the original reason why?  I’ve always presumed it was to create room for another row of houses along 58th (and thus more tax revenue), but that’s just a guess.  There are several large hurdles the group will need to clear, but the biggest might be the cost to buy out the private property (would likely require imminent domain and lawsuits) and build a bridge over the new creek on Alki (assuming they would vacate Lander, otherwise that would require 2 bridges).  With the design, permitting, and stream restoration (which would likely include a wide riparian corridor and flood plain) the cost could easily exceed $20-30M, and I’m guessing more.  It would be really cool to have a natural creek there again, I just don’t see how this is going to happen any time soon given our current budget.  Daylighting the creek through Alki beach would also likely result in tidal inflow up the new stream channel.  Sand deposition is likely to fill the lower portions of the channel, thus forcing the creek to meander.  This is of course what a natural stream does, I’m not sure how you could counteract that given the depositional environment of Alki.  Another potential issue is providing a funnel for king tides into that neighborhood.  This is a complicated issue, but one that has my support if they can figure out how to do it right.  

    • Admiral December 10, 2024 (9:58 am)

      Yes indeed, the sediment issue is a real bugger for this site. If they open this up, sediment carried by the stream will deposit where the stream leaves the steep canyon and enters the flat area. The excess sediment will need to be excavated regularly, which is a permitting nightmare. If it is not, the stream will aggrade and eventually spill out of its banks during a flood. Which is what streams do. Seems like a nice class project for landscape architects, but isn’t a real viable project.

  • Hunter December 9, 2024 (3:21 pm)

    Seize all the land necessary and restore it.  Salmonidae were here before us and has more right to exist here than property owners.  They can move and go anywhere, trout and salmon cannot.  

  • Linda Givler December 10, 2024 (9:18 am)

    The people working on this project have good intentions.  Recovery of Salmon habitat is important.  What I have an issue with is why turn one of the few remaining undeveloped parks into a “tourist delight”.  Why build boardwalks, develop official play areas, encourage game playing and establish grassy areas?  I would prefer stream restoration while keeping the more natural, un-manicured look.

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