Forum celebrates 50 years of Freeway Park, hopes for expanded lid over I-5

A forum celebrating the 50th anniversary of Seattle’s landmark Freeway Park will take place Tuesday night at Town Hall Seattle. The event will also include connections to the future of the park’s place in a possible expanded lid over I-5 between downtown and Capitol Hill.

Jointly organized by Lid I-5, the Seattle Parks Foundation, and the Freeway Park Association, the event marks a half-century since the groundbreaking urban green space first opened above Interstate 5 on July 4, 1976. A civic panel will explore the park’s architectural legacy, urban reconnectivity between downtown, First Hill, and Capitol Hill, ongoing capital improvements, and its influence on future freeway-lidding initiatives.

Featured participants include state Sen. Jamie Pedersen, Seattle Parks Foundation CEO Rebecca Bear, landscape architect Lara Rose, civic leader Maggie Walker, Freeway Park Association director Riisa Conklin, and Lid I-5 co-chair Scott Bonjukian.

The 50-year-old Freeway Park is, ostensibly, an I-5 lid.

When it first opened in 1976, the park was a busy, open-lighted space that served as a connector between downtown and the neighborhoods of Capitol Hill and First Hill. It was designed by Lawrence Halprin & Associates, the architects behind the Pacific Science Center and San Francisco’s Ghirardelli Square.

Faced with challenges around the city’s high level of street disorder in core neighborhoods, advocates have been pushing forward a Freeway Park Improvement Project including “modernization of other aging infrastructure and add long-needed amenities (including public restrooms), event support, and landscaping upgrades.” The plans include entrance and lighting improvements.

Meanwhile, the Freeway Park Fountain Discharge Retrofit Project is needed restore and maintain the park’s signature fountains, “including the iconic Canyon and Cascade fountains, so they are functional and flowing.”

Improving and maintaining Freeway Park comes as efforts have continued to shape the city’s hopes around more completely lidding I-5 through the Seattle core buoyed by $2.2 million in federal and state transportation grants to help power early planning for a possible lid project that could include park space, and commercial and housing development.

Doors open at 5:00 PM for a social hour with light food and a cash bar, followed by the main panel and Q&A from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. Admission is free with registration.

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