With hopes of completion this fall, $11M Super Block adds plan for new Garfield softball field

Work underway around the old softball field setup (Image: Seattle Parks)

It has been a rough year for athletics at Garfield High School but the now $11 million Garfield Super Block construction project currently underway around the 23rd Ave campus is getting a sporting addition that will create a bright new home for one of the Bulldogs’ teams and provide an improved space to play for the area’s youth softballers.

Permits filed in recent weeks will set construction in motion for a $1.5 million overhaul of the team’s softball field set to join the swirl of Super Block development currently underway on the Garfield block.

The Seattle City Council and District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth included the funding in the most recent Seattle Parks budget.

The project will create a new $700,000 turf infield with renovated backstop and new dugouts on the northeast corner of the block. The work includes plans for new 10′ fences, new gates, curbs, and pavers around the field joining the planned Super Block promenade.

The nearby baseball diamond already underwent similar upgrades in a recent project.

CHS reported here on the June 2025 groundbreaking for the Garfield Super Block. City, state, and National Parks funding is overhauling the area around Garfield High School and the Garfield Community Center to create a Legacy and Promise Promenade with a .34-mile loop path and new community spaces including a new play area and parkour park, new sports courts, and a central plaza.

The project is a make-up to the community. Plans first took shape twenty years ago. As part of the public process to approve building the new Quincy Jones Performing Arts Center, Seattle Public Schools received a variance in order to build fewer than the required number of off-street parking stalls. As part of that process, the district was required to provide public benefits as a mitigation. The benefits never came until community efforts forced the issue two decades later.

The Garfield Super Block plan is getting some additions

The new paths, plaza, and restroom facility will feature art hoped to reflect the history and cultures of the Central District including pieces representing residents including the Duwamish, Jewish, African-American, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, and Italian communities that have helped shape the neighborhood.

The city has said budget limitations will determine possible additional improvements including a “nature play pocket,” a climate adaptive garden, as well as updated plantings and site lighting. Elements like the new softball field have joined the mix.

Another newly planned project will be a more than $600,000 “Decarbonization and Electrification” overhaul of Garfield Community Center that will remove existing gas heating equipment and air handling units and upgrade to a more efficient electrical system.

Meanwhile, an unexpected construction project continues after a planned eight-week, $1.4 million overhaul of the block’s public Medgar Evers Pool encountered failing beams. That work is hoped to be wrapped up this summer but a final budget for the repairs has not been announced.

The Garfield Super Block budget has now grown to $11.1 million with work pushed out to an expected completion this fall.

The new softball field will be one bright light for Garfield High School’s athletics program after a tough year for the campus. Garfield’s boys basketball coach and former NBA player Brandon Roy was fired this year over recruiting violation allegations after leading the team to three state championships.

$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE

Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month — or choose your level of support