6,660 sq/ft SeaSk8 Site Identified
Seattle Center has identified a site for the SeaSk8 replacement, but it’s 20% smaller than the already-cramped old park.
For the last two weeks the SPAC steering committee has been having many, many discussions with the City Council and SeattleCenter regarding the SeaSk8 replacement site. These discussions have culminated in the identification of the SeaSk8 replacement site which will be formerly adopted tomorrow at 2pm at City Hall during the City Council PELL meeting.
Per direction from the City Council, the Seattle Center initially identified 3 sites: the Broad Street Green site on the Seattle Center campus and 1st Avenue North Surface Parking Lot and Mercer Street sites which are located off campus. The SPAC provided the City Council with an evaluation of each of these sites (attachment 1 below) using the SPAC-identified siting criteria. This evaluation showed that the Broad Street Green site was the best alternative for a host of reasons. The SPAC then initiated outreach to a number of organizations (i.e., Seattle Center staff, EMP, Space Needle, Pacific Science Center and Vulcan) and the City Council to try to gain consensus for the Broad Street Green site. These discussions made it clear that several of the stakeholders were opposed to the Broad Street Green site for a number of reasons.
The Seattle Center Century 21 Committee then also identified a fourth site – the Pavilion site. Although the SPAC also provided an evaluation of this site (Attachment 2), follow up discussions with the Seattle Center showed this site is not available within the stipulated time frame and therefore is not a viable replacement site (but could be a viable site following Master Plan reconfigurations on the campus).
Due to the strong concerns/opposition raised against the Broad Street Green site, the City Council continued to push the SeattleCenter to further examine the campus. This led to identification of an additional potential site on the campus – the Dupen site. The site is located in the courtyard area where the Dupen fountain (kids use this as a wading pool structure) sits on the northwest portion of the Seattle Center campus directly adjacent to the new VERA space (Attachment 3). Unlike the Broad Street Green site, the various Seattle Center organizations endorsed this site, including VERA, and the Seattle Center stated that this site could be fast-tracked to construction. The SPAC evaluated this site (Attachment 4) against the same criteria and held numerous discussions/meetings with the City Council and SeattleCenter regarding this site. The SPAC’s primary concern, among other disadvantages, with this site was the limited square footage of the site (approximated to be 6,600 sf – SeaSk8 at 8,910 sf). Although we strongly pushed this concern to all parties at the table, it became very clear during the discussions/meetings that no additional sites would likely be identified on the campus AND the Broad Street Green site would entail further indefinite delays due to strong opposition to this site by multiple parties. Given these conditions, the SPAC decided that the only option left on the table was to accept this site and continue to work with the Seattle Center and City Council to attempt to expand the site into the surrounding area during the design evaluation process.
Based on everything we have heard from the City Council and Seattle Center to date, the City Council PELL Committee will adopt the Dupen site as the replacement site tomorrow (2 pm at City Hall) and include language in the adoption that stipulates an expedited design time line, a requirement to work with the SPAC during the design and construction process, and a requirement to make best effort attempts to increase the size of the skatepark now and following future campus reconfigurations (as part of the Century 21 Master Plan process).
Issues moving forward for this new site include: this smaller space will present design difficulties and therefore require a world class skatepark designer using a design/build process, the design and construction should occur as soon as possible, great efforts should be made to identify an enlarged skateable footprint, and the skateboarding community should be directly involved in all aspects of the design and construction.
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