December 12, 2024

Steinbrueck Park renovation is done, but missing totems delay opening

Photos by Brian Miller [enlarge]

Victor Steinbrueck Park is pictured in late October. The fencing around the upgraded lawn areas has since been removed.

If you were to walk through Pike Place Market to the adjacent Victor Steinbrueck Park this afternoon, you would see a dramatically upgraded space. Seating and landscaped areas have been updated, there's a new pavilion, and new Coast Salish art elements honoring Seattle's first peoples.

Yet the park remains closed and fenced off.

If you look closely, you might be able to guess why. What you won't currently see at the park are two 50-foot carved totem poles that had stood at the waterfront site, at 2001 Western Ave., for 39 years before they were removed last April as part of the renovation project.

Here in lies the mystery of the empty green space. Because the park is part of the Pike Place Market Historical District, Seattle Parks and Recreation (the park owner) needs a certificate of approval from the Pike Place Market Historical Commission before it can reopen. The commission is requiring that the totem poles be reinstalled before it grants the certificate.

SPR says it is working with the commission on reopening the park before the poles are reinstalled. If an agreement can't be reached, the completed park is likely to remain shuttered until the coming spring. That's because the totems are in poor condition and need to be repaired and restored.

[enlarge]

Entrance walls to the renovated park feature Indigenous welcome text.

Plans to upgrade the park, which was established in 1971, began in the fall of 2015. The renovation project broke ground in December 2022 and seemingly wrapped last month. Landscape architect Walker Macy led the design team. Kassel & Associates was the general contractor.

The DJC previously reported that the design team also included EHDD, Amento Group, Jones & Jones, LittleFish Lighting, Lund Opsahl, and Osborn Consulting.

The extensive upgrade of the 0.8-acre park covered the renovation of an existing seating area; the renovation of a former children's play area; the upgrade of landscaping and new landscaped elements; installation of a replacement pavilion with fewer columns to help open up views to Elliott Bay; the relocation of a concrete panel with the handprints and signatures of original park designers Victor Steinbrueck and Richard Haag; and the installation of the Coast Salish design elements. Those include column wraps on the new pavilion, Indigenous welcome text at entrance walls, and a concrete path with a basket-weave pattern.

A major element of the renovation was the replacement of a waterproofing membrane on the westerly portion of the park, atop a privately owned parking garage below. The membrane had been leaking for a number of years and was failing.

The improvement and maintenance project also encompassed a host of public safety improvements such as better sight lines and the expansion and upgrade of lighting.

In addition, Walker Macy's design updated circulation in the park to create a better connection to the market — honoring Victor Steinbrueck's original vision that the park be an extension of the market — as well as improved connections to the Tree of Life sculpture area located at the edge of the park, across from Cutters Crabhouse.

As for the aging totem poles, SPR had hoped to replace them with two new pieces carved by members of the Suquamish and Muckleshoot tribes. Those would have been installed on the totem poles' existing plinths after the park reopened. The market commission rejected that proposal last December and instead required the original totems to be reinstalled.

The original cedar totems are designed by Indigenous American artist Marvin Oliver and were carved by James Bender. They were added to the park in 1984.

When ground was broken on the renovation, SPR had hoped to open the upgraded park by this spring. The original opening delay was blamed on construction delays related to the complexities of working on top of a parking garage that the city doesn't own, and on working with adjacent businesses on the impacts of construction.

The DJC previously reported that the renovation cost around $9 million. The Parks and Green Spaces Levy allocated $1.6 million to the project. Funding to replace the membrane came from the city budget.

Seattle-based architect Victor Steinbrueck was instrumental in the preservation of Pike Place Market and Pioneer Square. The park was named for him in 1985 after Steinbrueck's death.