The city opts to transform underused pavement into a scenic park

By MARK TILBE
Anderson & Ray

At Lake Washington Boulevard South and South Ferdinand Street, the north end of the parking lot is empty and decaying. The lot has been closed to both through car traffic and parking for the past three years.

Soon, this well-placed but underused piece of (city) land will become an asset to the neighborhood. Converting the vacant area from asphalt to grass will create a large green open space near the shoreline for passive recreation and community enjoyment.

The intent of the project is to increase the value of the site as a recreational space by literally converting gray asphalt to green lawns and shrub plantings. The north parking area will be removed and regraded to create a level lawn area surrounded by sloping lawns on the street side and be open to the lake on the other. The lawn area will be large enough for volleyball or Frisbee and have some picnic tables around the edges. Accessibility to the site will be improved by adding wheelchair accessible picnic tables and barbecue. Park benches will also be added along the shoreline path to take advantage of the lake views. The existing small craft boat launch will be redesigned to be more functional.

The new park design by Anderson & Ray is sensitive to the historic Lake Washington Boulevard and park system design by the Olmsted Bothers, landscape architects at the turn of the century. The new park furnishings (gate, benches and trash receptacles) and shrub plantings are appropriate to the historic design.

Approximately half the park area was covered with asphalt in the 1950s when the location was used as a boat launch area for trailer transported boats. Since then the site has been known as South Ferdinand Parking Lot and not a park.

Over the years, the parking lot with overgrown shrub plantings, (which blocked visibility from the street) became a place of uncontrolled crime. As an experiment, the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department in conjunction with the Seattle Police Department closed the South Ferdinand Street north parking lot area in 1994 and monitored the rate of crime. This experiment proved successful! The closure of the north parking lot greatly reduced the crime problem.

One of the intents of the new park design is to improve visibility over the site by removing the overgrown shrubs associated with the parking lot and replacing them with low growing shrubs and groundcovers. Improved visibility of the site will also help to reduce crime and increase the publics sense of safety, especially on the shoreline path during the evenings. The numbers of cars using the remaining parking area has also been monitored. Seattle Parks and Recreation Department and the Seattle Police Department realized the remaining parking was sufficient for both the small craft boat launch and the proposed new park activities and there was no need for the north lot.

For years neighborhood and community members have discussed ideas for improvements to South Ferdinand Street Park. An action committee called The Friends of Ferdinand Park was created to get the project under way. The committee raised money and hired the design consultant. Once Anderson & Ray completed the conceptual design for the Park, with community participation, the committee was in a position to apply to the city for additional funding through the Neighborhood Matching Fund program.

With the removal of the asphalt and the creation of the lawn, South Ferdinand Park, will be one of only three gently sloping grassy areas along the 10-mile stretch of beach between Seward Park and Madison Park the other two areas, Madrona Park and Seward Park, are in swimming beach areas and are very congested. Park users will be drawn to South Ferdinand Park for its peaceful setting and views of Lake Washington and old growth forest of Seward Park.

A new turnaround will be added at the north end of the remaining parking area. New site furnishings including benches, picnic tables and trash receptacles will be installed on concrete pads. The new Olmsted style security gate will be built at the entrance to the parking lot. In addition to the planting of new lawns, the overgrown shrubs will be replaced with low growing shrubs and groundcovers. The next phase of the project will involve the design and construction of a new or modified small craft boat launch.

Construction will be under way this spring.

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