Three: Seattle Freeway Park, Seattle, Washington

摘要

The precedent-setting Seattle Freeway Park is a site almost as contested as Skyline Park; but Freeway Park has, in contrast, been updated throughout its history, so future interventions will hopefully not be as immediate or nearly as destructive. As is evident by the situation in Denver, identifying and publicising the significance of these sites and the consequences of their irreversible alteration or removal, should be made a priority well before their fates are called into question. It has becomeincreasingly clear that Freeway Park needs to be addressed before it is lost by neglect, deterioration and abandonment. Currently, the site is additionally threatened by insensitive recommendations presented in a Project for Public Spaces (PPS) report that proposes stripping the site of its exciting concepts by reworking it into a generic form, reflective of the trends of our age. Though the site needs a rehabilitation plan that is more aggressive than the one recommended for Heritage Park, strict preservation guidelines must be imposed to prevent irresponsible alterations such as some of those recommended by the PPS report. The nomination to landmark Freeway Park should be accepted and the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board should monitor the introduction of some of the necessary changes proposed here.