A Seattle P-I article dated Feb. 13, stated the Memorial Stadium is in the way of the Seattle Center redesign; so let's hear the rest of the story.
The problem is very clear, as the stadium should not have been part of the Century 21 planning to begin with. The Century 21 plan regarding the War Memorial was faulted right from the start. A better plan would be to retain the stadium and implement the other design features. They say without demolishing the stadium the redesign would not take place, which is untrue.
The Seattle Center will be redesigned saving $257.8 million of cost by retaining the Memorial Stadium dropping the total cost of $675.5 million bringing the total redesign cost down to $417.7 million.
Desecrating the Memorial Stadium in favor of a parking garage has legal concerns, which have to be addressed likely by the courts. Another Seattle P-I staff report dated Oct. 30, 2007, reported that the Seattle hearing examiner ruled that a parking garage is not a "customary" use for city parks and would be illegal and the City Council prohibited the Zoo from constructing that garage. The same goes for the Seattle Center unless they intend to circumvent the law.
The Seattle Schools are the sole owner of the 9-acre stadium grounds and the city has no claim to that property. They have been trying to demolish that War Memorial for 19 years dating back to 1989 to no avail.
The stadium is a multi-venue, which is an asset to both the Seattle Schools and the Seattle Center. They already have a use agreement in place. The stadium seats 12,000 under covered stands and another 5,000 portable seats at the end zones. It also has a portable amphitheatre located at the west end that seats upward to 20,000 spectators. This stadium has withstood all our large earthquakes including 1949, 1965, 2001 and all others in between.
Under the circumstances, any attempt to demolish this War Memorial would be an act of minimizing the purpose of the Seattle Schools student bodies which dedicated the Memorial Stadium to their fallen and an act of desecration which is totally unacceptable.
Guy Gallipeau
Seaview
