Junction Plaza Park groundbreaking gets the park started
Mon, 04/12/2010
In a very informal ceremony the new Junction Plaza Park was officially begun with a simple groundbreaking on Monday April 12.
The park designed by landscape architect Karen Kiest, will feature a plaza, complete with brick and concrete seating; a lawn with decorative benches; and a central performance area. All planting will be Northwest natives, including Vine maple, Northwest Flowering dogwood, Oregon grape and Sword fern.
After a large fundraising effort in 2005, with the help of citizens, neighborhood matching funds and the Seattle Pro Parks levy, the site is now owned by the Seattle Parks Department.
The park represents a strong partnership between the West Seattle Junction Association (WSJA) and the Junction Neighborhood Association (JuNO). "This new park will provide opportunities for community gatherings, a place to meet friends, and a place for leisure in the heart of The Junction. The Junction Association and neighborhood groups have been working towards this goal for almost 10 years and it's a pleasure to see it underway,” says WSJA Director Susan Melrose. Erica Karlovits, President of JuNO continues, "We are so excited to be able to protect and use the limited green space we have left in our ever growing urban village. The creation of Junction Plaza Park is an incredible addition to our vibrant community."
Gary Gibbons, project manager for Seattle Parks, said, "Next Monday they will come out and strip all the sod off the site, and then they will estimate the site for all the feautures they will install. It's essentially a grading operation. Once they have things graded to where they like them then they will start at the east side of the park. What we have is a concrete seating wall that's going to go in and a concrete pathway, then a porous paver plaza, working east to west. This is in part to assist SDOT who will come in and replace all the sidewalks."
During the construction parking in the area will be taken up primarily by the contractors, and when the sidewalk work is underway along Alaska Street there will be no parking allowed there.
Susan Melrose of the West Seattle Junction Association said, "Today is an exciting day because we are finally getting going on this park... This whole effort was started about 10 years ago when the Junction Association and others got together and decided what to do with an old gas station that had been closed down. They had the foresight to make a park in what has become increasingly a dense urban village. Our need for a park is just growing every day. So it's been a long go to get to this place where we can break ground and start construction of this park."