Over the last several years, various construction projects stalled due to lack of funds or legal wrangling. Rather than leave these vacant sites as eyesores, the Seattle City Council unanimously adopted legislation to enliven them.

The new legislation started a pilot program to allow property owners to temporarily locate active uses, like retail sales kiosks, mobile food vending carts or art installations on sites of stalled construction projects.
Also allowed are temporary conversions of vacant and underused lots into short-term parking, provided the sidewalk-facing sides of the lot are activated with creative uses that will attract and increase pedestrian activity.

Sites that qualify for the program must already have legally established accessory parking and have been cleared for construction as of June 1, 2010 or have an active building permit as of June 1, 2010.

The Seattle Design Commission solicited for ideas last year and received 83 entries.

"The ideas for how to temporarily use stalled project sites covered a broad gamut and it was clear that people had gone to amazing effort to think through and put down their idea," the Design Commissioners announced in a press release.

The Commission has chosen 13 finalists, two of which are in Ballard.

"The idea of this effort is not to hand out an award and be done with it. It’s also not to give out grants for projects. We will be bringing the finalists together with people who can help them bring their projects to fruition," the press release states.

A group called The Handwriters prosed a temporal light installation to beautify the empty space between N.W. 45th Street and N.W. 46th St, east of the Ballard Bridge.

Titled Rising Shining, the art installation replaces the grey of concrete with color, light and air. The proposed design is made of helium balloons that are caught in a net to create floating cubes. Anchored to the ground, the cubes will make up an abstract building. Each cube would hold battery-powered LEDS which produce low-temperature, low-energy, highoutput light so the structure would glow at night.

The structure can be rearranged several times to take on different shapes. The installation would last until the balloons deflate.

"The proposed installation replaces our normal conceptions of building forms and vacant lots with the strange, the unexpected, and the whimsical," the proposal states. "It floats. It wiggles. It bops in the wind. By day it’s perceived as a playful yet mysterious intervention, and by night glows with a suggestive presence."

Another finalists among the proposals was the idea of a community rink where the Sunset Bowl once stood. Created by Seattle Street Hockey (SSH), the idea was born out of the need for SSH to play their game in a dedicated space and the desire to introduce street hockey and rink-related activities to the City of Seattle.

SSH feels rink-related sports are still unsupported and a Community Rink could support and encourage several rink-related sports and activities such as street hockey, roller hockey, bike polo, roller skating, and dodgeball.

SSH says the rink design is effective, simple, low-cost, temporary, and green.

The playing area of 175 feet by 75 feet would be made of smooth level asphalt and the perimeters would defined by a rented chain link fence that measures 6 feet in height. Boards attached to the bottom of the fence, to keep the ball in play, would be made of used plastic corrugated panels, normally mounted to buses to carry advertisement. These boards are tossed in landfill after several layers of advertisements have been applied and this use would expand their lifespan and come at no cost to the city.
The proposed goals are two standalone, metal frames that each measure 4 feet in height and 6 feet in width, outfitted with all-weather nylon netting and affixed to the asphalt.

The Design Commission announced it will connect the creators behind these designs with vacant property owners, developers, and City of Seattle representatives to discuss the kind of support needed to implement these creative ideas.

For more information, and to read about all 13 finalists, please visit the Seattle Deign Commission website.