Belltown Bent

Framing the name

When Jon and Mary Shirley, lead donors for the rapidly emerging Olympic Sculpture Park, chose the name, they no doubt knew the mountain range would be a strong visual element of the park experience.

As the Pavilion building, at the NW corner of Broad St. and Western Ave, takes on it's architectural identity, it reveals one of the many ways in which their vision, and that of Weiss/Manfredi Architects is being realized.

A satellite image, centered on the intersection, shows the multiple-lot site before construction began. Visitors will enter the Pavilion from this corner. More pictures and OSP information are available here.

Gravity... it's a law

This 100 to 150 (depending on who's reporting) ton, pile-driving crane fought the law, and the law won. Yesterday afternoon, in a pouring rain, the crane tested the limits of it's reach, soil gave way, and the whole thing fell over. It was busted - so to speak.

It had been pounding (and pounding, and pounding) pilings to create an abutment for the Olympic Sculpture Park's Seattle Cloud Cover pedestrian bridge which will cross 4 sets of BNSF tracks, right about where the 80 foot crane is laying in this picture, blocking rail traffic in both directions.

The Sellen Construction crew, in typical efficient fashion, brought in another crane and had the tracks cleared in a matter of hours. The crane tractor and cab, however, is still lying on it's side, making for a quiet morning at the Bent.

The art of restoration

This pocket beach, being created at the junction of Myrtle Edwards Park and the Olympic Sculpture Park, will be the first stretch of natural(ized) shoreline encountered by young salmon leaving the Duwamish River on their way to Puget Sound, and beyond.

It will also be the first stretch of accessible beach, tide-pools and all, encountered by folks walking, jogging, or rolling their way north from Belltown. When completed, it will feature natural saltwater marsh landscaping above the water, and a regenerative seascape of kelp, algae and underwater grasses below the water - a great place for fine art and habitat restoration to meet.

High-class crosswalk

On a cold, rainy Saturday, specialists from Sellen Construction put these steel beams in place nearly 30 feet over Elliott Avenue, just north of Broad Street and south of Bay.

The beams will be covered with corrugated sheet metal, then concrete and, eventually, complete landscaping to form the pedestrian bridge connecting the upper and lower portions of the Olympic Sculpture Park - in Belltown's NW corner. It will be part of a contiguous path from Western Avenue to the waterfront. That will be one sweet right-of-way.

Secret gardens

Sometimes you get glimpses of them walking down the street. Often, you need to be several stories above street-level to spot them on rooftops.

Sure, we've got our Pea Patch, but one of Belltown's best kept secrets is the wealth of private, secret gardens hidden from sidewalk site lines, or concealed behind vine covered walls. There are hundreds of them downtown - including two, right here at the Bent. And this one, near the corner of Western and Broad.

Visitors to the Bent are always amazed when we point out the landscaped domains of surrounding urban dwellers. But what's truly a marvel is how these precious parcels of urban dirt contribute to the bio-diversity of our city, and a thesis worth of benefits to a deeper ecology.

Ten feet into the future and six weeks into fall

David Govedare's sculpture, Ten Feet into the Future, is still surrounded by fall color, even as we jog past autumn's mid-point on our way to celebrating marking winter solstice deep into darkness and December.

The sculpture features five life size aluminum joggers of different races, led by a Native American. They've jogged in place since 1986, well ahead of the pack of forthcoming sculpture, just north of the Olympic Sculpture Park site.

A year earlier, Goverdare sculpted 40 folks out of metal to create "The Joy of Running Together" in Spokane's Riverfront Park. Even though they started running sooner, it's believed they are still rooted in the present.

It's pouring

Yes, it's November in Belltown, and while it's snowing in the mountains, it's raining down here where we breathe salt air. It's coming down from a different angle every other hour.

But the rain (and wind) can't stop the Sellen Construction crew from pouring new cement into the carefully prepared forms on the Olympic Sculpture Park site, one section at a time.

This cement pump truck, looking like a giant blue praying mantis (Connecticut's official state insect - the green ones) with it's long reaching articulated arm, efficiently delivers the goods from a steady flow of cement trucks.

Take a closer look at recent developments at the OSP.

Rockin' the OSP

Heavy equipment does heavy lifting, although it should be pointed out, with considerable finesse. Tons of dirt and materials get moved around, in this case around the emerging Olympic Sculpture Park - Belltown's front yard.

But what is really amazing, is how much of this 8.5 acre project is being built by hand. In this case, wire cages, brackets, plastic mesh, and evenly spread rock are all hand crafted - with an assist from the heavy metal crew - to form part of a massive retaining wall.

Check here for a closer look at how bare-hands and brawn team with massive machines to create a park for the people of Belltown, Seattle, and the world.

Olympic Sculpture Park progress

The emerging Olympic Sculpture Park is rapidly taking shape. The undulating contours of earth, sculpted by heavy equipment, are beginning to be contained, and defined, by angular infrastructure.

This rock retaining wall, at the north-west corner of the upper lot, has grown in height to more than a dozen feet, layer by carefully constructed layer. The grade within has risen with it.

See more of the progress, and some of the past, at this unofficial OSP journal.

Reflection of the future

The construction crane, reflected in the window of the building at 2911 2nd Ave, may soon be replaced by the real deal.

If proposed land use project #2502474 goes through, the big green & glass box at 2nd Ave and Broad, which currently houses Washington State Ferries (no, the offices, not the boats), will be torn down and replaced with a 125' tall, 200 unit mixed-use residential building with 7,300 sq. ft. of retail space on the street level.