Freeway Park

Very interesting project in Seattle.

(2nd and 3rd photos curtesy of Great Buildings.)

Freeway Park, executed by Lawrence Halprin’s office under the design direction of Angela Danadjieva, is one of the most compelling treatises on post-War landscape architecture that survives today. Perched above Interstate 5 in downtown Seattle and using 5.5 acres of interstate air rights, the linked spaces of the park evocatively and imaginatively engage the three major preoccupations of post-War landscape design as described by Elizabeth K. Meyer: the car, the garden and the growing awareness of ecology. Yet like so many other modernist works, Freeway Park is threatened by poor maintenance, shrinking budgets and the threats attendant with community revitalization. More —>

While not without a history of the usual urban problems of homelessness and drug abuse, Freeway Park remains in the hands of the community. More—>

And there is a Virtual Tour.