City leaders listen as consultant pulls curtain back on Les Gove Park’s future

Published 1:25 pm Wednesday, November 11, 2015

To twist a phrase, all the world needs now is another master plan.

But the one rolled out at Monday’s City Council study session may be just the one the pundits talk about.

Because the Les Gove Park draft plan not only tells everyone who cares about the campus what it may become in the future, it is also crucial to getting cultural, park or open space grants from other organizations to make the vision happen.

“This is already a great park with tremendous character,” Guy Michaelsen, principal of Seattle-based Berger Partnership, the master plan consultant on Les Gove Park, told City leaders.

“We’re starting from a great spot and trying to make it better. … You have this treasure that’s hiding in plain sight, and that’s one of the key opportunities you have here,” Michaelsen said.

“It’s so that the park and surrounding campus in the long run may be seen as the gem we want it to be in the future,” said Daryl Faber, director of Auburn Parks, Arts and Recreation.

Although the plan is loose and flexible at this stage, a number of key strategies as outlined below are likely to guide what eventually happens there.

Strategy one calls for a series of design changes to set the park apart from Auburn Way South and 12th Street, to “make it pop,” starting with a vegetated edge running down the block past the Auburn Youth Resources complex and expanding closer to the Auburn Library and 12th Street South.

Related suggestions call for a mural on the wall of the Auburn Youth Resources building, overlaid with project art and public announcements, and for reimagining the old Big Daddy’s restaurant building to allow the greenness of the park to reach to Auburn Way South.

According to the draft: “The iconic Big Daddy’s sign could be reworked into a beacon, announcing the campus, and the overhang has potential to be repurposed as a park space for food trucks, vendors and gatherings.”

Another key principle calls for “Constructing the Crescent.” That is, having arrived at the park by car, foot, bus or bike, the main circulation route is the reimagined Deal’s Way, which creates an intuitive, direct pedestrian connection between the parking, all areas and buildings of the campus, and the nearby neighborhoods.

According to the plan: “Reimagining Deal’s Way as a pedestrian space allows kids to safely travel from play to library to museum, while still functioning as a fire lane or access road for food trucks during gathering times.”

Parking would be replaced by the reconfigured and restriped Auburn Way South lot, and the slightly expanded, restriped 12th Street lot. A new H Street Southeast extension makes this possible as it reduces traffic congestion in the nearby neighborhood. The plan makes the main pathway through the park “special” with interesting paving elements and rhythmic lighting. The main connections between buildings, gathering areas and parking are lit at night with glowing down lights to avoid light pollution affecting homes to the east.

A new restroom is installed in a central location, easily accessible to the play area, the roundhouse and festival pavilion.

A final key element, called “Strengthening the Central Park” calls for the following:

1. Moving the baseball diamond to the play meadow to create a unified Festival Meadow, a mainly unprogrammed open space that can be used for car shows, unstructured play, picnics and more.

2. Trees become canvases for temporary or permanent art installations, perhaps anchors for groves of hammocks near the Community Center for teens.

3. The American-Vietnamese War memorial.

4. Paths and grass become canvasses, to be used in unexpected ways. For instance, simple paint creates a mural or a game that only becomes visible when it rains.

5. The vegetated hills between the Adventure Play Area and the Spray park become terraced grassy seating for parent and kids.