The announcement from the city: The Seattle Office of Arts & Culture and Seattle Parks and Recreation are celebrating the reopening of Kite Hill at Gas Works Park. On Monday, June 15 at 5:30 p.m. there will be a short ceremony honoring the architecture of Gas Works Park and the artwork Sundial.
Designed by renowned landscape architect Rich Haag, Gas Works Park is a unique reclamation of industrial land as a public park. Haag will share his experiences designing the park and will be joined by artists Chuck Greening and Kim Lazare, as they share the story of the creation, fabrication and installation of the artwork Sundial.
Kite Hill has been closed since Sept. 2, 2014 as Gas Works Park has undergone a soil cover project on the hill. The project added a layer of soil and new grass on Kite Hill in advance of an offshore sediment cleanup at the edge of Lake Union. By adding clean soil to Kite Hill the risk of recontamination of the sediments from the surface flow of storm water is minimized. Both Ecology and the federal Environmental Protection Agency are very supportive of this early action as we move towards the sediment remedy.
I noticed that the B-G was mis-labeled on the map. Then, I saw the “revelation” at the bottom – did you post that, Eric? If so, you are correct; you can see the white lines at the crosswalks along Northlake Way.
[I’m not sure if you were being sarcastic or genuine.]
It’s cool to see an aerial photo of our favorite neighborhood superfund site. can’t wait to get down there with my kite!
Has anything been done to address the abserd amount of goose poop all over the grass? Makes it impossible to enjoy with dogs, and nasty to sit on.
@2 — love it. It’s an absurd question, but I like it. The answer being kill the geese. But then, what good is setting aside pieces of nature if we can’t share it with more than one species on the planet?
I understand that the Wallingford Neighborhood Group has come to a negotiated agreement with the Wallingford Wildlife Coalition…..wildlife will not relieve themselves in GWP if humans will do the same…..
@1: looking at that curve, it clearly follows the old rail bed, and probably is the true path of the Burke. I never would have guessed, but it makes sense, seeing it highlighted like that.
If we’re talking about the Burke Gilman Trail, and if there’s really any doubt about this, it does follow the north side of Northlake there, rather than crossing Northlake twice just to look good on the map.
to Jane – I wonder the same thing. I had this fantasy of playing in the grass with my baby, but there was just too much goose poop, so that fantasy remains a dream. 🙂
Another thing to bear in mind is that Gasworks was kind of a pre-superfund hazardous waste site. The new soil should help, but I guess a little goose crap keeping people from getting too comfortable might be a good thing.
@6 Not according to the official maps; the trail *is* the old rail bed, and therefore, the curved part shown above. But it’s the difference between de facto and de jure. Northlake is the de facto path, and the city painted traffic lines accordingly. Probably both easier and safer for them in the long run.
http://www.seattle.gov/parks/burkegilman/bgtrail.htm
wow, fascinating. i wonder if that is still the “de jure” status. there is no infrastructure directing bikes across northlake, and the sidewalk has been widened and paved with asphalt with the bike/pedestrian icons painted on the asphalt. i wonder if it was officially re-directed at some point, and the map never got changed.
speaking of the old railbed, the trail was was named after Mssrs Burke and Gilman because they were responsible for that particular rail line back in the day, using some questionable tactics (Burke was a judge and greased the skids, so to speak). They were some pretty underhanded mfs, and i for one would love to see the name of the trail changed to something more positive!
If anyone ever seriously expected the trail to cross Northlake, I suspect that notion was nipped right in the bud. The map is wrong, happens all the time. If it were in Fremont, someone would probably care, but in Wallingford I don’t think we’re into Platonic Idealism. Same goes for the Burkes.