Gas Works Park
Encyclopedia
Gas Works Park in Seattle, Washington
is a 19.1 acre (77,000 m²) public park on the site of the former Seattle Gas Light Company gasification plant, located on the north shore of Lake Union
at the south end of the Wallingford
neighborhood. Gas Works park contains remnants of the sole remaining coal gasification plant in the US. The plant operated from 1906 to 1956, and was bought by the City of Seattle for park purposes in 1962. The park opened to the public in 1975. The park was designed by Seattle landscape architect Richard Haag
, who won the American Society of Landscape Architects Presidents Award of Design Excellence for the project. It was originally named Myrtle Edwards Park, after the city councilwoman
who had spearheaded the drive to acquire the site and who died in a car crash in 1969. In 1972, the Edwards family requested that her name be taken off the park because the design called for the retention of much of the plant. In 1976, Elliott Bay Park was renamed Myrtle Edwards Park
.
newspaper says, "Gas Works Park is easily the strangest park in Seattle, and may rank among the strangest in the world."
Gas Works Park also features an artificial kite-flying hill with an elaborately sculptured sundial
built into its summit. The park was for many years the exclusive site of a summer series of "Peace Concerts." These concerts are now shared out among several Seattle parks. The park also has for many years hosted one of Seattle's two major Fourth of July fireworks
events; in 2009 it was the sole such event. The park is the traditional end point of the Solstice Cyclists
and the start point for Seattle's World Naked Bike Ride
.
The park originally constituted one end of the Burke-Gilman
bicycle
and foot trail, laid out along the abandoned right-of-way of the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway
. However, the trail has now been extended several kilometers northwest, past the Fremont
neighborhood towards Ballard
.
The soil and groundwater of the site was contaminated during operation as a gasification plant. The 1971 Master Plan called for "cleaning and greening" the park through bio-phytoremediation
. Although the presence of organic pollutants had been substantially reduced by the mid 1980s, the US Environmental Protection Agency and Washington State Department of Ecology required additional measures, including removing and capping wastes, and air sparging in the Southeast portion of the site to try to remove benzene
that was a theoretical source of pollutants reaching Lake Union
via ground water. There are no known areas of surface soil contamination remaining on the site today, although tar
occasionally still oozes from some locations within the site and is isolated and removed.
Despite its somewhat isolated location, the park has been the site of numerous political rallies. These included a seven-month continuous vigil under the name PeaceWorks Park, in opposition to the Gulf War
. The vigil began at a peace concert in August 1990 and continued until after the end of the shooting war. Among the people who participated in the vigil at one point or another were former congressman and future governor Mike Lowry
, then-city-councilperson Sue Donaldson, 1960s icon Timothy Leary
, and beat poet Allen Ginsberg
.
Gas Works Park has been a setting for films, such as Singles and 10 Things I Hate About You
. It has been featured twice on the travel-based television reality show The Amazing Race
: once as the finish line for Season 3
and another time as the starting line for Season 10
.
The building is a Seattle City Landmark and a Washington State Landmark.
Gas Works Park occupies a 20.5 acre (8.3 ha) promontory between the northwest and northeast arms of Lake Union. Little is known of pre–Euro-American site history, but there were Native American settlements around Lake Union. Native names for Lake Union include Kah-chug, Tenas Chuck, and Xa’ten. In the mid-19th century Thomas Mercer
named it “Lake Union” in expectation of future canals linking it to Puget Sound
and to Lake Washington
. Dense forests still came down to the water’s edge and the lake drained into Salmon Bay
through a stream “full of windfalls and brush, impassable even for a canoe”. (Bass 1947, p33) Lake Union in the 1860-70s was a popular vacation spot with Seattleites for summer house-boating and picnicking.
Several sawmills were operating on Lake Union's shore by the 1850s, taking advantage of the dense forests. Beginning in 1872, Seattle Coal and Transportation Company ferried coal from its Renton Hill
mines across the lake for portage across to Puget Sound. In the 1880s came the Denny
sawmill at the south end of Lake Union, brick manufacturing, ship building, a tannery, and iron works. Canals with small locks were cut in 1885 from Lake Washington to Lake Union, and from Lake Union to Salmon Bay. These were suitable for transporting logs, but not for shipping. The arrival of the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway
in 1887 ensured that Lake Union would continue to be a focus for industrial development. In 1900 the Seattle Gas Light Company began to purchase lots on this promontory (Secrist, Title Search) and its coal gas
plant went into operation in 1906. At the time the neighborhood was known as Edgewater (see map, :Commons:File:Seattle map 1909.jpg.)
Seattle Gas Light Company purchased lots on the north shore promontory from 1900 to 1909. Despite the fact that the land was being acquired by the gas company, the Olmsted Brothers
in 1903 recommended that “…the point of land between the northeast and northwest arms of Lake Union and the railroad should be secured as a local park, because of its advantages for commanding views over the lake and for boating, and for a playground.” (Olmsted Brothers 1903, p 47)
In 1911, Virgil Bogue
produced a civic master plan for Seattle’s Municipal Plans Commission in which he promoted the idea of Lake Union as an industrial area: “The fact that (Lake Union) is located in the very heart of the city indicates that if properly developed it will become a most important factor in the commercial and business activities of the city.” (Seattle Municipal Plans Commission 1911, p. 78) Completion of the Lake Washington Ship Canal and Ballard locks in 1917 guaranteed the success of shipping and shipbuilding industries on Lake Union and thus of the Bogue vision, despite the fact that his plan was defeated by voters.
The Lake Station gas manufacturing plant on Lake Union was the largest private utility then existing in Seattle. It operated as “Seattle Lighting Company” until 1930, when the name was changed to “Seattle Gas Company”. Its primary product was illuminating gas (so-called because it was used for lighting) manufactured from coal. The gas was later also used for cooking, refrigeration, and heating homes and water. It was also called city gas to distinguish it from natural gas
. The gas was made from coal up to 1937 when the high cost of operating the old coke
oven and coal-gas generating sets forced a change-over to oil
. A pair of oil-to-gas generators was built in 1937 and the old coal-gas facilities were disassembled. In 1946-47, two more oil gas generator pairs were constructed to keep up with demand for gas. Since by-products from gas manufacturing had strong markets of their own, new equipment was installed at the same time to produce “Gasco charcoal briquets”, toluene
, solvent naphtha
, sulfur
, xylene
, and resin tar.
Primary manufacturing and support facilities consisted of storage tanks, boiler house, pump and compressors house, offices, and laboratories. Onsite support included electrical, carpentry, machine, blacksmith, and welding shops. Additional facilities included a stable, first aid stations, and a foamite house for storing fire control materials. Running through the north portion of the site was Burlington Northern Railroad
’s 50 ft (15.2 m)-wide right-of-way. Train trestles from the coal days were still in place in front of the laboratories and offices building.
By 1954, the Lake Station plant used 1,071 miles (1,724 km) of gas main to serve Seattle, Renton
, Kent
and Tukwila
. The plant served approximately 43,198 customers in 1940, decreasing to 36,200 in 1954. The company averaged about 130 employees, with four crews of 23 men per shift, rotating 24 hours a day on a 7 day run. Production of city gas ended in 1956 when Seattle converted to natural gas.
bonds, and H.U.D.
payments were made from 1962 to 1972, and the debt was retired.
During this period there was a considerable public discussion about whether the site should be developed or made into a park. Park advocates led by Myrtle Edwards prevailed. In 1970, Richard Haag Associates (RHA) were retained by the Seattle Park Board to do a site analysis
and master plan for a new park at the gas plant site. RHA opened an on-site office to research and analyze the plant site. Richard Haag realized that the site contained the last gas works and a unique opportunity for preservation. Haag recommended preservation of portions of the plant for its “historic, esthetic and utilitarian value”. (Master Plan, April 1971) After an intense public appeal to convince the public of the value of the plant, RHA’s 1971 master plan for an industrial preservation park was unanimously approved by the Park Board. The proposal centered on recycling the buildings, production structures, machinery and even the grounds themselves. Through bio-phyto-remediation techniques the soil and water would be “cleaned and greened”. Through preservation and adaptive re-use of key structures, the rich history of the site, and thus of an important aspect of Seattle, would be preserved and revealed.
The abandoned gas-production plant and its land were deeded to the City of Seattle in 1975, the same year Gas Works Park (GWP) opened to the public. The park site consists of 20.5 acres (82,960.6 m²) of land projecting 400 feet (121.9 m) into Lake Union with 1900 feet (580 m) of shoreline. The site is bordered by Northlake Avenue at the north and abuts Lake Union on the East and South. The Wallingford neighborhood sits to the North. Immediately adjacent to the park are remnants of the industrial development of the area. The industrial dominance is rapidly being replaced by retail development. North of N .40th St. the area is predominantly a residential neighborhood.
The park is entered through a landscaped parking area or through the Burke-Gilman Trail, a bike and walking path which connects Puget Sound to Lake Washington. Dividing the parking area from the park is a grassy berm and rows of trees demarcating the old railroad right of way. The park is composed of seven areas: Earth Mound, North Lawn, Towers, Prow, Picnic Lawn and Shelter, Play Barn, and South Lawn (Figure 7). The Earth Mound, Prow, and Lawns are open areas intended for passive and active recreation, and offer magnificent views. The Towers, Play Barn, and Picnic Shelter are adapted from the original manufacturing structures.
The park was also featured in the movie "10 Things I Hate About You" during a scene in which two of the characters are playing paint ball.
Part of the master plan, known as the “Great Mound”, hill was molded out of thousands of cubic yards of rubble from building foundations covered with fresh topsoil. The sundial
at the top of the mound was created by two local artists, Chuck Greening and Kim Lazare. Formed out of concrete and delineated with rocks, shells, glass, bronze and many other materials the sundial tells time by using the body of the visitor as the gnomon
. The viewer’s shadow tells the time of day and the season.
There are two groups: 1) six synthetic natural gas generator towers with their attendant processing towers, and 2) oil absorber and oil cooler (between the Play Barn and the generators). The generators operated in pairs and were built at different times.
(A): Towers 1 and 2 (largest and closest to the lake) are Semet-Solvay–type generators built in 1937-38. Each has a single outer shell made of welded steel lined inside with refractory brick
. Tower 1 is 80 ft (24 m) and Tower 2 is 75 ft (23 m) tall. At their peak they could manufacture 6 million cubic feet (170,000 m³) of gas a day.
B): Towers 3 and 4 were built in 1947, Towers 5 and 6 (northern-most), in 1947. They have the same brick inner shell and welded-steel outer shell construction as Towers 1 and 2, but are smaller. All four towers have an outer diameter of 22 feet (6.7 m) and are 50 feet (15 m) tall. The brick liner has an inside diameter of 20 feet (6.1 m) and is 33½ feet (10.2 m) high. The outer shells are equipped with nozzles for pipe and instrument connections, access doors, air blast doors, gas outlets, and sight holes. The towers rest on concrete pedestals. (Blueprints, 1945–46).
Wash boxes and scrubbers associated with generators 3-6 were also built in 1946-47. The small tanks (10 ft diameter, 11 ft (3.4 m) tall, each mounted on three supporting legs) next to the generators are wash boxes, one per generator. For each pair of wash boxes there is one primary scrubber that rests on a concrete pedestal and stands 48 ft (14.6 m) tall (11.5 ft diameter). The output from the two primary scrubbers goes into the single secondary scrubber of welded steel construction (12 ft diameter, 68 ft (20.7 m) tall). Farthest from the generators are two small tanks (about 20 ft (6.1 m) tall) that were the original secondary scrubbers. All piping that connects these towers is of 3/16 inch (5 mm) plate steel. (Blueprints, 1945–46)
Between the generators and the play barn stand the oil absorber (80 ft) and cooler (40 ft). The cooling towers lowered the temperature of the light oil-gas mixture from the scrubbers, then the oils were separated from the gas in the oil absorber tower. The light oils were the secondary products benzene, toluene and solvent naphtha.
The buildings date back to the original coal-gas facility (ca 1910) and were constructed of wood. The pump house (also known as the exhauster house) is about 7,340 sq ft (680 m²) and the boiler house is about 5,720 sq ft (530 m²). The wood frames of both buildings remain intact and in place on concrete slab foundations.
The boiler house, now the picnic shelter, originally housed two boilers. One provided steam for the gasification process; the other provided steam for the steam engines that powered the Pump House compressors. The tubes from one boiler remain in place at the eastern end of the building and are an impressive display of seldom-seen industrial technology.
The pump house is now the play barn. Most of the pumps, compressors, and piping are still in place. The 3000 hp (2,200 kW) compressor’s 10 short ton (9 t) fly-wheel ran continuously to keep the plant running 24 hours a day. In this building air was compressed for the oxygen-extraction process, the oxygen was then pumped to the generators for the first stage of gas manufacturing, and the final product was compressed and pumped to either the storage tank or down the lines of main to customers.
Outside the play barn, the sole surviving smoke arrestor hood has been refurbished as a play structure for climbing. Designed and built by the Company in 1935, three were installed in order to reduce pollutant emissions.
Concrete train trestles now form a part of the GWP entrance. They were part of the original 1906 gas plant and ran along the north side of the Office and Laboratories Building. Nothing remains of this building, but the trestles show where the train tracks ended and coal was delivered. Coal cars would ride up the trestles and release coal into hoppers parked under the trestles.
GWP was designed to be an urban, intensively used pleasure ground utilizing unique structures. “The traditional escape from the city into the sylvan settings of remote areas has changed for many people into a seeking of a more active encounter. Introspection and retreat are easily accomplished without physical isolation, but facilities for social interaction with persons other than intimate friends are more scarce with respect to population growth. …new sites should be offered in a vast and varied park system to accommodate experimentation and innovation in both design and program.” (Master Plan, 1971) Because of the Gas Plant structures and the magnificent setting, GWP complements the rich heritage of Seattle’s Post-Victorian parks and offers expanded programs in ways that the latter cannot. Throughout every year hundreds of thousands of people use GWP. They gather to celebrate Independence Day and watch fireworks. Concerts, kite-flying, jogging, public meetings, and the open space and views of the park itself are attractions that keep GWP in constant use.
status was recognized in 1971 when Victor Steinbrueck
inventoried the Gas Works and Eric DeLony of the National Park Service
wrote: “… Gas Works Park will not only be a unique first in the United States, if not the world, but will set an important precedent for the future preservation of industrial structure through an imaginative plan for adaptive use.”
The combination of a dramatic site and historic structures with the innovative park design has only increased the importance of Gas Works Park. The integrity of the original Gas Works is impressive. Although not all of the structures were saved, the character defining and prominent group of towers remains. The reuse of the pump house and boiler house has maintained building structure and much of the machinery. The site retains its original boundaries and lake frontage.
The Seattle Gas Company’s production plant located on Lake Union, now known as Gas Works Park, was co-founded by one of Seattle’s foremost pioneers, Arthur A. Denny
. Throughout the first half of this century the Gas Company was a significant participant in and contributor to the growth of Seattle and adjoining communities. Although its primary product was city gas for energy, the plant also manufactured other basic products necessary for urban growth: tar for roofing; lampblack for pigment in tires and ink; charcoal briquets for odor-free and efficient home heating; sulfur for insecticides, ammonium sulfate
, and sulfuric acid
; and toluene
for use in explosives. Toluene was in high demand during World War II and production of it was essential to the war effort (e.g., for making TNT and various types of gun powder). Through these products the gas works contributed in an integral way not only to daily commercial and domestic life in Seattle, but also to interests at a national level.
The structures and machinery standing in GWP today are remnants of the Industrial Revolution that transformed the face of the world. GWP is the sole survivor of gas works from that era in the United States, preserved as a public park. It is the only site that could be documented with most of the generating equipment intact. During its production era, this gasification plant was only one of 1400 such plants in the U.S., but it is now a unique and dramatic collection of industrial revolution era technology. Though obsolete, these towers, machines, and buildings are a monument to humanity’s inventiveness and offer a visual statement of pioneering technology. As UW Professor of Anthropology Kenneth Read so eloquently expressed it, “History sits on this little wasteland, not only the parochial history of a given city, but also a fragment of the chronicle of world and culture. It is certainly as valuable a document as anything preserved in the Museum of History and Industry.” (Read 1969, p 43-45)
In addition to its early history, the impact of Gas Works Park on land reclamation and industrial preservation attitudes and techniques extends far beyond Seattle. GWP has gained national and international standing as a prototype for industrial site conversions. It is studied, cited as an exemplary model, and referenced in educational textbooks and scholarly works. Since opening, GWP has won numerous awards for design excellence, vision, and innovation. The jury for the President’s Award of Excellence stated: “A remarkably original and attractive example of how to reclaim a seemingly hopeless and obsolete industrial installation. Instead of being destroyed or disguised, it has been transformed into a lighthearted environment … A project of historical significance for the community. A symbol of American technology preserved.” A list of awards and exhibitions is provided in Appendix A, a selected bibliography of works on the topic of GWP in Appendix B, and a complete chronology of the site, dating from 1851, in Appendix C.
Gas Works Park and its Towers are of a scale and form easily seen from any location around Lake Union. The park is a tangible, highly visible piece of Seattle’s early history and of industrial revolution era technology. The Towers are a gothic sculptural presence and the contrast of these monolithic forms superimposed on the city skyline is unique and visually exciting. The experience is further enhanced by changes in perspective gained by moving around and through these forms of another era. “The black shapes of the towers on their grassy point leap out with startling clarity against the bright collage of the shoreline, silhouettes that might be the pictogram for the works of industrial man.” (Landscape Australia, February 1980)
Gas Works Park is also a symbol of attitudes about growth and progress. The structures and machinery that remain in GWP today speak about us, and about our history. These structures tell the story of what we valued decades ago, and they show us how we went about acquiring that which we valued. They remind us of a disregard of the environment which went along with the development of the city. These structures are a constant reminder of the very real industrial history of the site, of Lake Union and of Seattle. They tell us that Seattle was once (not that long ago) a stretch of wilderness, abundant with raw materials for fueling an industrial revolution. Gas Works Park presents in an engaging way the difference between then and now: “then” wilderness was seen simply as a storehouse of raw materials to feed hungry machinery; “now” we also place value on the wild places that remain.
Gas Works Park is also an outstanding work of its designer, Richard Haag, a prominent Seattle landscape architect. Haag is the only person to twice receive the American Society of Landscape Architects Award for design excellence, one of the awards given for his design of Gas Works Park. Haag has received international acclaim for his design of Gas Works Park.
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
is a 19.1 acre (77,000 m²) public park on the site of the former Seattle Gas Light Company gasification plant, located on the north shore of Lake Union
Lake Union
Lake Union is a freshwater lake entirely within the Seattle, Washington city limits.-Origins:A glacial lake, its basin was dug 12,000 years ago by the Vashon glacier, which also created Lake Washington and Seattle's Green, Bitter, and Haller Lakes.-Name:...
at the south end of the Wallingford
Wallingford, Seattle, Washington
Wallingford is a neighborhood in north central Seattle, Washington, named after John Noble Wallingford . The QFC supermarket at the corner of N 45th Street and Wallingford Avenue N may be regarded as the center of the neighborhood; its large WALLINGFORD neon sign is made in part from letters in the...
neighborhood. Gas Works park contains remnants of the sole remaining coal gasification plant in the US. The plant operated from 1906 to 1956, and was bought by the City of Seattle for park purposes in 1962. The park opened to the public in 1975. The park was designed by Seattle landscape architect Richard Haag
Richard Haag
Richard Haag is a United States landscape architect. He is famous for his work on Gas Works Park in Seattle, Washington and on the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island. He is also noted for founding the Landscape Architecture Program at the University of Washington and for holding multiple design...
, who won the American Society of Landscape Architects Presidents Award of Design Excellence for the project. It was originally named Myrtle Edwards Park, after the city councilwoman
Seattle City Council
The Seattle City Council is committed to ensuring that Seattle, Washington, is safe, livable and sustainable. Nine Councilmembers are elected to four-year terms in nonpartisan elections and represent the entire city, elected by all Seattle voters....
who had spearheaded the drive to acquire the site and who died in a car crash in 1969. In 1972, the Edwards family requested that her name be taken off the park because the design called for the retention of much of the plant. In 1976, Elliott Bay Park was renamed Myrtle Edwards Park
Myrtle Edwards Park
Myrtle Edwards Park in Seattle, Washington is a 4.8 acre public park along the Elliott Bay waterfront north of Belltown. It features a 1.25-mile long bicycle and walking path and is a good place to see eagles, gulls, and crows....
.
Overview
Gas Works Park incorporates numerous pieces of the old plant. Some stand as ruins, while others have been reconditioned, painted, and incorporated into a children's "play barn" structure, constructed in part from what was the plant's exhauster-compressor building. A Web site affiliated with The Seattle TimesThe Seattle Times
The Seattle Times is a newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, US. It is the largest daily newspaper in the state of Washington. It has been, since the demise in 2009 of the printed version of the rival Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle's only major daily print newspaper.-History:The Seattle Times...
newspaper says, "Gas Works Park is easily the strangest park in Seattle, and may rank among the strangest in the world."
Gas Works Park also features an artificial kite-flying hill with an elaborately sculptured sundial
Sundial
A sundial is a device that measures time by the position of the Sun. In common designs such as the horizontal sundial, the sun casts a shadow from its style onto a surface marked with lines indicating the hours of the day. The style is the time-telling edge of the gnomon, often a thin rod or a...
built into its summit. The park was for many years the exclusive site of a summer series of "Peace Concerts." These concerts are now shared out among several Seattle parks. The park also has for many years hosted one of Seattle's two major Fourth of July fireworks
Fireworks
Fireworks are a class of explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. The most common use of a firework is as part of a fireworks display. A fireworks event is a display of the effects produced by firework devices...
events; in 2009 it was the sole such event. The park is the traditional end point of the Solstice Cyclists
Solstice Cyclists
The Solstice Cyclists is an artistic, non-political, clothing-optional bike ride celebrating the Summer Solstice...
and the start point for Seattle's World Naked Bike Ride
World Naked Bike Ride
World Naked Bike Ride is an international clothing-optional bike ride in which participants plan, meet and ride together en masse on human-powered transport , to "deliver a vision of a cleaner, safer, body-positive world."The dress code motto is "Bare as you dare"...
.
Burke-Gilman Trail
The Burke-Gilman Sammamish Trail is a rail trail in King County, Washington. The multi-use recreational trail is part of the King County Regional Trail System and occupies an abandoned Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway corridor....
bicycle
Bicycle
A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....
and foot trail, laid out along the abandoned right-of-way of the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway
Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway
The Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway was a railroad founded in Seattle, Washington, on April 28, 1885, with three tiers of purposes: Build and run the initial line to the town of Ballard, bring immediate results and returns to investors; exploit resources east in the valleys, foothills,...
. However, the trail has now been extended several kilometers northwest, past the Fremont
Fremont, Seattle, Washington
Fremont is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington. Originally a separate city, it was annexed to Seattle in 1891. Named after Fremont, Nebraska, the hometown of two of its founders, L. H. Griffith and E...
neighborhood towards Ballard
Ballard, Seattle, Washington
Ballard is a neighborhood located in the northwestern part of Seattle, Washington. To the north it is bounded by Crown Hill, ; to the east by Greenwood, Phinney Ridge and Fremont ; to the south by the Lake Washington Ship Canal; and to the west by Puget Sound’s Shilshole Bay. The neighborhood’s...
.
The soil and groundwater of the site was contaminated during operation as a gasification plant. The 1971 Master Plan called for "cleaning and greening" the park through bio-phytoremediation
Phytoremediation
Phytoremediation Phytoremediation Phytoremediation (from the Ancient Greek , and Latin (restoring balance or remediation) describes the treatment of environmental problems (bioremediation) through the use of plants that mitigate the environmental problem without the need to excavate the...
. Although the presence of organic pollutants had been substantially reduced by the mid 1980s, the US Environmental Protection Agency and Washington State Department of Ecology required additional measures, including removing and capping wastes, and air sparging in the Southeast portion of the site to try to remove benzene
Benzene
Benzene is an organic chemical compound. It is composed of 6 carbon atoms in a ring, with 1 hydrogen atom attached to each carbon atom, with the molecular formula C6H6....
that was a theoretical source of pollutants reaching Lake Union
Lake Union
Lake Union is a freshwater lake entirely within the Seattle, Washington city limits.-Origins:A glacial lake, its basin was dug 12,000 years ago by the Vashon glacier, which also created Lake Washington and Seattle's Green, Bitter, and Haller Lakes.-Name:...
via ground water. There are no known areas of surface soil contamination remaining on the site today, although tar
Tar
Tar is modified pitch produced primarily from the wood and roots of pine by destructive distillation under pyrolysis. Production and trade in tar was a major contributor in the economies of Northern Europe and Colonial America. Its main use was in preserving wooden vessels against rot. The largest...
occasionally still oozes from some locations within the site and is isolated and removed.
Despite its somewhat isolated location, the park has been the site of numerous political rallies. These included a seven-month continuous vigil under the name PeaceWorks Park, in opposition to the Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
. The vigil began at a peace concert in August 1990 and continued until after the end of the shooting war. Among the people who participated in the vigil at one point or another were former congressman and future governor Mike Lowry
Mike Lowry
Michael Edward "Mike" Lowry served as the 20th Governor of the U.S. state of Washington from 1993 to 1997. Lowry is a Democrat.Lowry was born and raised in St. John, Washington, and graduated from Washington State University in 1962...
, then-city-councilperson Sue Donaldson, 1960s icon Timothy Leary
Timothy Leary
Timothy Francis Leary was an American psychologist and writer, known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs. During a time when drugs like LSD and psilocybin were legal, Leary conducted experiments at Harvard University under the Harvard Psilocybin Project, resulting in the Concord Prison...
, and beat poet Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
.
10 Things I Hate about You
10 Things I Hate About You is a 1999 American teen romantic comedy film. It is directed by Gil Junger and stars Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Larisa Oleynik, David Krumholtz, and Larry Miller...
. It has been featured twice on the travel-based television reality show The Amazing Race
The Amazing Race
The Amazing Race is a reality television game show in which teams of two people, who have some form of a preexisting personal relationship, race around the world in competition with other teams...
: once as the finish line for Season 3
The Amazing Race 3
The Amazing Race 3 is the third installment of the reality television show, The Amazing Race. This season featured 12 teams of two, with a pre-existing relationship, in a race around the world, making it the first season to have 12 teams...
and another time as the starting line for Season 10
The Amazing Race 10
The Amazing Race 10 is the tenth installment of the reality television show The Amazing Race. The Amazing Race 10 features twelve teams of two with a pre-existing relationship in a race around the world....
.
The building is a Seattle City Landmark and a Washington State Landmark.
Early history
Thomas Mercer
From An Illustrated History of the State of Washington, by Rev. H.K. Hines, D.D., The Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, IL. 1893 A portrait of Mr. Mercer appears between pages 588 and 589...
named it “Lake Union” in expectation of future canals linking it to Puget Sound
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
and to Lake Washington
Lake Washington
Lake Washington is a large freshwater lake adjacent to the city of Seattle. It is the largest lake in King County and the second largest in the state of Washington, after Lake Chelan. It is bordered by the cities of Seattle on the west, Bellevue and Kirkland on the east, Renton on the south and...
. Dense forests still came down to the water’s edge and the lake drained into Salmon Bay
Salmon Bay
Salmon Bay is that part of the Lake Washington Ship Canal--which passes through the city of Seattle, linking Lake Washington to Puget Sound--that lies west of the Fremont Cut. It is the westernmost section of the canal, and empties into Shilshole Bay, which is part of Puget Sound. Because of the...
through a stream “full of windfalls and brush, impassable even for a canoe”. (Bass 1947, p33) Lake Union in the 1860-70s was a popular vacation spot with Seattleites for summer house-boating and picnicking.
Several sawmills were operating on Lake Union's shore by the 1850s, taking advantage of the dense forests. Beginning in 1872, Seattle Coal and Transportation Company ferried coal from its Renton Hill
Renton Hill, Seattle, Washington
Renton Hill was historically a neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, USA; it was roughly the southern part of today's Capitol Hill and the adjacent part of First Hill, centered roughly at 18th and Madison...
mines across the lake for portage across to Puget Sound. In the 1880s came the Denny
David Denny
David Thomas Denny was a member of the Denny Party, who are generally collectively credited as the founders of Seattle, Washington, USA. Though he ultimately underwent bankruptcy, he was a significant contributor to the shape of the city...
sawmill at the south end of Lake Union, brick manufacturing, ship building, a tannery, and iron works. Canals with small locks were cut in 1885 from Lake Washington to Lake Union, and from Lake Union to Salmon Bay. These were suitable for transporting logs, but not for shipping. The arrival of the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway
Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway
The Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway was a railroad founded in Seattle, Washington, on April 28, 1885, with three tiers of purposes: Build and run the initial line to the town of Ballard, bring immediate results and returns to investors; exploit resources east in the valleys, foothills,...
in 1887 ensured that Lake Union would continue to be a focus for industrial development. In 1900 the Seattle Gas Light Company began to purchase lots on this promontory (Secrist, Title Search) and its coal gas
Coal gas
Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made by the destructive distillation of coal containing a variety of calorific gases including hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methane and volatile hydrocarbons together with small quantities of non-calorific gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen...
plant went into operation in 1906. At the time the neighborhood was known as Edgewater (see map, :Commons:File:Seattle map 1909.jpg.)
Seattle Gas Light Company purchased lots on the north shore promontory from 1900 to 1909. Despite the fact that the land was being acquired by the gas company, the Olmsted Brothers
Olmsted Brothers
The Olmsted Brothers company was an influential landscape design firm in the United States, formed in 1898 by stepbrothers John Charles Olmsted and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. .-History:...
in 1903 recommended that “…the point of land between the northeast and northwest arms of Lake Union and the railroad should be secured as a local park, because of its advantages for commanding views over the lake and for boating, and for a playground.” (Olmsted Brothers 1903, p 47)
In 1911, Virgil Bogue
Virgil Bogue
Virgil Gay Bogue was born in Norfolk, New York, on July 20, 1846. He received a degree in civil engineering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, in 1868. Bogue worked consecutively on Oroya Railway in Peru to 1879, the Northern Pacific Railway to 1886...
produced a civic master plan for Seattle’s Municipal Plans Commission in which he promoted the idea of Lake Union as an industrial area: “The fact that (Lake Union) is located in the very heart of the city indicates that if properly developed it will become a most important factor in the commercial and business activities of the city.” (Seattle Municipal Plans Commission 1911, p. 78) Completion of the Lake Washington Ship Canal and Ballard locks in 1917 guaranteed the success of shipping and shipbuilding industries on Lake Union and thus of the Bogue vision, despite the fact that his plan was defeated by voters.
The Lake Station gas manufacturing plant on Lake Union was the largest private utility then existing in Seattle. It operated as “Seattle Lighting Company” until 1930, when the name was changed to “Seattle Gas Company”. Its primary product was illuminating gas (so-called because it was used for lighting) manufactured from coal. The gas was later also used for cooking, refrigeration, and heating homes and water. It was also called city gas to distinguish it from natural gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
. The gas was made from coal up to 1937 when the high cost of operating the old coke
Coke (fuel)
Coke is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Cokes from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made.- History :...
oven and coal-gas generating sets forced a change-over to oil
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
. A pair of oil-to-gas generators was built in 1937 and the old coal-gas facilities were disassembled. In 1946-47, two more oil gas generator pairs were constructed to keep up with demand for gas. Since by-products from gas manufacturing had strong markets of their own, new equipment was installed at the same time to produce “Gasco charcoal briquets”, toluene
Toluene
Toluene, formerly known as toluol, is a clear, water-insoluble liquid with the typical smell of paint thinners. It is a mono-substituted benzene derivative, i.e., one in which a single hydrogen atom from the benzene molecule has been replaced by a univalent group, in this case CH3.It is an aromatic...
, solvent naphtha
Naphtha
Naphtha normally refers to a number of different flammable liquid mixtures of hydrocarbons, i.e., a component of natural gas condensate or a distillation product from petroleum, coal tar or peat boiling in a certain range and containing certain hydrocarbons. It is a broad term covering among the...
, sulfur
Sulfur
Sulfur or sulphur is the chemical element with atomic number 16. In the periodic table it is represented by the symbol S. It is an abundant, multivalent non-metal. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with chemical formula S8. Elemental sulfur is a bright yellow...
, xylene
Xylene
Xylene encompasses three isomers of dimethylbenzene. The isomers are distinguished by the designations ortho- , meta- , and para- , which specify to which carbon atoms the two methyl groups are attached...
, and resin tar.
Primary manufacturing and support facilities consisted of storage tanks, boiler house, pump and compressors house, offices, and laboratories. Onsite support included electrical, carpentry, machine, blacksmith, and welding shops. Additional facilities included a stable, first aid stations, and a foamite house for storing fire control materials. Running through the north portion of the site was Burlington Northern Railroad
Burlington Northern Railroad
The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States-based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1996....
’s 50 ft (15.2 m)-wide right-of-way. Train trestles from the coal days were still in place in front of the laboratories and offices building.
By 1954, the Lake Station plant used 1,071 miles (1,724 km) of gas main to serve Seattle, Renton
Renton, Washington
Renton is an Eastside edge city in King County, Washington, United States. Situated 11 miles southeast of Seattle, Washington, Renton straddles the southeast shore of Lake Washington. Founded in the 1860s, Renton became a supply town for the Newcastle coal fields...
, Kent
Kent, Washington
Kent is a city located in King County, Washington, United States, and is the third largest city in King County and the sixth largest in the state. An outlying suburb of Seattle, Kent is also the corporate home for companies such as REI and Oberto Sausage...
and Tukwila
Tukwila, Washington
Tukwila is a city in King County, Washington, United States. The northern edge of Tukwila borders the city of Seattle. The population was 19,107 at the 2010 census.-History:...
. The plant served approximately 43,198 customers in 1940, decreasing to 36,200 in 1954. The company averaged about 130 employees, with four crews of 23 men per shift, rotating 24 hours a day on a 7 day run. Production of city gas ended in 1956 when Seattle converted to natural gas.
Present appearance and characteristics
Though gas production ceased in 1956, the buildings and manufacturing structures were still intact in 1962 when the City of Seattle began purchasing the abandoned gas works. The $1,340,000 purchase price was provided by Forward ThrustForward Thrust
The Forward Thrust ballot initiatives were a series of bond propositions put to the voters of King County, Washington in 1968 and 1970, designed by a group called the Forward Thrust Committee...
bonds, and H.U.D.
United States Department of Housing and Urban Development
The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, also known as HUD, is a Cabinet department in the Executive branch of the United States federal government...
payments were made from 1962 to 1972, and the debt was retired.
Site analysis
Site analysis is an inventory completed as a preparatory step to site planning, a form of urban planning which involves research, analysis, and synthesis. It primarily deals with basic data as it relates to a specific site...
and master plan for a new park at the gas plant site. RHA opened an on-site office to research and analyze the plant site. Richard Haag realized that the site contained the last gas works and a unique opportunity for preservation. Haag recommended preservation of portions of the plant for its “historic, esthetic and utilitarian value”. (Master Plan, April 1971) After an intense public appeal to convince the public of the value of the plant, RHA’s 1971 master plan for an industrial preservation park was unanimously approved by the Park Board. The proposal centered on recycling the buildings, production structures, machinery and even the grounds themselves. Through bio-phyto-remediation techniques the soil and water would be “cleaned and greened”. Through preservation and adaptive re-use of key structures, the rich history of the site, and thus of an important aspect of Seattle, would be preserved and revealed.
The abandoned gas-production plant and its land were deeded to the City of Seattle in 1975, the same year Gas Works Park (GWP) opened to the public. The park site consists of 20.5 acres (82,960.6 m²) of land projecting 400 feet (121.9 m) into Lake Union with 1900 feet (580 m) of shoreline. The site is bordered by Northlake Avenue at the north and abuts Lake Union on the East and South. The Wallingford neighborhood sits to the North. Immediately adjacent to the park are remnants of the industrial development of the area. The industrial dominance is rapidly being replaced by retail development. North of N .40th St. the area is predominantly a residential neighborhood.
The park is entered through a landscaped parking area or through the Burke-Gilman Trail, a bike and walking path which connects Puget Sound to Lake Washington. Dividing the parking area from the park is a grassy berm and rows of trees demarcating the old railroad right of way. The park is composed of seven areas: Earth Mound, North Lawn, Towers, Prow, Picnic Lawn and Shelter, Play Barn, and South Lawn (Figure 7). The Earth Mound, Prow, and Lawns are open areas intended for passive and active recreation, and offer magnificent views. The Towers, Play Barn, and Picnic Shelter are adapted from the original manufacturing structures.
The park was also featured in the movie "10 Things I Hate About You" during a scene in which two of the characters are playing paint ball.
The earth mound
Sundial
A sundial is a device that measures time by the position of the Sun. In common designs such as the horizontal sundial, the sun casts a shadow from its style onto a surface marked with lines indicating the hours of the day. The style is the time-telling edge of the gnomon, often a thin rod or a...
at the top of the mound was created by two local artists, Chuck Greening and Kim Lazare. Formed out of concrete and delineated with rocks, shells, glass, bronze and many other materials the sundial tells time by using the body of the visitor as the gnomon
Gnomon
The gnomon is the part of a sundial that casts the shadow. Gnomon is an ancient Greek word meaning "indicator", "one who discerns," or "that which reveals."It has come to be used for a variety of purposes in mathematics and other fields....
. The viewer’s shadow tells the time of day and the season.
The north and south lawns and picnic lawn
Soil has been bioremediated with 18” of sewage sludge and sawdust. This process has decontaminated the soil and allowed for the growth of field grass which makes possible constant, hard use with low maintenance.Towers
(A): Towers 1 and 2 (largest and closest to the lake) are Semet-Solvay–type generators built in 1937-38. Each has a single outer shell made of welded steel lined inside with refractory brick
Fire brick
A fire brick, firebrick, or refractory brick is a block of refractory ceramic material used in lining furnaces, kilns, fireboxes, and fireplaces. A refractory brick is built primarily to withstand high temperature, but will also usually have a low thermal conductivity for greater energy efficiency...
. Tower 1 is 80 ft (24 m) and Tower 2 is 75 ft (23 m) tall. At their peak they could manufacture 6 million cubic feet (170,000 m³) of gas a day.
B): Towers 3 and 4 were built in 1947, Towers 5 and 6 (northern-most), in 1947. They have the same brick inner shell and welded-steel outer shell construction as Towers 1 and 2, but are smaller. All four towers have an outer diameter of 22 feet (6.7 m) and are 50 feet (15 m) tall. The brick liner has an inside diameter of 20 feet (6.1 m) and is 33½ feet (10.2 m) high. The outer shells are equipped with nozzles for pipe and instrument connections, access doors, air blast doors, gas outlets, and sight holes. The towers rest on concrete pedestals. (Blueprints, 1945–46).
Wash boxes and scrubbers associated with generators 3-6 were also built in 1946-47. The small tanks (10 ft diameter, 11 ft (3.4 m) tall, each mounted on three supporting legs) next to the generators are wash boxes, one per generator. For each pair of wash boxes there is one primary scrubber that rests on a concrete pedestal and stands 48 ft (14.6 m) tall (11.5 ft diameter). The output from the two primary scrubbers goes into the single secondary scrubber of welded steel construction (12 ft diameter, 68 ft (20.7 m) tall). Farthest from the generators are two small tanks (about 20 ft (6.1 m) tall) that were the original secondary scrubbers. All piping that connects these towers is of 3/16 inch (5 mm) plate steel. (Blueprints, 1945–46)
Between the generators and the play barn stand the oil absorber (80 ft) and cooler (40 ft). The cooling towers lowered the temperature of the light oil-gas mixture from the scrubbers, then the oils were separated from the gas in the oil absorber tower. The light oils were the secondary products benzene, toluene and solvent naphtha.
The prow
This concrete platform was built in 1936 as an unloading area for coal. The platform was integrated into the park design and handrails placed at the lakeside edges.Play barn and picnic shelter
The boiler house, now the picnic shelter, originally housed two boilers. One provided steam for the gasification process; the other provided steam for the steam engines that powered the Pump House compressors. The tubes from one boiler remain in place at the eastern end of the building and are an impressive display of seldom-seen industrial technology.
The pump house is now the play barn. Most of the pumps, compressors, and piping are still in place. The 3000 hp (2,200 kW) compressor’s 10 short ton (9 t) fly-wheel ran continuously to keep the plant running 24 hours a day. In this building air was compressed for the oxygen-extraction process, the oxygen was then pumped to the generators for the first stage of gas manufacturing, and the final product was compressed and pumped to either the storage tank or down the lines of main to customers.
Outside the play barn, the sole surviving smoke arrestor hood has been refurbished as a play structure for climbing. Designed and built by the Company in 1935, three were installed in order to reduce pollutant emissions.
Concrete train trestles now form a part of the GWP entrance. They were part of the original 1906 gas plant and ran along the north side of the Office and Laboratories Building. Nothing remains of this building, but the trestles show where the train tracks ended and coal was delivered. Coal cars would ride up the trestles and release coal into hoppers parked under the trestles.
GWP was designed to be an urban, intensively used pleasure ground utilizing unique structures. “The traditional escape from the city into the sylvan settings of remote areas has changed for many people into a seeking of a more active encounter. Introspection and retreat are easily accomplished without physical isolation, but facilities for social interaction with persons other than intimate friends are more scarce with respect to population growth. …new sites should be offered in a vast and varied park system to accommodate experimentation and innovation in both design and program.” (Master Plan, 1971) Because of the Gas Plant structures and the magnificent setting, GWP complements the rich heritage of Seattle’s Post-Victorian parks and offers expanded programs in ways that the latter cannot. Throughout every year hundreds of thousands of people use GWP. They gather to celebrate Independence Day and watch fireworks. Concerts, kite-flying, jogging, public meetings, and the open space and views of the park itself are attractions that keep GWP in constant use.
Historical significance
Gas Works Park is a unique landmark for the City of Seattle. The original structures qualify as industrial archaeology and are the last remaining examples of a type of technology. These structures have been double served by Gas Works Park for not only have they been preserved but they have been integrated into an innovative, ground-breaking park design. Paul Goldberger wrote in the New York Times “Seattle is about to have one of the nation’s most advanced pieces of urban landscape design. The complex array of towers, tanks and pipes of the gas works forms a powerful industrial still life … serving both as a visual focus for the park and as a monument to the city’s industrial past. The park represents a complete reversal from a period when industrial monuments were regarded, even by preservationists, as ugly intrusions on the landscape, to a time when such structures as the gas works are recognized for their potential ability to enhance the urban experience.” (NY Times, 8/30/75) Few, if any examples of Seattle architecture have won the national and international recognition given to Gas Works Park. The possibility for National LandmarkNational landmark
A National landmark is a site identified by a national authority as one possessing nationally–significant natural, historic, or scientific resources...
status was recognized in 1971 when Victor Steinbrueck
Victor Steinbrueck
Victor Steinbrueck was a Seattle architect, and University of Washington faculty member, and best known for his efforts to preserve the city's Pioneer Square and Pike Place Market.-Biography:...
inventoried the Gas Works and Eric DeLony of the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
wrote: “… Gas Works Park will not only be a unique first in the United States, if not the world, but will set an important precedent for the future preservation of industrial structure through an imaginative plan for adaptive use.”
The combination of a dramatic site and historic structures with the innovative park design has only increased the importance of Gas Works Park. The integrity of the original Gas Works is impressive. Although not all of the structures were saved, the character defining and prominent group of towers remains. The reuse of the pump house and boiler house has maintained building structure and much of the machinery. The site retains its original boundaries and lake frontage.
The Seattle Gas Company’s production plant located on Lake Union, now known as Gas Works Park, was co-founded by one of Seattle’s foremost pioneers, Arthur A. Denny
Arthur A. Denny
Arthur Armstrong Denny was present at the founding of Seattle, Washington, the acknowledged leader of the pioneer Denny Party, and later the city's wealthiest citizen and a 9-term member of the territorial legislature...
. Throughout the first half of this century the Gas Company was a significant participant in and contributor to the growth of Seattle and adjoining communities. Although its primary product was city gas for energy, the plant also manufactured other basic products necessary for urban growth: tar for roofing; lampblack for pigment in tires and ink; charcoal briquets for odor-free and efficient home heating; sulfur for insecticides, ammonium sulfate
Ammonium sulfate
Ammonium sulfate , 2SO4, is an inorganic salt with a number of commercial uses. The most common use is as a soil fertilizer. It contains 21% nitrogen as ammonium cations, and 24% sulfur as sulfate anions...
, and sulfuric acid
Sulfuric acid
Sulfuric acid is a strong mineral acid with the molecular formula . Its historical name is oil of vitriol. Pure sulfuric acid is a highly corrosive, colorless, viscous liquid. The salts of sulfuric acid are called sulfates...
; and toluene
Toluene
Toluene, formerly known as toluol, is a clear, water-insoluble liquid with the typical smell of paint thinners. It is a mono-substituted benzene derivative, i.e., one in which a single hydrogen atom from the benzene molecule has been replaced by a univalent group, in this case CH3.It is an aromatic...
for use in explosives. Toluene was in high demand during World War II and production of it was essential to the war effort (e.g., for making TNT and various types of gun powder). Through these products the gas works contributed in an integral way not only to daily commercial and domestic life in Seattle, but also to interests at a national level.
The structures and machinery standing in GWP today are remnants of the Industrial Revolution that transformed the face of the world. GWP is the sole survivor of gas works from that era in the United States, preserved as a public park. It is the only site that could be documented with most of the generating equipment intact. During its production era, this gasification plant was only one of 1400 such plants in the U.S., but it is now a unique and dramatic collection of industrial revolution era technology. Though obsolete, these towers, machines, and buildings are a monument to humanity’s inventiveness and offer a visual statement of pioneering technology. As UW Professor of Anthropology Kenneth Read so eloquently expressed it, “History sits on this little wasteland, not only the parochial history of a given city, but also a fragment of the chronicle of world and culture. It is certainly as valuable a document as anything preserved in the Museum of History and Industry.” (Read 1969, p 43-45)
In addition to its early history, the impact of Gas Works Park on land reclamation and industrial preservation attitudes and techniques extends far beyond Seattle. GWP has gained national and international standing as a prototype for industrial site conversions. It is studied, cited as an exemplary model, and referenced in educational textbooks and scholarly works. Since opening, GWP has won numerous awards for design excellence, vision, and innovation. The jury for the President’s Award of Excellence stated: “A remarkably original and attractive example of how to reclaim a seemingly hopeless and obsolete industrial installation. Instead of being destroyed or disguised, it has been transformed into a lighthearted environment … A project of historical significance for the community. A symbol of American technology preserved.” A list of awards and exhibitions is provided in Appendix A, a selected bibliography of works on the topic of GWP in Appendix B, and a complete chronology of the site, dating from 1851, in Appendix C.
Gas Works Park is also a symbol of attitudes about growth and progress. The structures and machinery that remain in GWP today speak about us, and about our history. These structures tell the story of what we valued decades ago, and they show us how we went about acquiring that which we valued. They remind us of a disregard of the environment which went along with the development of the city. These structures are a constant reminder of the very real industrial history of the site, of Lake Union and of Seattle. They tell us that Seattle was once (not that long ago) a stretch of wilderness, abundant with raw materials for fueling an industrial revolution. Gas Works Park presents in an engaging way the difference between then and now: “then” wilderness was seen simply as a storehouse of raw materials to feed hungry machinery; “now” we also place value on the wild places that remain.
Gas Works Park is also an outstanding work of its designer, Richard Haag, a prominent Seattle landscape architect. Haag is the only person to twice receive the American Society of Landscape Architects Award for design excellence, one of the awards given for his design of Gas Works Park. Haag has received international acclaim for his design of Gas Works Park.
Literature
- William S. Saunders (Ed.): Richard Haag. Bloedel Reserve and Gas Works Park. New York: Princeton Architectural Press 1998
- Pirzio-Biroli: "Adaptive re-use. Layering of meaning on sites of industrial ruin." in: Arcade journal 23/2004
- Udo WeilacherUdo WeilacherUdo Weilacher, Prof. Dr. sc. ETH, is a German landscape architect, author and Professor for Landscape Architecture.-Biography:Udo Weilacher, born in Kaiserslautern/ Germany, was originally educated as a gardener in 1984...
: Syntax of Landscape. Basel Berlin Boston: Birkhauser Publisher 2008. ISBN 978-3-7643-7615-4
External links
- Parks Department page on Gas Works Park
- Gasworks Park on GoSleepGo
- Quicktime VR movies of the park
- A 2003 government report, "Sediment Toxicity Near Gas Works Park"
- Washington State Dept. of Ecology Page on Gas Works Park
- PeaceWorks Park Vigil, on the Seattle Wiki
- View from Westlake towards the waterfront of Gas Works Park