SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
Overlook Walk creates a new pedestrian destination and journey between the city and the waterfront, effectively linking the historic Pike Place Market with the Seattle Aquarium, Pier 62, Waterfront Park, and Elliott Bay. The project is a major feature in the larger transformation of the central waterfront, reconnecting the city to Elliott Bay with the removal of the Alaskan Way Viaduct.
Beginning with a comprehensive framework plan for Waterfront Seattle that kicked off in 2010, Field Operations (Urban Design Lead and Landscape Architecture) has been leading design for 1.5 miles of waterfront (26 city blocks) in partnership with Jacobs (Project Management and Structural Engineering). The expansive urban design plan considers the history of the site as a working waterfront, the physical conditions of its location along the 2/4 shores of Elliott Bay, its indigenous history, and its role as part of Seattle’s evolving urban and cultural landscape. With the removal of the elevated Alaskan Way Viaduct and reconstruction of the Elliott Bay Seawall, Field Operations’ framework plan has allowed Seattle to reclaim its waterfront, utilizing infrastructure and a new public realm to create new connections between the city and Elliott Bay, with Overlook Walk being one of the most important elements.
The framework plan works at multiple scales to re-center the city with the waterfront and creates a variety of public amenities and new experiences. The plan sensitively incorporates adjacent neighborhoods, important waterfront nodes, and connections into the city while reinforcing unique waterfront conditions. In collaboration with a multi-disciplinary team of engineers, ecologists, artists and art consultants, graphic and identity designers, architects, community engagement consultants, and transportation consultants, Field Operations has worked with the City’s many stakeholders and agencies on this vision to create a new “waterfront for all.”
Photography by Hoffman Construction/Marissa Lordhal, Lara Swimmer/Esto, and Tim Rice, courtesy of the City of Seattle.