Olympic Sculpture Park

Team

Architect

Weiss/Manfredi; Charles Anderson Landscape Architecture

Contractor

Sellen Construction Company

Stats

PROJECT TYPE

Park/Public Space

COMPLETION

2007

PROJECT SIZE

8.5 acres

MKA ROLE

Structural and Civil Engineer

Seattle, WA
Olympic Sculpture Park

Designed as a continuous plane crossing over existing railroad tracks and an arterial public roadway, this elevated outdoor park on two former brownfield sites and a parking lot connects the urban core to a revitalized waterfront and new public beach. The park’s centerpiece—a 2,200-ft-long, Z-shaped, accessible walkway surrounded by public art—connects the main upland pavilion to the waterfront 40 ft below. Instead of traditional concrete retaining walls, MKA developed cost-effective Mechanically Stabilized Earth retaining walls to shape the park’s 250,000 yd³ of imported soil to cap the brownfields naturally. As the park’s Z-shaped pedestrian route descends from the striking 7,000-ft² transparent pavilion to the water, it transitions from evergreen forest to a seasonal deciduous forest to a shoreline garden. The design also includes two pedestrian bridges, one crossing Elliott Avenue and the second crossing the Burlington Northern Railroad tracks–both landscaped to combine nature, art, and architecture as a seamless part of the park.