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News for Seattle and the Northwest
Last updated 3:15AM ET
May 26, 2012
KPLU Local News
KPLU Local News
Lake Union Park Opening
by KPLU news reporter Bellamy Pailthorp (2010-09-24)
Karen Daubert, Seattle Parks Foundation Executive Director, at Lake Union Park. One of her favorite features is the new Model Boat Pond in the backgrond. Photo by Bellamy Pailthorop/KPLU.
SEATTLE, WA (KPLU) - You could be forgiven if you've driven by Lake Union Park without really noticing it's there. Set on the south shore of the lake, alongside the Center for Wooden Boats, in some ways, it looks more like a campus than the 12-acre park it has become. But to Karen Daubert, the executive director of the Seattle Parks Foundation, the opening is a transformation of monumental proportions. She's been with the project since it began nearly a decade ago.

"When we first opened our offices here at Lake Union it was literally potholed parking lots. It was all grey. There were 2,000 tons of contaminated soil, asphalt that was removed, 200 creosote pilings, and now we've got beautiful native plantings, lawns, a restored cove." (View construction photos.)

There's a small beach for wading or hand-launching boats, a boardwalk and pedestrian bridge, a grove of trees with tables and benches, 300 feet of fountains for people to run through, historical markers and a pond where you can sail model boats. (View a map of the park.)

The Park fills in a missing link in the new 6-mile Cheshiahud Loop trail around Lake Union. And it's connected to the surrounding residential areas with a streetcar stop of its own. Daubert expects it to be well used.

"When you think of 10,000 people moving into just the South Lake Union neighborhood itself, to live work and play - well, this is where they're going to be doing their play. There really isn't a lot of other green in the neighborhood."

She says the outdoor spaces of the park are mostly finished, but three buildings have yet to be completed among the upcoming attractions are a new native canoe center being built by the United Indians of All Tribes and the Museum of History and Industry's move into the old Armory Building that dominates the lawns here.

Saturday's grand opening party will go from dawn till dusk with live music on two stages, food and activities for all ages on water and land.

The weather forecast is for sunny skies and temperatures in the low seventies.

More information and details on the park's Grand Opening:

Seattle Parks Foundation - Lake Union Park © Copyright 2012, KPLU