Top 3 Parks to Visit: Freeway Park

**This is Part Two in a series regarding Seattle-area parks presented by David Quicksall.

In 1960, John Steinbeck drove through Seattle in his pick-up truck with his dog Charley. It had been many years since he had last visited the city, and the mark of progress weighed heavily upon him—especially as manifested by the newly constructed  I-5 freeway:

I remembered Seattle as a town sitting on hills beside a matchless harborage—a little city of space and trees and gardens, its houses matched to such a background. It is no longer so…The highways eight lanes wide cut like glaciers through the uneasy land…This Seattle had no relation to the one I remembered. The traffic rushed with murderous intensity…Along what had been country lanes rich with berries, high wire fences and mile-long factories stretched…

—Travels With Charley, 1961

Steinbeck’s description of a glacier-like I-5 cutting through the city is an apt simile for the impact the freeway had on Seattle's cityscape. In effect, its construction created an actual chasm that severed downtown from the First Hill/Capitol Hill neighborhoods to the east. When construction on the freeway was completed in 1966, many public-spirited Seattleites and King County officials began talking about constructing a “lid” over the portion of I-5 between Union and Seneca Streets to reconnect First Hill to Downtown. As with Gas Works Park, the city consulted with a renowned landscape architect. This time it was Lawrence Halprin, who had just published a book called Freeways in which he imagined new and innovative ways to regard the nation’s traffic architecture.  

Along with project designer Angela Danadjieva, Halprin created the highly innovative (and first of its kind) Freeway Park. Seattle Parks and Recreation describes Freeway Park like this:

Located between 6th and 9th Avenues, Freeway Park is bounded on the north by Union and on the south by Spring Street. To the east is First Hill, to the west the park overlooks Seattle's financial center. Freeway Park provides a space where residents, shoppers, downtown office workers, hotel visitors and the whole array of people from all backgrounds who make up the downtown population may come together to enjoy the social elements of a city park. 

The park is accessible to the public at various points along its meandering length between Union and Seneca Streets. If you enter at 8th and Union (across from ACT Theatre and the Convention Center) you climb a stone stairway, begin walking through a series of concrete steps, pass small manicured gardens, and eventually find yourself on the “lid” atop the I-5. Start walking south and enjoy all the nooks and crannies and maze-like structures that weave their way through the green spaces and fountains.

Canyon Waterfall at Freeway Park / The Evergreen Echo

When you make it to the park’s terminus at Seneca and 6th, you’re treated to its most delightful structure: the cascading “Canyon Waterfall.” The immense fountain is an excellent example of Brutalist architecture—an aesthetic that embraces building materials and structural elements over decorative design. In fact, the entire park with its mixture of board-formed concrete structures and northwest flora is an ever-changing, aesthetic experience of contrasting Brutalist structures with living, organic shapes. 

Freeway Park joined Gas Works Park on the National Registry of Historic Places in 2019.  It was also featured (again with Gas Works Park) on the 2016 PBS docu-series “10 Parks That Changed America” as an example of how “god-forsaken land can be transformed into serene spaces for city dwellers.” Freeway Park’s unique architecture has also earned it the distinction of being second on the list of best parkour locations in the world by the World Freerunning and Parkour Federation. Enjoy!