Seattle Center, Inside Out

Turn the Venues Around!

A major problem with the Seattle Center is that many of the venues open onto the surrounding busy streets rather than onto the park/interior.

A simple change in pathways could solve a lot of this and provide more basis for interaction ... the substance of any park.

The other opportunity may be Seattle's lack of an art district. Pioneer Square is going, Fremont, Cap Hill, are long gone. Bell Town never did welcome the galleries.The Center could encourage commercial galleries to use space. Add in some magnet restaurants and the place would grow on its own.

The longer term issue is the need for city planning for the arts. Moving SAM and Benaroya to downtown was a bad move. The African American museum is beginning to like a castle built on a hill be some long lost community. On their own, these venues are not stimulating their neighborhoods and the synergy that could have been with the Mercer Complex, EMP, and Science Museum now can not happen. I am notgoptimistic about MOHAI on Lake Union.

There are, however, some other potential arts types that with $$ could move there. I would love to see the UW have a presence, probably in the form of a new Burke Museum. Seattle also seems odd in not having a real children's museum or a technology museum based on its signature industries. It is easy to imagine a fund raising effort to bring museums fopr Seattle's other ethnic groups to the Center.

Finally, IMHO the BEST event at SC is the weekly ethnic festival now sponsored by the now defunct Safeco. These would be easy to stimulate, perhaps moving similar festivals from other part of town there as well. Imagine the bone dance around the fountain!