Partner Release:                                                                   

Contact:          Karen O’Connor, 206-233-7929
                        karen.oconnor@seattle.gov

Seattle Parks and Recreation and the Seattle Housing Authority invite the community to celebrate the new Yesler Terrace Park on Saturday, August 25, 2018, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. This new park provides a much-needed outdoor community gathering place and is located at 835 Yesler Way, immediately adjacent to Yesler Community Center. At noon there will be an official dedication ceremony. Over the entire celebration Yesler Terrace Park will be filled with music, art, and food trucks. The Seattle Sounders’ RAVE Foundation will sponsor activities at the soccer field, and the Seattle University men’s basketball team will be hosting activities at the basketball court. Community-driven activities will continue until 7 p.m. with a neighborhood movie night at 8 p.m.

With sweeping views to downtown, Elliott Bay and Mount Rainier, Yesler Terrace Park is the new heart of the Yesler neighborhood. The park offers something for everyone in its two-acre footprint. An expansive plaza can accommodate community events, while providing a variety of smaller-scale spaces for gathering and play.

Taking advantage of the site’s topography, the playground below the plaza includes play structures that straddle the grade change and a slope for climbing up and sliding down. Sports amenities include a soccer field that was developed in partnership with the RAVE Foundation and a basketball court. 

“We are so happy to be opening this new park that truly reflects our values of healthy people, healthy environment and strong communities. The design team collaborated closely with this diverse neighborhood and held many listening sessions to create a community-inspired park,” said Christopher Williams, Seattle Parks and Recreation Interim Superintendent. “We listened and heard that the community wanted small and large gathering areas plus active recreation spaces. Yesler Terrace Park delivers all this. This park is a great collaboration with the community and the Seattle Housing Authority.” 

“Opening the new Yesler Terrace Park represents a major milestone in the redevelopment of Yesler into a model new mixed-income community with a significant increase in affordable and other housing for Seattle,” said Andrew Lofton, Executive Director of the Seattle Housing Authority. “The park will inspire and enable healthy living, and will provide an important civic gathering place for residents, neighbors from the surrounding areas and visitors from within and outside of Seattle to connect with each other.  It is truly a jewel for the city.”

In addition, the multi-layered stone sculptures in the park by artist Christine Bourdette are inspired by the rich diversity of communities and cultural experience in the neighborhood. Towers of Burble, the spraypark sculptures in the central water feature, and Conversation Clusters the sculptural seating areas throughout the park, derive from the shapes of vessels, baskets, and stools from the cultural traditions of those who have migrated to this neighborhood. The artwork is funded by Seattle Parks and Recreation’s 1% for Arts Funds and administered by the Office of Arts and Culture.

The new park is the result of a successful partnership with Seattle Housing Authority and public-private donations that include Seattle Parks Foundation, RAVE Foundation (the official charitable arm of the Seattle Sounders), Wyncote Foundation Northwest, Pendleton and Elisabeth Carey Miller Charitable Foundation, The Community Parks Fund, Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office, and the Office of Arts and Culture. Local landscape architecture firm, Site Workshop, designed the project, and Seattle Parks and Recreation awarded the construction contract to Wyser Construction.

For more information about the project and event please visit http://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/yesler-terrace-park or contact Karen O’Connor at karen.oconnor@seattle.gov or 206-233-7929.