Friends had the distinct pleasure of hosting local artist and writer Barbara Earl Thomas at a recent gathering at Waterfront Space, where she shared her essay “Winter Fishing.” The ideas that came through Barbara’s reading remind us that as a waterfront city, our connection to the water is both physical and psychic. A community’s proximity to the water: its ecosystems its industry and function, and its ever-shifting state of being, fuse people to its constant rhythms.  

In addition to exhibiting her artwork at such institutions as Seattle Art Museum and Tacoma Art Museum, Barbara’s written work has appeared in such publications as RavenChronicles, A Single Mother’sCompanion, and Never Late for Heaven: The Art of Gwen Knight.

“Winter Fishing” captures Barbara’s childhood memories of the communion found in journeying to Magnolia Bluff’s edge with her family to catch and release fish. It is a beautiful reminder of the role our shoreline plays in shaping our bonds with nature, each other, and our individual identities. Barbara has generously allowed us to share the below excerpt with you. Please follow the link to learn more about her and her work, here.

"On winter days, perched above Puget Sound, I can smell the salt in the air.  It sticks to my skin like sweat.  The ground, like the air, is heavy with dampness, seeping out moisture that soaks up through my clothing, chilling skin and bones until my body is so numb that it moves like cold rubber.

Moving along the path, the sodden earth gives way under my feet.  My eyes glimpse the cliff’s edge.  I have inherited my father’s fear of heights and, for an instant, I am transfixed.  I don’t know if it’s the edge that fascinates me, or the mystery held in the distance between the edge and the watery drop below.  All I know is that I feel an urge to jump.  In the space of one step, I imagine myself falling, air leaving my body as my stomach lurches upward into my throat.  It’s a curious sensation of lusty fear.  It’s an excitement, the thought of which makes me queasy.  Heart pounding, I continue to walk along with my family, in silence.

The place we find is a circular, grassy promontory facing west.  Planting ourselves, poles unfurl.  Each one of us takes up position on the ground where the earth, molding itself to our bottoms, will hold us.  And there we will sit, waiting through long, uninterrupted spells broken only by a request to pass the bait, or a comment on what looks like a bite.

There is something about these old people in my family that allows them to sit for long periods in Buddha-like positions, breathing silently into the overcast fog, fingers molded close around a pole, waiting for a fish to bite.  To wait well is to survive the space inhabited by hope, desire, fear, dread, and want, like waiting for a lover to return from the sea, or for something good to happen in your life.  Theirs is a quiet, enduring reserve, one not to be explained, but lived. One that bares at its center a secret that is earned through long hours of practice, forged by concentration and will – like the forces of persistence that bring them here.

“To create architecture in the city is to build places and give life to ‘time’ (i.e. past, present, and future).” - Fumihiko Maki 

We are so excited about the vision of the completed waterfront project already underway with construction of the new Elliott Bay seawall. However, projects of this scale take years, which is why Friends of Waterfront Seattle began to think “what could happen NOW to bring change and excitement to the waterfront with an eye towards the future?”

Friends partnered with the University of Washington (UW) School of Architecture and formed the Hot Spot master studio with professor Peter Cohan to generate ideas for interventions on the waterfront, develop those ideas, and come up with a design for a pavilion/community magnet that will be fabricated by the UW graduate students throughout spring 2015, and installed in the existing Waterfront Park this summer.  The pavilion will transform the space, provide shelter from weather, be a platform for exciting programming such as music and dance performances, and will feature wi-fi access so we expect to see a lot of people working outside in Waterfront Park during sunny summer days. It is interesting to note that the origin of the word “pavilion” comes from the Latin “papilonem” meaning “butterfly” - a symbol of transformation and exciting change. Check out some pavilion designs from around the world here for more inspiration.

The design process for the Hot Spot pavilion began with all 15 students quickly brainstorming ideas for the site, then the students split into 4 groups based on common themes and approaches. Once these projects were developed Friends of Waterfront Seattle and its partners chose one design to be built. Over the next quarter professor Kimo Griggs will lead students in refining the final design, construction documentation, fabrication, and building processes, providing students the valuable experience of creating something that is built for the real world. As a former student of the UW College of Built Environments I also participated in a design-build studio and learned so much from the process of making (street furniture on the UW campus) that I could not have learned through the theoretical projects typical of design education.

The chosen design, dubbed “The Edge”, is a long structure with a translucent roof that will cross the existing concrete wall at the Waterfront Park, symbolic of tearing down the Viaduct that has divided Seattle from our picturesque waterfront for so long. I was really impressed with how thought out their design was, from the simplicity of the fabrication to the way they would transport the pieces to the site, to the vision for a colored light installation on the roof and ideas for how the pavilion could be home to events. 

Friends of Waterfront Seattle is happy to feature an exhibit of Hot Spot with beautiful models and images made by the students in Waterfront Space. 

Jordan Monez is a multi-disciplinary designer with degrees in Architecture and Landscape Architecture. Recently she worked as a one of the designers and cartographers for the Burke Museum's Waterlines map of pre-1850 Seattle and in the summer of 2015 she will be an artist in the Duwamish Revealed exhibition and with 4Culture Historic Site Specific. Jordan was active in the early Waterfront Seattle community participation events and loves to share the Waterfront project with visitors as a Guide at Waterfront Space. In her spare time she enjoys gardening, exploring the beautiful Pacific Northwest, and volunteering as a docent at the Olympic Sculpture Park.

Friends, there are so many reasons to get excited about Waterfront Seattle and we look forward to highlighting our grounds for joy with a series of different perspectives and insights from Friends of Waterfront Seattle.

Sitting, thinking about the city’s central waterfront, it’s hard not to appreciate the gribble creatures who have eaten away at our existing Elliott Bay Seawall, forcing us to confront its replacement, and also the once-in-a-generation opportunity this affords us. The impending repairs paved the way to the reimagining of the shoreline’s potential and subsequently how to secure its identity in Seattle’s future. It was crucial for the waterfront to mature and to propel it into a place of pride, a place that citizens and visitors alike could enjoy; a courageous design that could expose the beauty and context of the city.

The Olmsted brothers, who worked in the early 1900s, believed in creating a chain of parks for Seattle and wrote that the "primary aim should be to secure and preserve for the use of the people as much as possible of these advantages of water and mountain views and of woodlands, well distributed and conveniently located."

Waterfront Seattle complements and enhances the broader network of historic parks envisioned by the Olmsted Brothers, representing a new chapter of honoring the natural beauty that surrounds our City. It opens the Waterfront in new ways, asserting its accessibility, stimulating opportunities for nature to return to the city, forging a clearer connection between downtown and its water’s edge and a more inviting setting for civic happenings. It will allow the Waterfront to have a sense of place and soften the edges of the city so to speak. As a result of the increased open space, the Elliott Bay shoreline will nurture a pedestrianized density and become a place of leisure, recreation, culture, education, but most importantly, a place of community.

Seattle, we have a bright trajectory and yes in the words of The Pointer Sisters, “lets get excited”!

More information on the history of the Olmsted’s vision for Seattle public parks can be found here.

Liat Uziyel-Bollag moved to Seattle in 2008 from Zurich where she was working in academia teaching architecture and urban design at the university ETHZ. She has worked in architectural firms and freelance both in Switzerland and in the U.K. Brought up and educated in London but with roots spreading over several countries, Liat has lived in and visited a vast range of places. She has a passion for art and design, for urban culture and cities, cooking, and of course spending time outdoors with her family.

Image taken by Maggie Smith