Growing Vine Street is an inspirational concept developed back in the ’90′s by a group of Belltown neighborhood residents in downtown Seattle that revolves around expanding the Belltown P-Patch and merging it with the idea of turning the 8 blocks of Vine Street into a green street that would provide public access to the waterfront. These blocks are intended to act as an example for urban greening, to provide a desireable setting for pedestrians within the streetscape while capturing and treating stormwater through biofiltration and enhancing natural habitat.

The plan, via growinvinestreet.org:

“Central to the Growing Vine Street concept is the runnel, an urban stream running the street’s entire eight-block length surrounded by native greenery. Storm runoff from the roofs of buildings bordering Vine will be collected in large cisterns in each block to supply the water for the stream. As the water flows through the plantings lining the watercourse, it will be treated through the process of biofiltration, which will remove many of its impurities so that it will be clean enough to be released directly into Elliott Bay-without passing through the City’s overworked water treatment facilities.”

“Between Fifth Avenue and First Avenue, Vine Street is relatively level. In this section, the public right-of-way will be reconfigured so that one side is narrow (with a sidewalk and narrow planting strip) and the other is wide. The runnel will meander through the wide side of the street, surrounded by as much greenery as developers and residents can manage. These wide segments will form a refreshing linear park, a setting for creative public art as well as nature.”

“At First Avenue, Vine Street slopes to Elliott Avenue, where it again levels out. Here the street right-of-way will be reconfigured in a switchback alignment to allow for more dramatic water features. One such project is the Cistern Steps adjacent to the Belltown P-Patch. The Cistern Steps is planned as a series of terraced planting areas stepping down the slope. Water from the runnel will flow into the top garden, overflow into the next, and continue to a small pool at Elliott Avenue.”

The entire length of Vine Street was not intended to be built all at once but rather incrementally as new development occurs with each segment connecting into the larger plan over time. So far, two of the planned projects have been completed, the first was the Beckoning Cistern in 2003 which went in as part of the development of The 81 Vine Building. This is the first of what is planned as at least one large cistern for every block to collect rooftop runoff. The next project to follow was the Cistern Steps in 2004, the cascading water feature that runs alongside a flowing set of stairs along the edge of the Belltown P-Patch. Eventhough the entire plan has not yet been completed, the project is seen as a success, has brought about a great deal of praise and is looked upon as one of the pioneer projects of the Seattle green streets.

Beckoning Cistern
The first project to emerge from the plan, the streetscape and artwork of the Beckoning Cistern were constructed along with work at The 81 Vine Building. Local designer Buster Simpson saw inspiration from Michelangelo’s painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Like Adam reaching out to touch the hand of God, the 10-foot tall cistern is designed like a hand that reaches out over the sidewalk from a shirt sleeve and towards the downspout which leans out from the building.

The connection from the downspout to the index finger allows some of the rooftop runoff to run into the cistern with the rest cascading over and down into the water garden and series of stepped pools that run along the sidewalk along with native vegetation. A smaller vertical pipe garden also runs up the side of the building.

The Cistern Steps
The steps are an extension of the Beckoning Cistern that flow the two blocks from it’s base and alongside the Belltown P-Patch down towards the waterfront. Seattle-based firm SvR Design, an integrated group of civil engineers, landscape architects and planners provided the streetscape and stormwater design for this dramatic cascade of stormwater terraces and pedestrian steps.

“The Cistern Steps consists of a series of three terraced concrete planters tapering from a wide plaza at the alley to the narrow sidewalk right-of-way at the intersection of Vine Street and Elliott Avenue. The runnel will flow from planter to planter, ending in a pool formed from a large, rough-hewn piece of Northwest jade at the foot of the slope. In this segment of Vine Street, there is no adjacent building to feed the runnel, so water will be received from the newly constructed Vine Building across the street, which was designed with a special collection system for roof runoff just to supply the runnel.”

“Like the Beckoning Cistern, the Cistern Steps has been designed to delight pedestrians as well as to process and use roof runoff in an ecological manner. The water gardens of the planters will echo the lush greenery of the adjacent Belltown P-Patch. Even more color will be added with inlaid tile signage on the plaza walls at the alley and on the risers of the steps in the sidewalk passing between the P-Patch and the Cistern Steps. Even the stair railings will be works of art forged by Belltown’s own Black Dog Forge.”

photos (c) Lisa Town, concept graphics via growingvinestreet.org

SvR Design is also the firm responsible for the Thornton Creek Water Quality Channel previously posted about here and with an update after a rain event with pictures here.

In late May, Seattle’s Mayor Greg Nickels unveiled a new idea for Bell Street between 1st and 5th Avenue, the idea for a transformation into an urban park boulevard. While the street currently carries the city’s green street designation, it isn’t much of a green street at all as it is under landscaped and doesn’t carry a pedestrian-friendly atmosphere. But this proposal would seek to not only move towards a more true complete green street, but to create a much more grand gesture in Seattle’s densest neighborhood that currently has a severe shortage of green space.

The proposal would mean that Bell Street would lose one travel lane and one lane of on-street parking in exchange for the much larger 26′ pedestrian space on the north side. While this would mean less parking for residents and businesses, the idea is that the trade off would be worth it in the stronger connection from the waterfront to the Belltown neighborhood, increased pedestrian activity that would help to discourage crime. And by trasferring the jurisdiction of the area to the Parks Department would allow for a much higher level of maintenance including a higher level of patrol and the ability to issue park exclusions from the Seattle Parks and Recreation’s urban park rangers and the West Precinct police officers.

Improvements to the area would include such things as new lighting for safe and well-lit sidewalks, more trees and natural vegetation, swales, vegetation in the right of way on the south side to collect and clean rainwater and larger areas for outdoor seating and cafe-style eating along with children’s play areas and perhaps even a plaza and space for a water feature. If approved, each block would be designed in close collaboration with the community this fall.

The most interesting and ingenious part about the proposal is that, according to the Seattle Times, “Work on the park boulevard could piggyback on a current City Light project to replace utilities beneath the street — which requires tearing up the sidewalk anyway, said Norm Schwab, legislative analyst for the city. He said the proposal is a creative, inexpensive way to put in a downtown park, where land costs can run $300 to $350 a square foot. Since the Bell Street section is already owned by the city, it wouldn’t have to pay for the land. Instead, about $150 a square foot would go solely to developing the park.”

The proposal for the new 17,000 square feet of urban park space would need to use $2.5 million from the $146 million Parks and Green Spaces Levy approved by voters in 2008 and be completed in 2010. The City Council is scheduled to vote on Monday regarding the decision to spend the money for the new park boulevard.

images via Seattle Post Globe

Last week was really good, my friend and colleague from Mexico City, Miguel, was visiting for the week and we made our way all around Portland and even spent a day in Seattle.  It had been 5 years since he was last in the northwest so there was plenty to see.  We took the max in to the downtown core then spent the day on public transit or walking.  I hate seeing a city by driving and parking, walking and public transit it the only way to get a good feel of how a city is really connected.

We started off with the south waterfront district in Portland which was an area both of us had done some past work.  We entered the area via the streetcar and that was when I learned something that amazingly I hadn’t picked up on before.  The flowers on Pear trees have a terribly funky smell!  I’ve always noticed the smell and would wonder where it was coming from but never before associated it with a tree.  Good to know…

Back when he was here, none of the current tall buildings existed and now the district is really starting to take shape.  Even a neighborhood park is under construction, designed by Hargreaves Associates, with construction expected to be complete in August with the full park open in October after the lawn has been established.

First stop on the list was to check out the OHSU roof gardens.  There are two of them and now I can’t remember what floors they ended up being on because it took us a couple tries till we located the right one.  I just remember it was off the plastic surgery floor.  One of the trippiest things about the roof is that the aerial tram flies right by.

The roof garden itself was set on a grid with concrete pavers, corten steel framed raised planter boxes and wood benches.  The boxes for the trees were quite large and Miguel said were originally intended to have bigger trees than what ended up going in.  With the 12 inches below and then the 36 inches raised above, that is a lot of soil.  

Unfortunately the roof garden is almost always completely covered in shade which doesn’t make it terribly inviting, even on sunny days like the day we were there.  But perhaps in the summertime during hotter weather this area is more inviting.  I love the Black Mondo Grass.

On our way over to check out the Meriwether, we passed a surface parking lot that was completely curbless.  The only trouble is that in some areas, the asphalt was crumbling into the planted areas.

We made it in to see the inner courtyard of the Meriwether which was fairly simple with hardscape and planters and a simple water feature.  But the best part is actually outside where the townhouses open right up onto the pedestrian street.  Here the stormwater is collected into planters…

A natural river-like feature runs under the wood bridges that lead up to some of the residents’ units.