News
City Partially Demolishes Gas Works Park
If you go by Gas Works Park you’ll see that demolition is underway. Last week, Historic Seattle sent a Call to Action alerting the public about the City of Seattle fast-tracking the demolition process of significant features on the iconic towers at Gas Works Park, determining the features pose some “imminent threat” to public safety.
We thank those of you who acted and made your voices heard by contacting the Mayor and City Council, telling them it’s not OK to treat Gas Works Park and other public landmarks as disposable impediments.
The City made an end run around the Landmarks Preservation Board and the Certificate of Approval process for landmarks.
Is this Seattle’s own East Wing? How did this happen? Learn more in our piece here. (Note: Our write-up was posted on April 20; the City started demolition April 28—the work will take up to two months.)
On April 24 we learned that this letter from the interim director of the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections was sent to the Landmarks Preservation Board on April 22 or 23, a full three weeks AFTER the Board’s April 1 public meeting explaining why the City sidestepped the Board’s authority. Three weeks?!
Historic Seattle and other advocates from the Gas Works Park Alliance have shared our concerns with the City that removal of the “appurtenances” not cause additional damage to the landmark. We do not wish to see the towers continue to deteriorate (as they have been for decades) under Seattle Parks and Recreation's ownership and expect SPR to be better stewards of the public landmark moving forward. Demolition-by-neglect is how we got here now. The Landmarks Preservation Board repeatedly asked for a long-term preservation master plan over the course of several public meetings. At the April 1 LPB meeting, SPR staff told the Board that they would work with the Gas Works Parks Alliance (of which Historic Seattle is a member) and others with expertise in historic industrial structures for long-term preservation and maintenance. We hope SPR will follow through with working with preservation stakeholders and be more responsive to our concerns.
Follow Feliks Banel as he documents the slow demolition of Gas Works Park in his Facebook posts called the Daily Gas.
Feliks has also been covering the issue in his Cascade of History podcasts.
April 29 Bonus Episode (Interview with Barbara Swift, Gas Works Parks Alliance)
April 22 Bonus Episode (Interview with Barbara Swift, Gas Works Parks Alliance)
April 13 Bonus Episode (Interview with Historic Seattle’s Eugenia Woo)
Return to News
