(23. April 2009, 10:42 by David Boe) ~ Dogs! People!Imagine Tacoma – Fawcett Fountain
Further to the my former feeble foray into Fountain reFlections, imagine restoring the historic Fawcett Fountain to working order along with providing some design enhancements to the surrounding Fireman’s Park Courtyard:
Click to Enlarge
Level the Lawn:
Bring the lawn down to the sidewalk within the courtyard and provide good drainage so that the grass is sit-able (and usable for other possibilities beyond dog walking, etc…).
Trim the Shrubs:
Trim and limb the existing mature planting to remove scary dark spaces along the buildings – along with organizing the surrounding streetscape furniture and street trees.
Remove the Parking along Court A:
Is this supposed to be a park or a landscaped parking lot? Why not keep the Court A through-access but remove the vehicle parking from ‘within’ the park itself. This allows Fireman’s Park to continue through without feeling like you have stumbled into a private parking lot.
Restore the View to The Tide Flats:
Remove the scrub trees and lower the security fence further down the slope (ala the olde English Manor House ‘Ha-Ha’ trick)). Now you have a long distance view over the top of the fence from within the park – views to the Tide Flats and a future Cheney Stadium on the Foss.
Increase the Pedestrian Connection:
The ‘obvious’ route from anyone using the bLINK to this part of Downtown is to cross Pacific Avenue at the south leg of South 7th Street (where there are currently signs indicating no pedestrian crossing (?!) – so everyone just jaywalks between the angled parking stalls – not good). Imagine adding traffic calming center islands and a painted crosswalk. Hey – while we are at it why not paint all the crosswalks! I think incorporating some traffic calming devices to slow the traffic down to the posted 25mph might not be a bad thing at this Gateway to Downtown.
So – anyone interested in looking at options for a community overlay enhancement to the rest of Fireman’s Park?
David Boe has been the Principal Architect for BOE architects in downtown Tacoma for the past 13 years. David's kept married to his best friend for the past 27 years and he writes for us because it's cheaper than therapy. He avoids jelly beans or candy canes but will get up close and personal with chocolate chip cookies anytime.
Commenting Is Closed
Comments are allowed for two weeks from the posted date. If you want to make a comment or reopen this discussion, please contact us with your request. Thank you for visiting.
I had never realized that those two patches of land were part of the same park. I thought that the piece fronting Pacific Ave was just an incidental chunk of grass because there wasn’t a building there.
Great concept.
1 | Posted by Christine | Apr 24, 09:49 AM
Commenting is closed for this article.
Exit133 is about Tacoma. It's about Politics, Civic Involvement, Urban Development, the Arts, and the many interests of our readers.
Do you want to see your message in this space? Become an Exit133 Advertiser!
A special THANK YOU to our Supporters like Dave St. for making Exit133 possible. Thank you.
