Submitted by:
Mike Leavitt, Seattle

With an ambitious new plan for The Seattle Center, we need to use what we have, which also provides an opportunity to annex the on-site global icons. The EMP is a product of a world-famous architect, and the Space Needle is a transcendent international landmark. A "Statue of Fertility" will add to these unique landscapes, while providing an epic new space for a Children's Museum and all-ages music venue. The Vera Project's existing use of Seattle Center facilities will benefit greatly from this new venue. New playground and lounge-type structures will provide the space for play and relaxation, while incorporating the architectural elements of the EMP instead of isolating the strange structure.

"Green" developments like water-collection, living roofs, and solar panels are obvious additions, but the bigger picture of "green" construction must be addressed beyond the modest requirements of LEED standards. We cannot continue to waste and demolish enormous structures in Seattle while touting environmental construction practices. Both Memorial Stadium and Key Arena can be "re-used", more efficiently utilized with realistic renovations, and much more fluidly incorporated with the rest of Seattle Center. Larger tree canopies will create more of a public park, and opening the actual center of the Seattle Center grounds will serve the same purpose.

Since the failing of The Seattle Commons, we will likely never have the Central Park Seattle has always wanted. But we may not need such an ambitious park. The SAM Sculpture Park has been an amazing addition to our landscape, and its wide-open, sweeping slopes can be mimicked with Seattle Center re-scaping. We need not ignore the sustainable facilities the Seattle Center already offers, while some intelligent, modest and courageous improvements can create an more worldly, innovative, efficient, and functional public space.