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Submitted by:
Tyler, University of Washington

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Submitted by:
mseattle, Seattle

EMERALD KINGDOM
EMERALD KINGDOM is a proposal for a multi purpose facility that will either replace or enclosed the Key Arena. The kingdom will have a revamped or new Key Arena, 5 -Star Hotel, new indoor Fun Forest, retail space, and a revolutionary forest museum.

THE NAME
EK is the Kingdom of Emerald City. It will create the ultimate green experience.

ICONIC AND SYMBOLIC
The Emerald Kingdom will become a symbol of hope for our future and a beacon of light to our citizens through its presence and protection.

Skyline
-Emerald Kingdom will add much needed depth and intensity to Seattle Skyline.
-Designed like a mountain to reflect, Washington’s most prized jewel, Mt Rainer.

3 E’s (Elements of Life)
-Education- Revolutionary interactive forest museum
-Environment-indoor green space and secret garden.
-Entertainment- revamped arena, and Indoor theme park (New Fun Forest)

Submitted by:
Levi, Sonoji Sakai Intermediate School, Bainbridge Island

Submitted by:
Joshua J., Seattle

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Submitted by:

Robert Houser, Seattle

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Submitted by: Shania & Kela
Greenwood Elementary School, Seattle

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Submitted by: Gregory M. (age 12)
North Bend

Submitted by a Snoqualmie Middle School sixth grader.

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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.

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Submitted by: Kelsey Sobczak
Northshore Junior High, Bothell

The “coffee circle” would be located near International Fountain within an expanse of native landscaping.

Submitted by:
Thomas Repass, Chiang Mai, Thailand

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Submitted by:
brgallag, Seattle

The presentation begins with an overarching urban analysis of Seattle as it pertains to Seattle Center. This analysis begins with the founded idea that there will, in the near future, be an intense densification of north downtown and South Lake Union pushing towards Seattle Center (slide 2). It then includes an investigation into uses around the city relating to uses that might be included as part of the Seattle Center campus with the intention of synergizing with this densification including, as examples, education, transportation (Seattle Center as a future transportation hub), sports complexes, parks (Seattle center as a continuation of Olmsted’s green ring and blue ring, slide 7), and the like (slides 3-6).

After the Urban Analysis stage of the project, the presentation moves to an insight as to the current strengths and weaknesses of the campus (slides 8, 9). It is from these strengths and weaknesses that a design concept for the campus can be formed.

But first, case studies are used to understand how other current design strategies with similar implications have approached these issues (slides 10-12).

The concept then evolves into that of a “permeable ring” through which a variety of uses are programmed to activate the site over a 24 hour period, the site is defined as a campus through a defined border, and this border is elevated and penetrable allowing a permeability through the campus from all sides. This ring allows densification at the edge of the campus creating an interface to the densification brought on by the city, additionally allowing an expansive, forested green space in the center. (slides 13-15).

Coordinated with the master planning design approach, the project then moves into a more architectural solution of the Center House as a campus hub serving as a creativity hub to the city. Programmatically from top to bottom, the Center House is broken down into artists lofts, moving down to shared art studios, then multimedia centers for film and other digital media, and finally towards the more public zones at ground level, display galleries and a more formal museum. The idea is that the program is a gradation from creation to demonstration or sharing of creativity. (slides 42-50)

Architecturally, as a building, the design is all about directionality and moving people through the ring from the city to the campus or vice versa.

Submitted by:
Howard Carson, Seattle

I would like to see the Seattle Center to be an all weather facility, so not having a Center House would take away usability during cold and/or wet days. In keeping with previously stated ideas, I see an inside looking out Center House with the food vendors (all local, no national franchises) in the center. Upper floors will be for a new home for the Children's Museum, Education, and Administration; as well as a rooftop public garden and restaurant. As a centerpiece I see two glass "Bubblators" similar to the elevators on the "La Defence" arch in Paris (see image in document). The outside glass will be lit up at night to glow in varied colors - maybe even to the beat of the same music that the International Fountain moves to.

In place of the Fun Forest I see a grassy area that will include an enclosed play tower that connects via bridge to the Center House (themed on the game Chutes and Ladders), a Splash Park for warm weather much like the one on Granville Island in Vancouver BC, and in the reflection of the Purple Haze wall on the EMP there should be an Interactive Sculpture Garden where all are encouraged to touch, climb, and play.

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Submitted by:
RT Brokerage Services, Seattle

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Submitted by:
Miki Mann, Bellevue

epiCenter Seattle

From Boeing to Microsoft to Biotech, the Seattle region impacts the world. As the world flattens, new locations (“epiCenters”) will arise; regions around the world with global impact. epiCenter Seattle is strategy to respond to the local context while becoming a focal point of epiCenters around the world.