King5: The first park in the world to be built on top of a freeway will be preserved for years to come.
SEATTLE — Seattle’s Freeway Park was honored on Dec. 19, 2019 by officially getting added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The first park in the world to be built on top of a freeway, Freeway Park completed construction in 1976 under the direction of Angela Danadjieva and Halprin architects, and has served as a means of connecting two sides of I-5.
NRHP designation comes as the Washington State Convention Center moves forward with plans to expand around the park. Proponents hope the designation will help head an effort to rehabilitate the area, which has suffered from deferred maintenance requests and was recently awarded $1 million in a Seattle Capital Improvements grant
Freeway Park covers approximately five acres of land and has been host to a variety of events over the years, including concerts and Seattle Public Library mobile book stands.
In a statement, The Cultural Landscape Foundation expressed delight in seeing the first Halprin project recognized.
“We are delighted to see that Halprin’s revolutionary design has now been recognized in the National Register of Historic Places, earning a distinction that has been afforded his other projects in Missouri, Oregon, and Texas,” TCLF’s president and CEO Charles Birnbaum said. “As the progenitor of a typology, and a seminal work in a career that spanned 60 years, Freeway Park is now undergoing a program of restoration and rehabilitation, and we look forward to the day when this Seattle neighborhood park is further elevated to the status of a National Historic Landmark—a distinction that, to date, no other Halprin landscape can boast.”
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