ALLIED ARTS :: QUALITY OF URBAN LIFE

Monorail Position

May 2, 2004
Seattle City Council
City Hall, Floor 2
600 Fourth Avenue
Seattle WA 98124-4025

     As you deliberate the alignment and transit way proposals for the Seattle monorail project, Allied Arts strongly encourages you to consider the far reaching and permanent ramifications the proposed infrastructure will have on our city. Please keep in mind that this project is on par with the Viaduct and I-5 in terms of impact. Based on our review of the Seattle Monorail Project’s proposed Green Line, we offer you this set of concerns regarding the effects of the monorail on our city, as well as recommendations on how to mitigate those consequences and improve the overall result.

We also feel pressed to take issue with the decision-making process and timelines requested by the SMP. Since it is your charge to authorize the readiness of the monorail’s design, budget, timeline and fiscal solvency on behalf of the people of Seattle, you should not be rushed to approve the SMP plan without complete confidence in its soundness – is this plan truly the very best we are capable of? If the answer is anything short of an unequivocal yes, there is more work to be done.

Our primary concern is design and planning. We strongly believe that you have not yet been given adequate information or time to access the merits and pitfalls of the proposed monorail plan or to develop the confidence that the monorail will, in its current iteration, contribute more to the quality of our streets and neighborhoods than to their blight. We therefore urge you to postpone approval of the alignment and transit way agreements until the concerns and recommendations detailed below are addressed and resolved. In addition, we firmly believe that all Council approvals must be contingent on review and acceptance of the final designs being developed by the construction contractors.

The following are our concerns and suggestions regarding the proposed Green Line:

International Fountain Route
The Monorail should not go through the International Fountain. The Fountain is an international destination and local treasure. It is arguably Seattle’s living room. It is often a quiet and contemplative place, as evidenced by its use following 9/11 when Northwesterners gathered for three consecutive days of reflection, connection and empowerment. The Fountain is also “the people’s theater.” It is where Bumbershoot, Folklife and Bite of Seattle, among others, hold their festivals for all people. Though no one person “owns” the Fountain, inasmuch as other theaters have rightly said they do not want the Monorail disturbing their productions, so to should the thousands who visit and cherish the Fountain have the right to expect minimal disturbance of their public theater.

The City and SMP must locate the monorail on Mercer Street. Mercer is already a transportation corridor and is of the appropriate scale to accommodate the monorail infrastructure. Even if Mercer becomes a two-direction road, it is far more capable of handling the monorail than is the Center. Clearly, the theaters at the Center do not truly value Mercer Street in its current form, as evidenced by their architectural solutions, all of which turn their back on the street, including the newly constructed Opera House. A Mercer alignment could only improve that street, inspiring the development of additional housing and community infrastructure.

5th Avenue Skybridge
A skybridge from the 5th and Virginia Station to Westlake Mall would cause significant harm to downtown Seattle and must be eliminated. City after city has learned the hard way that skybridges hurt downtown neighborhoods. They remove people from the street and segregate them from the neighborhoods below. As a community, Seattle has addressed this question at length and has concluded a strong preference against skybridges. Additionally, this particular proposal orients the skybridge in the north-south direction, parallel to and directly above the sidewalk. This is an unprecedented alignment more akin to an elevated, private viaduct than a skybridge. It will literally starve the sidewalk below of sunlight, pedestrians and vitality.

The City and the SMP must focus on the opportunity here to enliven and expand the Westlake retail core and encourage an increased volume of people walking on downtown sidewalks. If the cost of the 750+ foot long skybridge were applied to pedestrian-friendly connections in and around Westlake, such as awnings, signage, lighting, paving, street furniture and improved access from sidewalks to retail uses in Westlake Center, the neighborhood would surely become among the most pedestrian accessible zones downtown. This would be helpful to all businesses in the area, including Westlake Center, and result in improved public safety and a more enjoyable environment for commuters and visitors alike.

2nd Ave
The monorail fits awkwardly on 2nd Avenue at best. Because the character of this neighborhood is mature, the City and SMP must insist that the designs for the guideways and stations integrate seamlessly within the fabric of the street.
Since undergrounding the monorail through downtown, like the skytrain in Vancouver BC, is not under consideration, the utmost sensitivity and finesse must be employed along this avenue. The City and SMP must ensure that 1) the columns are made of steel, with excellent aesthetic design and minimal girth and footprint (due to its bulk, concrete cannot meet these standards) and 2) serious attention must be given to the quality of the streetscape below the guideways to ensure that people feel comfortable walking there and that grease, bird-droppings and storm water will not rain down on them from above. In addition, in order to maintain the avenue’s aesthetic integrity, the guideways should remain consistent in relation to the sidewalk and building facades and not meander east and west, nor up and down.

King Street Station
The King Street Station is a cherished icon to Seattleites and has deep historical significance. The monorail is currently routed right above the station’s front door on a very narrow Third Avenue (50 feet from building to building). This will overpower the stations public entrance and greatly detract from the historic significance that this building brings to the streetscape and the skyline.

Instead, the route should be moved to Fourth Avenue, already a major and wide transportation corridor for cars, trucks and rail, as well as the location of the backside of the station. Moving the route to Fourth Avenue will also enable the monorail station to be closer to the underground, joint-use light rail / bus tunnel. There is a precedent set by the SMP to adjust the alignment when compelling reasons exist; who can argue that this is not one such instance.

Ballard Bridge
The people’s connection to the water is one feature that distinguishes Seattle from other cities in the Northwest and America. All of Seattle’s waterways are within our neighborhoods and we must act to protect and enhance them as we develop our city. Historically, the bridges that span our waterways were notable, often inspiring civic pride. The University Bridge, the Montlake Bridge and the Fremont Bridge easily come to mind.

The proposed monorail bridge south of Ballard must rise to this level and inspire visitors and residents alike. If the legacy of this bridge is wholly utilitarian and cost-driven, the community’s price for the transit gains of the monorail will be lost now and on future generations. The City and SMP must ensure that the new “Ballard Bridge” is a landmark that Seattle can be proud of and not a scar on the Ballard, Queen Anne and Magnolia neighborhoods. The bridge must be slender, elegant and sculptural, not bulky, clumsy and industrial.

Harrison Street
Harrison Street’s urban-neighborhood characteristics require that significant finesse be applied to the redevelopment of the Harrison blocks. The loss of mature trees and imposition of a mechanical, transportation structure upon this narrow street will threaten the quality of life for both residents and the many Seattle Center visitors that use this neighborhood. The City and SMP must identify significant mitigation to assuage the impacts of this mechanism in this dense neighborhood.
Additionally, as the Northwest Rooms at Seattle Center are reconstructed to incorporate the monorail station, careful attention must be given to make the Center more permeable and accessible at this location.

Transportation Hub Coordination
The City must ensure that the coordination among the monorail, Sound Transit, Metro, the ferries, Amtrak, bike and pedestrian corridors are thoroughly considered and that every opportunity to link these transportation modes is seized.
Our specific recommendation is that one major transportation hub be created – most likely at or near the King Street Station. Although Yesler and Westlake centers can provide supplemental transit integration, the King Street Station area offers the best transit links – including the best access to heavy rail and the ferries.

Pergolas
In order to protect pedestrians from the weather and direct them in an aesthetically enjoyable way toward other transportation modes, we urge the City and SMP to work with other transportation providers and landowners to consider the development of a network of glass covered walkways. Specifically, pergolas that connect the monorail to light-rail at King Street, Yesler and Westlake would provide clear way-finding for riders and enhance the cityscape simultaneously.

Excess Property Planning
In several areas of station development, the SMP will subsequently sell newly acquired land to developers. Monorail station placement will undoubtedly create significant increases in land value to these and adjacent prosperities. The City should ensure that the zoning for these improved parcels be leveraged to meet the concerns and interests of all citizens. Re-development of such parcels should go through the City’s design review process. The City should do all it can to ensure that the property uses in the vicinity of the stations benefit the quality of life for all people, not just investors.

Switches
Monorail guideway switches are inherently large, ungainly, utilitarian structures that will create streetscape conditions not unlike those below highway viaducts. In addition, switches are moving parts. The more moving parts in a system, the greater the likelihood of failure and the need for repair, which could compromise operational efficiency. This translates into higher maintenance costs – seemingly penny wise and pound-foolish. We therefore strongly recommend that the SMP build a dual-track system throughout the entire route as originally proposed.

DBOM Construction Methods
Many of the current plans for monorail station design are promising and, if brought to fruition, could provide an urban design benefit to Seattle. Our concern is that the DBOM contractors may not be required to actualize the plans that the designers and local communities have created. The City and SMP should require that the plans developed locally be fulfilled without significant revision at the discretion of the DBOM contractor, and that appropriate safeguards be put in place to measure and ensure compliance.

Conclusion –Design Excellence Must Be First Priority
Successfully and quietly integrating the monorail into our existing neighborhoods and mitigating the possible destructive consequences of erecting fourteen miles of elevated structures within the city center must be the City and the SMP’s first priority. A well planned, designed and constructed monorail could serve as a legacy, inspiring the development of mass transit in this region and illuminating the dreams of future generations that will inevitably live with and judge the consequences our actions. Conversely, a monorail designed and built with a primary focus on expedience and fiscal conservatism will undoubtedly result in irreversible design and planning errors and miscalculations, thereby discouraging the development of mass transit and creating a long-lasting scar on Seattle’s cityscape not unlike those caused by the Viaduct and I-5 corridor.

While we applaud the SMP’s stated goals – on time, under budget and excellent design – we also recognize the fact that these goals are difficult to achieve in the best of circumstances and inherently at odds with one another. If the SMP runs short of the revenue required to manifest excellent design, we strongly recommend that additional funds be raised, the route shortened and/or stations phased. Likewise, if the requirements of excellent route planning and mitigation prove at odds with the SMP’s timeline, then clearly it is the timeline that must yield.

Sincerely,

David Coleman AIA
Co-Chair, Urban Environment Committee, Allied Arts