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Is it a park? Is it a bridge? Overlook Walk is both, and a key connection to the waterfront

Members of the media take in views from Seattle's Overlook Walk set to open Friday.
Freddy Monares
/
KNKX
Members of the media take in views from Seattle's Overlook Walk set to open Friday.

The City of Seattle is set to celebrate the opening of its new walkway that connects Pike Place Market to the waterfront.

The Overlook Walk is a 60,000 sq. ft. park that allows people to get from Pike Place Market to the waterfront without dealing with vehicle traffic.

The new park features trees and plants that you typically see in the mountains around Seattle. There's different levels of stadium-style seating and a space for a café. Almost anywhere you stand on the walkway provides a great view of Seattle's skyline, Puget Sound and, on a clear day, Mount Rainier.

Joy Shigaki is president of Friends of Waterfront Park, which will manage the park. She said she hopes the elevated space brings locals and tourists back to the downtown area.

"We need to incentivize people to have a different experience to come back," Shigaki said during a media preview tour on Wednesday. "It's not going to come back in the same way with people in offices, but we are going to come back because people should be able to see themselves in this extraordinary downtown park."

Friends of the Waterfront Park partnered with The City of Seattle and Seattle Center on the project.

Seattle Center Director Marshall Foster said the space provides an ADA compliant pathway, making it easier for people to get around.

"So for all users — all abilities — to connect down between these in a way that the topography of the city has never allowed people to do," Foster said.

Angela Brady, director of Seattle's Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects, said she gets emotional when she talks about the project she's been working on for the past 13 years. All of this got started around the same time her daughter was born.

"I'm just really proud of the space that we're building out here for Seattle," Brady said.

The project is part of a major overhaul of the city's waterfront. It's being touted as the city's largest collection of civic projects since the 1962 World’s Fair, which brought attractions like the Space Needle.

The Overlook Walk is set to open Friday, October 4 at 4:30 p.m. with a celebration that includes music, food, and arts and crafts. KNKX's Abe Beeson will provide the soundtrack for the celebration.

Freddy Monares has covered politics, housing inequalities and Native American communities for a newspaper and a public radio station in Montana. He grew up in East Los Angeles, California, and moved to Missoula, Montana, in 2015 with the goal of growing in his career. Get in touch at fmonares@knkx.org.