Public stairways have a hard life. They are often overgrown sites for criminal activity, like graffiti, illegal dumping, drug and alcohol use, and prostitution. Most have streetlamp problems, making them dark, uninviting, threatening.
New light is shining on four of Beacon Hill's stairways.
The Beacon Ridge Improvement Community (BRIC) recently received a $15,000 Small and Simple planning grant from Seattle's Department of Neighborhoods for design work to improve the Holgate, Hill, and Walker steps between 16th and 17th Avenues South, and the Walker stairway between 17th and 18th Avenues.
Last Saturday, the Beacon Ridge Stairway Improvement Project kicked off a well-attended workshop at the top of the South Hill Street stairs. Some three-dozen neighbors gathered to build a future for these passageways.
"We had to make an effort to connect neighbors above and below the stairs," David Gackenbach said. "Once that happened, it really got the project going."
The grant allowed the hiring of a professional design team to help guide reconstruction. The community settled on Barker Landscape Architects, with a solid background of completing significant community projects throughout Washington state, including one of the South End's hallmark p-patches, Bradner Gardens.
John Barker, the firm's principal landscape architect, participated in the Saturday workshop. "How perfect this is," he said, describing the sunny, late summer morning and the event. "This is why the Neighborhood Matching Fund is such a success."
"We're focusing on a combination of beautification and safety," explained Nick Anderson, who lives near Holgate, adding the stairs could become areas that kids can enjoy.
Why do these stairways need attention? Rebecca Bloom described her first impression. "They were scary, moss covered, dark. They were very neglected."
The neighbors broke up into three groups for each series of stairs to brainstorm. Suggestions fit into three categories: physical improvement, artistic consideration, and landscaping.
Among recommended physical improvements are formalized entrance features, like benches, picnic tables, kiosks, water fountains, and exercise and play equipment. Several people emphasized improved lighting, especially in the middle of the stairs. One group proposed diverting rainwater over rock ways called swales to prevent silt from clogging drains on 17th Avenue.
Vicki Grayland, a professional photographer who lives downhill from 17th Avenue, said, "I'm excited about artistic possibilities. Thinking about the artistic history of Seattle and the emphasis on glass art, we could incorporate pillars with glass accents, perhaps working with students from Pratt."
The Pratt Fine Arts Center, in the Rainier Valley, is a resource center for glass arts and other media. Further ideas for unifying themes include traditional Japanese gardens with aesthetically placed boulders, and statues by a local sculptor. Tiles designed and made by students at Beacon Hill Elementary were also proposed.
Nearly everyone commented on reclaiming the environment around the stairs, replacing invasive species like English ivy and blackberries with native groundcover, flowering plants, ferns, and decorative grasses. One neighbor advocated the Holgate design include educational displays about native wildlife, which was echoed by a Hill Street resident who wants to encourage bird habitat. "We want to preserve these species," Nick Anderson observed.
Two other workshops are scheduled for Beacon Elementary School, on Oct. 17 and Nov. 14, from 7-9 p.m., when the initial recommendations from last Saturday's workshop will be presented and refined. "The planning process will be done in November," David Gackenbach explained. Next summer, implementation will begin.
This project dovetails with a citywide emphasis on improving public stairs by the Seattle Department of Transportation. In spring, SDOT crews performed essential restoration on these four stairways, repositioning risers, pouring new concrete retaining curbs to improve drainage, and cutting back overgrowth. All of Beacon Hill's nine pedestrian right-of-ways are located on blocks too steep for vehicles, so the city created pedestrian-only access instead, with basic maintenance provided by SDOT.
In May, SDOT cleared away rubbish and overgrowth from the College stairs between 13th and Beacon Avenue on the west side of the hill, as part of a state and city interagency effort. Seattle's Department of Planning and Development, and the police, sealed off a house across from the College stairs, which transients took over after a murder-arson last December.
The Seattle Neighborhood Group conducted Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) surveys on the College stairway, and on the Bayview and Atlantic stairs - a step to make them all safer. Another stair on Massachusetts, uphill from Sturgus, does not lead to a street directly, and can only be accessed from a dirt path. All of these steps need stewardship.
Shelly Bates spoke for many on Saturday, "We've gone from a group of neighbors trying to discourage the criminal activities in these stairways to the first step in a long process to create community spaces where neighbors can meet, kids might play and the occasional potluck can happen."
For more information, visit www.bric.extrapolation.com.
Beacon Hill resident Craig Thompson may be contacted via editor@sdistrictjournal.com.
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