The Dexter Pit was identified in the Pro Parks Levy as a place for a new park that could include an art project. But nowhere did the levy language say it would be "an artist-led park project," said Queen Anne Community Council Parks Committee chair Don Harper at a committee meeting last week.
Still, that's what it turned into, and Vietnamese artist Andrew Cao came up with a doozy of a design for the 1.3-acre site on Dexter Avenue North just north of McGraw Street.
It included a 32-foot-by-25-foot-by-18-foot hollow "light pod" covered in strands of blue monofilament, giving the pod the look of a space ship or an Easter egg with an attitude.
An elevated ramp on the hillside leads into the light pod, and there are three smaller, blue-monofilament "cocoons" near it. Cao's plans also called for goats to be brought in twice a year to chow down the blackberry bushes that cover the steep hillsides around what used to be a gravel pit in the early 1990s, according to city records.
But there are some minor and major problems with the $611,000 project, said Patrick Donohue, a Seattle Parks and Recreation senior project coordinator who just took over from David Goldberg, who got a job with Sound Transit.
On the minor-problem side, goats aren't allowed in Seattle, and the blackberry bushes can't be stripped because they're on a steep hillside, Donohue said.
Furthermore, the monofilament won't last for 30 years, a time span the parks department insists on for art installations, he said. "It was temporary installation material."
On the major-problem side, Dono-hue said, there's simply not enough money to do a project of that scope, there are wetlands in the center and the entire site is in an environmentally sensitive area. So Cao has gone back to the drawing board, Donohue said. "It's now coming back to a more traditional project."
"I don't think anyone was aware of the [land-use] limitations," said Kelly Davidson from the Mayor's Office and Arts & Cultural Affairs. "The proposal that came back to us has been a shock to all of us," she said later.
There will still be an art component in the park, but whether it's an artist-led project is a moot point, according to Davidson. "It's clear that's not the case now."
There's also another player involved in the process, Donohue noted. "This type of work is critically analyzed by the Department of Planning and Development," he said. "They are driving the whole project."
The Parks Department also neglected to work with the community during the process, Harper said. "We know it started badly, to say the least," he added. It was a comment echoed by community council member Sharon LeVine. "We didn't get any planning process," she complained. "We didn't get any notification."
Seattle City Council member and new Queen Anne resident David Della chairs the council's Parks, Education, Libraries and Labor Committee, and he was also critical of the lack of community involvement.
Della said at the meeting that the Dexter Pit snafu was yet another example of how Parks needs to do a better job working with communities. Della has asked an auditor to look into the public-involvement process with the Parks Department, he said.
"It's clear we need to do more," said Della, who promised to talk to the Parks Department to make sure the community is involved in planning for the Dexter Pit park.
Donohue was already convinced. He said he'd bring back revised plans for the project to the community council and hold two or three public meetings on top of that.
"But before I do that, we have to hold the artist accountable," Donohue said. "He has to show it's feasible and affordable."
Staff reporter Russ Zabel can be reached at rzabel@nwlink.com or 461-1309.
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