The long-running effort to find a place for a new skateboard park on or near the Seattle Center campus has been a problem from Day One.
And the situation got even more complicated lately with a proposal to whack Everett DuPen's "Fountain of Creation" sculpture and wading pond north of KeyArena to make room for a new skateboard park.
The issue originally came up when the city sold Seattle Center property east of the main campus to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for their world headquarters in 2005. Most of the area was taken up by parking lots, but one section included Seattle's oldest skateboard park off Fifth Avenue North just south of Mercer Street.
Still, part of the Gates' deal included a city pledge to replace the old skateboard park before or soon after the old one was torn down, which happened in January. An earlier proposal to replace the old skateboard park with a new one next to a King County sewer plant on Elliott Avenue West was shot down by the skatepark community, and a another new site has yet to be identified as competing interest groups vie for city council approval.
Not surprisingly, one of the interest groups is the family of the late DuPen, who was a sculpture professor for many years at the University of Washington.
The family is "appalled" by the proposal, said Novelle DuPen-Meyerhoff, one of DuPen's five children. Speaking at an art opening at the Sysko Gallery last week that features sculptures by her father and many of his students, Novelle stressed that the art piece was fashioned specifically for its present location.
Novelle - who lives in Boston and has a 12-year-old son who is an avid skateboarder - is sympathetic to the skateboard community's concerns. "But please don't uproot one of the finest cultural sculptures in Seattle," she said.
And it's not just the family that objects to the proposal, said Novelle's sister, Redmond resident Destia DuPen Hermes. "It's the whole arts community," she said at the gallery opening last week. Destia mentioned the Artists Trust, Historic Seattle and Allied Arts as groups that are on board with her family.
The Mayor's Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs is also uneasy about the idea, said spokeswoman Lori Patrick. "We don't recommend removing the DuPen fountain," she said.
Patrick added, however, that if the city council does approve the proposal, her office wants a firm city commitment to find an appropriate site and adequate funding for the move.
Funding for building a new skatepark isn't a problem; money from the property sale has already been earmarked for that purpose. But neither funding nor a replacement location for DuPen's work have yet to be identified.
Seattle Center spokesman David Heurtel stresses that the center's intent is to relocate the DuPen sculpture and fountain on campus. "That's very important to say."
There are two potential locations seriously being considered, he said. One is on the Broad Street Green, which already boasts a sculpture collection. "We think it would be a very nice addition to that contemplative area," Heurtel said of DuPen's piece.
The other, he said, is on land currently occupied by the Center's Fun Forest, which would be eliminated under all three alternatives identified by the Century 21 Committee. All three alternatives include a water feature, so the DuPen piece would fit in.
But the Fun Forest isn't scheduled to leave until the end of 2009, Heurtel said. "So we would have to address that issue."
That kind of talk worries the DuPen sisters. Sculptures in the same kind of situation often end up stuck in a warehouse somewhere, Destia said.
There's also a question of money. "Why pay for two installations?" she asked of funding both a new skateboard park and a new setting for DuPen's artwork. "That's something we'll have to work out with the council," Heurtel said of paying for a new venue for DuPen's work.
There may not be a choice. The Seattle City Council's Parks Education, Libraries and Parks Committee voted unanimously a couple of weeks ago to go with the DuPen site.
"The committee supported this site because it was a win-win situation for a majority of stakeholders," said Dave Namura, chief of staff for councilman David Della, who chairs the committee.
Della's committee was working off of five potential sites for a new skateboard park at the Seattle Center. One was on the Broad Street Green, an idea that didn't set well with the Century 21 Committee, Namura in Della's office said.
That left a plot of land across Mercer Street from the Seattle Center and land next to a Seattle Center parking garage on First Avenue North. The Skatepark Advisory Committee didn't like those two locations, he said.
So Seattle Center staff was asked to come up with some new potential sites. The late-breaking suggestions included an area where the Seattle Center Pavillion sits, along with the DuPen site, Heurtel said.
The pavilion site is heavily used during festivals, and it contains office space the Seattle Center would be hard pressed to replace, he said.
The full city council was expected to vote on July 18, but the vote was put off until Aug. 6 because objections were raised by council members Tom Rasmussen, Peter Steinbrueck and Nick Licata.
There are several problems with the DuPen site, according to Rasmussen. At 6,600 square feet, the DuPen site is smaller than the 8,000-plus square feet of the old skateboard park, he said.
"This is really a great site for families," Rasmussen said of moms and dads whose kids like to wade in the water. "I'd really hate to see all that ripped up." Furthermore, he wondered, why should the city pay for moving the DuPen sculpture and fountain?
For his part, Ramussen said he favors setting up a new skatepark on the Broad Street Green. The council member doesn't believe he's alone on that. "I think they are interested in the Broad Street site," he said of fellow council members.
Staff reporter Russ Zabel can be reached by email at the address at rzabel@nwlink.com or by phone at (206) 461-1309.[[In-content Ad]]
