Painting by Moesly Watta
Growing up, I had family in Seattle, so it always felt like more than just another city on a map. Even from a distance, it had an identity that was easy to recognize. The water, the skyline, the markets, the neighborhoods, the sports culture, and all of those iconic places gave it a presence that always resonated with me.
There is something about Seattle that feels layered and memorable. It has the energy of a major city, but it is constantly tied back to the water, the landscape, and the public spaces that make it feel distinct.
The waterfront in particular has always stood out to me as one of the places that says the most about the city’s character.
The Barrier: Before the Transformation
Seattle’s 2013 waterfront redevelopment reimagined a stretch of downtown shoreline that had long been dominated by the Alaskan Way Viaduct, replacing it with a more open and public-facing waterfront shaped by parks, paths, overlooks, and civic space.
The transformation did not begin as a purely aesthetic one. The viaduct had become too seismically vulnerable to trust, especially after the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, so its removal was first a matter of public safety.
What followed, though, was a much larger design opportunity: the chance to reconnect the city to its waterfront in a way that prioritized access, landscape, and public experience rather than speed and separation.
The new waterfront now creates a more deliberate connection between downtown and the bay through planted edges, overlooks, walkways, and gathering space. What changed was not just the form of the waterfront, but the way the city meets it.
The Waterfront: Reconnected to the City
The new Seattle waterfront works because it is designed as a sequence of experiences rather than one large open space. It moves between broader civic areas and smaller places to pause, which keeps the waterfront from feeling flat or over-scaled.
That layering gives the project its character: planting softens the hard edge of the city, changes in elevation make the relationship to the water feel more dynamic, and the circulation is handled in a way that feels intentional. The result is a waterfront that feels open and public at a large scale, but still comfortable and textured up close.
Source: City of Seattle, Waterfront Seattle / Overlook Walk project gallery
Why It Matters to the Community
Projects like this matter because they give valuable space back to the public. Instead of the waterfront being dominated by infrastructure, it becomes a place people can actually use in everyday life, whether that means walking, sitting, gathering, exercising, or simply being near the water.
That has a real effect on the population of a city. Better public space encourages more activity, more social interaction, and a stronger connection between people and the place they live. It also makes the city feel more livable by improving access to green space, views, and areas designed for people rather than just traffic. In that sense, the project is not just about making the waterfront look better. It is about making a major part of the city more useful, healthy, and enjoyable for the people who live there.
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