A promising swath of real estate runs through Seattle, Washington, between the forest of cranes rapidly densifying the downtown core and the hip kingdom of Capitol Hill — promising, but underutilized.
“It’s probably the most expensive piece of dirt between Vancouver and San Francisco,” says Chris Patano, director of Patano Studio Architecture. “And we’re using it to drive cars on.”
That dirt is Interstate 5, a steep, noisy canyon that divides some of the city’s fastest developing neighborhoods.
The construction of Interstate 5 through the heart of Seattle in 1962 resulted in a savage scar of roadway that separated the historic neighborhoods of the city. The constant noise and pollution that course through the edges of Capitol Hill, South Lake Union, First Hill, Downtown Seattle and Eastlake are familiar to the citizens that live and work in the city.
Patano and his studio want to knit Seattle back together by capping the freeway with a two-mile-long, 45-acre park.
They call their proposal Seattle C.A.P. It’s a High Line for an existing transit corridor, a central park for a city with few grand public gathering places.