Six Hikes in Brooklyn, part V: East

Dear Diary,

This part of this page concerns two hikes, on December 22nd, 2020, and on October 29th, 2022.  In a summary of the hikes two parts ago, I claimed that I'd also visited this area October 16th, and I indeed did walk past it, but the photo I thought was evidence of that visit turned out to be of an area covered one part ago.  (On the other hand, I went and took the photo I thought I'd taken, today.  So maybe not just two hikes after all.)

Since I visited and photographed all of these areas (except one) on each of the two hikes, this goes in the order I visited them in December 2020 (with that one at the end).  I was then pushing a cart, so moving a good bit slower than I currently walk.  So I find that order hard to explain now, but the photos' timestamps prove it's the order I hiked in.  The map:

I asked the person who does "communications" for UW's Facilities Services department for names for four of the parks this part covers.  I got a reply from someone in UW's main PR department, referring me to the university's standard map, which I'd been using for years; evidently he assumed I was eight years old.  Well, I've nevertheless found a name for one of the four.  I'm just calling the rest "courtyard".

That's a problematic name for me.  As you'll see when we get to Central Campus, dear Diary, the UW parkifies a whole lot of its land.  So when I set out to survey the parks of UW, I had to set standards.  And one of those standards was that a single-building courtyard generally had to do more than look good to qualify.

All four of those parks I wanted names for do the same something more:  they all offer seating.  Some do more than that, but they all do that.

We'll start with the one not on Campus Parkway.

Gould Park (Q on map)

This park's name comes from its makers, who were participants in a then nearly new class from the Department of Architecture, a class which is currently called the Howard S. Wright Neighborhood Design/Build Studio.  Inconveniently, the class's Web page is down right now (more precisely, the College of Built Environments' local domain name service in general seems to be down), so I've had to consult Google's cache, and am unable to see their photos of their work.  It's possible that more of the parks of UW, even the ones in this page, are on that list, and I just can't tell.  But anyway, the class started in 1988, took 1989 off, and in 1990 did two projects, the Danny Woo Community Garden in southeast downtown, and this.  (Or maybe one of the 1990 projects was actually the 1989 class's work, delayed.  They also missed 1992 and 1993, and also did two in 2005, but otherwise have one project every year through 2021.)

Again, this specific park's Web page is down too, and I'm going by the Google cache, which says, oddly, that "The benches photographed here have since been demolished."  And here I thought that was vandalism.  It also says this project involved not only architecture students, but also students from the departments of Construction Management and of Landscape Architecture.

Here's the proof that this park, adjacent to Gould Hall, really is the Gould Park referred to:

I like this park much better than the three north of Campus Parkway, so have taken more photos of it, and have just enough room to show you them all, dear Diary.  One thing I really liked in 2020 was that it was a semi-classical design (complete with inspirational quotes which I don't much like), left to fall to ruin in approved classical style.  For example:

And here's more ruin, nearly two years later.  I tried to find the bench with that "V" on it, and am pretty sure it's one of the now-damaged benches in the second photo.

This park is also adjacent to the University of Washington Police Building, but is worth a visit even for people who don't have crimes to report.

Transportation Services Building Courtyard (R on map)

This could be called any number of other things - the Jones Playhouse Hillclimb, for example.  But because the Transportation Services Building's door is at least notionally open, I've chosen to interpret it this way.

Campus Parkway is a reasonably long walk, and it's a place where scads of people wait for buses.  So the fundamental thing parks can offer along it is seating.  The south side of the parkway has wide sidewalks, allowing seating at the bus stops and some away from them.  But on the north side, Schmitz Hall just has a complicated plaza (usually crowded with people using its skybridge or waiting at a bus stop, with some seating); each of the other blocks does something different and park-like with the seating it provides.

In this case, it's combining the seating with, and focusing its attention on, a pretty unnecessary stairway, adjacent to, and actually ending at, the sidewalk of University Way.  But within this space whoever designed it managed also to jam in a fair amount of greenery and two bike racks, one looking rather like an exercise machine.  I'm sorry, dear Diary; the other two Campus Parkway parks don't measure up.  This part is turning out front-loaded with the good stuff.

The first photo is from 2020, the second from 2022.

Olympic Vista (S on map)

This is the only city-owned park in this part, and although, given that this park consists of boulevard islands, it makes sense for it to be City of Seattle Department of Transportation property, I can't help thinking the university was involved in its design.  Two things lead me to this belief, but I'd better show you my photos, dear Diary, before trying to explain then.

There are "vistas" in each of three of the UW's standard parts of campus.  From the top of Rainier Vista on Central Campus, Mount Rainier can in fact be seen on occasion; I've seen it from there myself.  From the top of Portage Bay Vista on South Campus, Portage Bay can easily be seen most of the time.  But as it happens, Olympic Vista's highest point is at its west end, so one can't even look toward the Olympic Mountains, nor, by turning around, does one have much chance to see them.  To put this politely, that name is purely aspirational.

In 2020 I walked this boulevard west to east, taking photos from the east ends of the islands; in 2022 east to west, taking photos from the west ends.

Island 1, Eastlake to 12th Avenues (S1 on map)

This island is actually two blocks long, so I have more photos.  This is from the westernmost edge, from Eastlake, in fact, well above the island itself.  This is the interruption in grass along Eastlake's east side that I mentioned in the last part this block of Olympic Vista provides; this is the photo I took today.

 

On the west side of Condon Hall, in line with 11th Ave, there's a stair to the ground level, leading toward a paved path across this island.  I think both my December 2020 photos were taken from that path.

Island 1 begins as a forested slope.  Enough of the trees are coniferous that the ground is carpeted in needles, rather than grass.  Toward the east it's rather more like island 2, next.

Island 2, 12th to Brooklyn Avenues (S2 on map)

First, 2022 from the west end, then 2020 from the east end.

We're now in a cultivated woods, with a carpet of grass, sustained by a shortage of conifers.

Island 3, Brooklyn Ave to University Way (S3 on map)

Same order.

We're in a garden.

Island 4, University Way to 15th Ave (S4 on map)

Same order.

And here, we're in a park, verging on a plaza.  See, as Olympic Vista gets closer to the Central Campus, it also gets more civilised.  I find it hard to believe that SDOT just happened to decide to do that.

And in fact, according to University of Washington by Norman J. Johnston, cited in the northern West Campus part of the UW buildings page, pages 104-105, SDOT didn't.  Not that he agrees with me that the existing parkway was in any way planned.

In the 1920s [university] President Suzzallo dreamed of a grand ceremonial route leading from the west and the north end of University Bridge to the university campus.  Difficult to achieve because of the intervening extant residential and commercial properties, it was nevertheless an idea that was given additional clout by its inclusion in the 1948 Campus Plan.  Its completion in 1953 brought University Bridge traffic to the campus, but abruptly so, with only a hint of panache and with no destination clearly established.  Cluttered with utility poles and wires, it is unfortunately aligned visually with the new skylit portion of the Henry's addition, which inauspiciously blurs the parkway's visual axis on the George Washington statue and Suzzallo Library's façade beyond.  At the parkway's western end the irregular plantings of trees (remnants of a 1961 international forestry conference) add to a general dishevelment that does violence to the ambitions Suzzallo had.  This is a parkway leading nowhere.

Wow.  And I thought I was mean.  Anyway, aside from the message I see that the university is a civilising influence, the other thing I saw as evidence for the university's involvement in the design is that those metal benches in island 4 all carry inspirational quotations, with attributions, just like the pavement in Gould Park and a few other things here and there around campus.

Anyway, that's three more or less good parks.  The other three - well, one is closed,  and the other two aren't exactly bad, but don't impress me over much.  To proceed:

Condon Hall Courtyard (T on map)

Remember, dear Diary, I said each of the parklets along Campus Parkway had a different solution to the question of seating along Campus Parkway.  The Transportation Services Building's courtyard says what people need is distraction.  Condon Hall's courtyard says what people need is separation.  I'm pretty sure it isn't actually true that this courtyard is only accessible by climbing stairs - the way land slopes around there, there's probably a wheelchair-accessible route.  But the only way to it from Campus Parkway is up stairs.  Physical removal from the madding crowd.

So I've probably been a little unfair to this parklet because of the stairs, but also, I don't find that solution all that appealing.  My December 2020 photo is slanted, for some reason, but is still probably the fairer of the two to what's there:

It does have wood benches (look against that window) as well as those concrete ones.

Elm Hall Courtyard (U on map)

Elm Hall has a courtyard full of undergrowth, rather than grass, with three paved paths along which there are wooden benches.  So it's oversimplifying to say this, but because by far the most-used benches are those adjacent to the sidewalk, it isn't oversimplifying very much:  Elm Hall's courtyard answers the question of seating along Campus Parkway by saying that what people need is involvement.  Visibility.  To be part of the scene.  I think the Transportation Services Building's courtyard is more successful as a park, but Elm Hall's placement of seating is certainly the most sympatico of the three, for me.

I think in December 2020 those benches were just too popular, and the only photo I could take was the very weird one I have.  So here's a photo from October instead:

I'm pretty sure there are actual benches along the path to the left of that photo, although only one thing visible in the photo even vaguely resembles a bench.  I'm quite sure there are actual benches along a path only hinted at in the photo, well behind the ones in the foreground, between levels of undergrowth.

Note that for all that each of these parks is easily understood as revolving around seating, none dips a toe into the shark-infested waters of sheltered seating.  They all leave that for the bus shelters.

Child Center West Campus Playground(s) (V on map)

I haven't tried to take any photos of this area, locked up as it normally is, and crowded as it often is.

Well, that's it for this part of Brooklyn.  Brooklyn sure has a lot of parks, doesn't it, dear Diary?  I still have four left to tell you about, sometime this week.  Tomorrow, though, I hope to finish photographing the door signage of West Campus, leaving me Tuesday to write up the remaining set of West Campus buildings.  Happy nights and days until then!