-Hey, thanks everybody for joining us today.
My name is Angie Brady. I'm the Director of the city's
Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects.
We're incredibly excited to be here today
to celebrate the completion of our Pioneer Square Project
as part of our efforts to provide improvements
to critical east-west connections between the city's
beautiful new 20-acre Waterfront Park
and our important downtown neighborhoods.
Just this year in January,
we were standing a block away celebrating the start
of construction of this project.
And it has been amazing to see the transformation
that has taken place in just 10 months.
Today, we'll hear remarks from Mayor Harrell,
Lisa Howard from the Alliance for Pioneer Square,
and Trevor Boone, owner of Emerald City Guitars,
located right here on this street.
This project has made improvements to South King,
South Main, South Washington Streets, and Yesler Way,
all of which support a more accessible, safe,
and vibrant pedestrian experience,
in our precious historic district right here
in Pioneer Square.
A few highlights of the transportation improvements
that you can now experience
are, we've reduced the number of vehicle lanes
allowing us to create wider sidewalk spaces
for those walking and rolling.
We've installed more than 150 bollards
that protect four new blocks of curbless streets.
And my hands are frozen solid.
We've built 10 raised crosswalks,
which create more comfortable experience
for walking pedestrians.
We've added bike racks to support visitors
that want to take a break
and explore the businesses in this neighborhood.
We've added more than 13,000 square feet
of new landscaped areas as part of this project,
providing for a much greener neighborhood.
We've also shifted vehicles away
from the vulnerable underground historic areaways
along these key east-west corridors as well.
Additional urban design improvements include
storytelling elements
that encourage visitors to reflect on the city's history.
Thanks to the collaboration with the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe
and the Suquamish Tribe, we've incorporated native plants.
And added illustrated interpretive panels,
as well as ground-level etchings,
depicting their uses
by Indigenous Peoples from the area.
Right behind you,
you can see what we call the Shoreline Alley,
a two-tone paving installation
that represents the inland location
of the historic Elliott Bay shoreline
from the mid-to-late 19th century.
On either side of us here are wooden piers
that have been carefully and intentionally charred.
Reminiscent of the great Seattle fire that occurred here in 1889.
Our improvements in Pioneer Square
allow for a much-improved access
to the new 20-acre Waterfront Park,
still under construction, set to open next year, next spring.
So get excited for that.
Nearby features include behind us
the Pioneer Square Habitat Beach,
which we opened in June 2023.
It has become a popular spot for Seattleites
who desire a quiet space away from the busy downtown.
And the beautifully restored
historic Washington Street Boat Landing,
which you can also see behind me,
which will host Molly Moon's ice cream
and is anticipated to open in spring of 2025.
Super excited about that.
I want to extend my thanks to our community members,
the Sounding Board, and our neighbors for
really championing this project and for their patience
during the impactful construction this year.
I know it's been hard,
but we hope you enjoy the improvements
that you helped us envision in this neighborhood.
You've been working with us since day one on this project,
and we're so grateful for your time and your energy.
I'd like to thank the Alliance for Pioneer Square,
who have partnered with us
and supported this community
throughout the design and construction process.
These improvements enable the neighborhood to thrive
for generations to come.
And I personally value Lisa Howard and Jessa Timmer's time
and positive energy and patience with us so much
as we navigated through some really tough challenges,
together over all these years of design and construction.
I want to thank our entire Waterfront Seattle team,
especially our project manager Therese Casper.
Our construction program manager Jessica Murphy,
who is here today as well.
Our HNTB Jacobs JV construction management team,
including Boe McGee and Brian Kittleson,
you guys have worked
tremendously hard on this project.
Our outreach leads,
Jeanette Baker and Iris Pickett from EnviroIssues.
Thank you.
Our lead design team at MIG SvR [inaudible]
And our prime contractor, Gary Merlino Construction,
who have executed our design vision beautifully.
Thank you so much.
In conclusion, thanks you guys.
We're thrilled to have completed another one of many,
many, many Waterfront Seattle projects,
and we are very much appreciative of those of you
who came today to help celebrate this occasion with us.
I'd now like to introduce Mayor Bruce Harrell to come up
and say a few words, so thank you.
-Thank you, Angela.
I want to level set a little bit
by saying you all look really, really cold.
So I'll be brief. This is exciting,
and we're really excited about the ribbon cutting,
and I first want to thank the voters of Seattle
for passing our Seattle Transportation Levy.
Many of you were out there with us, cheering along,
so we want to thank you for that.
I want to thank Deputy Mayor Adiam Emery and
Director Greg Spotts.
And the king of potholes,
there's no potholes here, Rob Sacca.
He's searching for it in this curbless environment.
If I could ground us in a quote,
as I sometimes like to do,
public space is a very important aspect of a good
and well-functioning city.
That's our North Star right there,
to make sure we are functioning.
And when you look at this pedestrian-friendly,
curbless environment.
What we're trying to do is create the space
that we all could be proud of,
one project at a time with a North Star of a vision.
And this is our vision.
And so I want to thank you for all of the work.
Angela did an outstanding job of thanking all
of you for being here.
But to brave out in this weather like this,
it is truly a commitment to what we've been going through
when we first announced this sometime ago.
So we're celebrating a new vibrant
and accessible pedestrian connection
between our historic Pioneer Square neighborhood.
Lisa, thank you for letting us in your home,
our waterfront, and our broader downtown.
That kind of connectivity
is what these projects are all about.
Yesterday's construction site, well,
yes, we get complaints,
and many of these are valid complaints
when they affect small businesses and cause
choke points in traffic and transit complications.
We understand that.
But yesterday's construction site has become today's
pedestrian pathways and a new open green space
that enable us to walk and bike and roll
between the waterfront Pioneer Square,
and, again, the rest of downtown.
We gathered here, as you may recall, in January of 2024.
It was a cold day like it is today,
and we celebrated the groundbreaking,
and we talked about the vision
that we had to reimagine public space that we all could use.
As our city continues to grow in projects like Pioneer Square,
East West Pedestrian Improvements,
they not only fuel our vision of seamless connections
between our waterfront and downtown neighborhoods,
but, again, they honor our past
and what we think is very special.
That's why Pioneer Square holds a special place
in all of our hearts.
This project, again, creates a curbless environment
that is more comfortable for people walking
throughout Pioneer Square,
and we've added more than 13,000 square feet of new green space
to the neighborhood,
creating a more inviting environment
for pedestrians and residents and workers and visitors.
You may recall that Valerie Segrest
who represented the Muckleshoot Tribe at the time
we were talking about this project in January,
I want to send a quote
that she said that really resonated with us.
"When we get to know our place, where we are in this world,
we have a better sense of connection to the land
and a better respect for it."
The critical word there is respect,
respect for one another, respect for our space.
So I want to thank our tribal partners
for their collaboration in this improvement project
and their influence
in our broader Waterfront Park transformation.
I know this evening we're going to have another celebration
on the work that we're doing for our waterfront
and again, these kinds of projects like these
are very special because they pull it all together.
Pioneer Square is not just a great Seattle neighborhood
but it's an essential valuable space --
valued space here in our downtown core.
So I'm going to welcome I think a person
that I've just thoroughly enjoyed working with
for the last several years even before I was mayor, Lisa Howard,
who again is just quite honestly rolling up her sleeves
and putting in the hard work.
Her pride in this particular part of our city
demonstrates itself every single day
she goes to work with the passion that she does.
So I introduce to you Lisa Howard,
the Executive Director of the Alliance or Pioneer Square.
-Thank you so much.
Good morning and welcome to Pioneer Square.
As the mayor said, I'm Lisa Howard,
the Executive Director
and I'm thrilled to be here today celebrating
this milestone with all of you.
The last few years have brought a number of challenges
and today we meet celebrating an accomplishment
that's a long time coming.
Earlier this week I was looking back at some
of the project documents from the kickoff
and I'm so happy to see so many faces
that were involved in the very beginning.
I think it speaks to the tenacity of Pioneer Square
and what we can accomplish all together.
And the new faces that have joined along the way.
We look forward to stepping into the next chapter of our history.
This project has signaled not just
a prioritization of pedestrians
and the reconnection to our waterfront
but also the willingness to invest in the infrastructure
and the future of Pioneer Square.
A big thank you to the Mayor and his teams,
especially the Office of the Waterfront
that has worked through issues big and small
for so many years now.
Thank you to the stakeholders engaged along the way,
especially the Steering Committee members
and the current Alliance team,
raise your hand if you're out there.
As well as previous members of the team
including Leslie Smith and Liz Stenning.
And to our neighborhood stakeholders,
we look forward to showing off our beautiful neighborhood
together far into the future. After we're done here,
please join us for a community celebration
for coffee and pastries
at the newly opened Baba Yaga on South Washington
in Occidental Avenue South down the street.
I hope to see you there.
And with that, I'm going to pass it off
to our Emerald City Guitars owner, Trevor Boone.
-Thank you, Lisa. Wow, it's cold.
I almost didn't show up
until Bruce said he'd cleared my last five years
in parking tickets. So we've been here 30 years.
I was six years old when I started coming down here,
it feels like my cul-de-sac,
literally, and so many familiar faces.
Frank Buchanan and Lisa Howard, of course.
We fully integrated ourselves in this neighborhood from day one.
My dad did food drives at the Union Gospel Mission,
still holds meetings for recovering addicts and
alcoholics in the building of Emerald City Guitars.
And we've done everything we can.
We love this area.
When I visit a city,
I don't go into the convention center I go to places like this
to really kind of feel the identity.
And we've seen it all, you know, the good, bad,
the ugly, you know,
and the construction projects and all that.
And this was something that,
you know, I remained optimistic I think thanks to Lisa.
And, man, it's just every everything from ground level
up has been so swift
and there's just so much harmony from the construction level
to the people involved, to the time that it's all happened.
And this is a -- this is special area.
I mean like I said this is the kind of place
that you want to visit when you see a city
and this has always been kind of the Sesame Street vibe,
knowing the neighbors, the patrons, the residents
and for a long time I think we felt
like we didn't have a voice as the city started growing,
you know, these special places,
this unique little shops and tenants and all that.
And this project is really --
it's kind of like making your bed in the morning,
you know, it's respecting and respectful
and everybody took pride in it, I felt like.
And really kind of -- it was every step of the way
like I said from the time to the people involved
down the construction guys
and they became kind of part of the whole,
you know, fabric down here.
And it's a unique ecosystem
and it's really a special place for that matter.
And I just want to thank everyone up here.
Bruce, I've gone and seen you speak at a few different things
here and I just feel like you really got a grip on
kind of everybody's hearts down here.
So yeah, today is definitely worth celebrating,
this is a special area, we're happy to be here,
I'm going to wrap it up and thank you guys for showing up.
-Now you could tell Trevor is a talented musician
and entertainer,
I didn't even know you could make the mic sing like that,
Trevor.
Thank you very much for your leadership in this area,
and your -- we're going to cut a ribbon right now, I believe?
Is that the -- is that the protocol right now?
We're going to do that?
All right, come on up here and let's cut a ribbon.
Thank you, Trevor, that was great.
-Of course, thank you, Mayor.
I appreciate it. -Good morning, Mayor.
-Hey. -I love those comments.
-All right.
-Okay. -Ready?
-Ready. -Ready, boss.
-You got to milk it out a little bit.
You don't just cut right away.
All right, we milk it out.
One, two, three.
[ Cheers and applause ]