Creating Cal Anderson Park
Organization name: Groundswell Off Broadway
Organizational category: Non-profit park organization
Introduction/Organization description: Groundswell Off Broadway began as a group of neighbors who simply wanted their neighborhood park to be safer, more attractive, and more accessible. The first meetings took place on sidewalks around the park, where they asked themselves why, in the middle of Seattle’s most densely populated Capitol Hill neighborhood, eleven acres of parkland were so neglected that they resembled a dusty prison yard?
Groundswell formed as a classic grassroots neighborhood-based organization, finding support and learning as it went along. Anyone who volunteered for a work party (or any task), gave a donation of cash or materials, or came to a meeting was a member, of which there were about 500 at the peak. Groundswell had no dues or bylaws; money for projects was raised through grants and donations. Four key people acted as volunteer project managers over the life of the project, scores more worked on small projects; all were volunteers.
Overall, Groundswell put in twelve years and worked with three different city mayors and their administrations to advocate, raise funds, lobby, plan and help transform the park.
Program description: Groundswell’s first hands-on project was creating a large perennial entry garden in 1994, designed, planted and paid for by volunteers, with cooperation from the Parks Department. The group then moved on to collaborate with Parks Department plans already in progress at the playfield on the park’s southern side, where it worked to expand improvements park-wide. Two formal park entrances were designed and built as a result, with a palette of materials and standard of quality that was referenced and repeated throughout the park over the long term.
The group began learning about local opportunities to raise both money and community consciousness. Learning that the park was originally Lincoln Park and designed by the Olmsted Brothers in 1904 made them aware of the site’s historic legacy. They partnered with the local Friends of Seattle’s Olmsted Parks (FSOP), which acted as its fiscal agent and lent two experienced project managers to the effort. Well-attended public meetings were held where the great desire in the wider community for a revitalized park became apparent.
Groundswell applied successfully for three successive City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods matching fund grants. By the terms of these grants, Groundswell “matched” dollar for dollar—and usually beyond—with cash, donated services and materials, and volunteer labor. The grants were:
1995 A $5,000 planning grant was awarded to develop a Conceptual Park Master Plan through a series of guided meetings and workshops. Detailed priority lists were created as community members submitted their ideas and discussed what they most wanted in the park. These lists guided Groundswell throughout the next ten years.
1996 A $66,000 construction grant enabled tangible park improvements including plantings, hundreds of feet of new fence to replace rusty old fencing, historic Worlds Fair benches, traditional lamp fixtures and trash containers.
2000 A $250,000 construction grant was awarded to build the three-part Shelterhouse complex (community meeting space, restroom and maintenance buildings).
Groundswell’s goals expanded with the City’s decision to cover all its open-air water reservoirs. Suddenly there was a possibility for an additional four acres of open space to be gained for parkland by covering reservoir within the park, a very energizing possibility. It was clear that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a quality neighborhood park on land where none had existed before. City Council and various city departments were lobbied by Groundswell to make sure it was a buried, not a lidded, reservoir. The City’s reservoir replacement planning began in 1997. [Note: Not all reservoirs were buried. Some received a plastic cover, sitting on the water’s surface. Only the more expensive buried infrastructure method provided usable open space aboveground.]
In an intense and productive series of five plan/design meetings with the project’s landscape architecture firm, The Berger Partnership, Groundswell collaborated on a Park Site Master Plan which encompassed the park’s entire eleven acres, with the Bobby Morris Playfield on the south, grassy meadow in the middle, and new parkland on the north. Community priority lists were updated and found to be remarkably consistent with previous ones. Safety, attractiveness, accessibility and quality were repeatedly mentioned as goals.
Concurrently, thirty-seven Seattle neighborhoods were engaged in the Neighborhood Planning project, a city-wide community involvement process. After several years, what Groundswell and the wider community now already referred to as Cal Anderson Park emerged as the Capitol Hill neighborhood’s top priority in the concluding community Neighborhood Plan validation event. Groundswell representatives kept in close touch with all the major community organizations and served on their boards and councils.
Cal Anderson, a State Representative and State Senator representing our area, was the first openly gay legislator in Washington. A revered role model, when he died of complications from AIDS in 1995, the idea of naming the new park for him had arisen spontaneously. (The park had gone nameless since 1922.)
During this time, Groundswell worked with the Parks and Water Departments and assisted the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board on the designation, and consequently selection in 1999, of the site as a Seattle Historic Landmark Site.
In 1999, a funding request Groundswell had submitted to State Rep. Ed Murray three years before paid off and the group was awarded $250,000 from the State to help implement the Park Site Master Plan. Groundswell used this to match a city grant to build the park Shelterhouse complex.
Groundswell campaigned for the $198.2 million Parks for All Levy in 2000, and when it passed, $5 million was allocated to help implement the park plan. By now many different City departments were involved in the engineering and scheduling challenges this project presented. Groundswell participated in the Mayor-convened Interdepartmental Team (IDT), which met monthly for seven years. Groundswell negotiated a Memorandum of Agreement with the Water Department clarifying the community’s and the utility’s needs for the duration of the project.
On April 13, 2003, the Shelterhouse was dedicated, the park was named Cal Anderson Park and Phase Two of the reservoir project was begun. By the fall of 2005, the Lincoln Reservoir project and an extensive above-ground water feature were complete. The Parks Department completed entrances, plantings, paths, a children’s play area, open lawns and a basketball court. The celebratory grand re-opening of the park took place on September 25, 2005, at which time Groundswell Off Broadway was put to rest.
Program goals/issues addressed: Cal Anderson Park is today more safe than it has been in decades, enjoys thousands of visitors weekly, engages people in both planned and spontaneous activities, all within a beautiful park design that accommodates it all while acknowledging its historic past. People have taken ownership of this public space with great affection.
Timeframe: 1993-2005.
Annual program budget: Total of grants obtained, money raised and leveraged; labor, services and materials contributed by Groundswell Off Broadway to Cal Anderson Park: $1.12 million. Combined total reservoir and park budget is estimated at about $20 million.
Funding sources/partnerships and type of support provided: Groundswell received funds from the City of Seattle Department of Neighborhood Matching Fund Grants, State of Washington general fund through Seattle Central Community College, Washington State Interagency Committee for Outdoor Recreation (IAC), local businesses and individuals. Parks and Water Department funds paid for the reservoir replacement, parks build-out and playfield improvements.
Results achieved/impact: The transformed park today has become the heart of the community. It is well-loved and well-used by hundreds of people every day. It is generally acknowledged that it has achieved something very near its highest and best use.
“Safety, attractiveness, accessibility and quality were repeatedly mentioned as goals.”
A personal narrative by one of Groundswell’s leaders, “Creating Cal Anderson Park”, describes the community’s role in the park. It can be found at: http://www.washington.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=7603
Archives documenting community-based civic improvements are quite rare in the Northwest region. The Groundswell Off Broadway Archive has been accepted into the University of Washington Special Collections – Northwest Collection. Unfortunately, funding gaps have prevented the material from being processed and made searchable for the public at this time.
Landscape Architecture Magazine featured the park with a photo spread/story in its October 2006 issue. Washington Recreation and Park Association named the park the best new Washington State park in 2006. In December 2009 Cal Anderson Park was named one of “America’s Twelve Best Urban Parks” by Forbes.com.
In 2006, a new organization, the Cal Anderson Park Alliance, was convened to continue the community’s voice in Cal Anderson Park. See www.calandersonpark.org. Its mission is to plan and fund creative programs and events in the park to keep it healthy, safe and active.
Lessons learned:
- By going to the community at the very beginning of the process to solicit a community priority list through a thorough and democratic process, Groundswell had a vetted roadmap for the years ahead.
- We saw park advocacy as our job, as citizens. All unpaid volunteers, we strove always to work as professionals and uphold the highest standards of process and design.
- Because Groundswell began its work years before the major earth works began, we were acknowledged as the community group of record when it came to the park. We also were able to establish existing conditions and needs at the site which were recognized and put Groundswell in line for future funding.
- Groundswell established strong partnerships with other community groups, which lent it weight and standing.
- “Large projects get political pretty quickly.” Reminding the “power brokers” that community goals and city goals were essentially the same—a safe, accessible and attractive park, with quality design and lasting materials, which honored our history and our neighborhood—was a strategic way to proceed.
- Many conflicts were overcome by demonstrating our willingness to be flexible, by trying yet another more creative approach, and by being very, very persistent. We aimed always to be problem solvers, not adversaries.
- Persisting and adapting to the project as circumstances and opportunities changed opened new avenues and opportunities.
- Groundswell recommends always staying until the end of the meeting!
Ask the expert:
Kay Rood, Trustee, Cal Anderson Park Alliance
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All images were provided by Kay Rood.
Cal Anderson Park Background, Selected Articles, and Links
www.calandersonpark.org – Read about the Cal Anderson Park Alliance mission, vision and plans.
http://www.seattle.gov/parks/parkspaces/anderson.htm -- Seattle Parks Department website.
http://www.seattle.gov/friendsofolmstedparks/ -- Friends of Seattle’s Olmsted Parks (FSOP)
“Cal Anderson Park One of 12 Best City Parks in the U.S.” Forbes.com
“Born Again in Seattle”, by Mark Hinshaw, Landscape Architecture, the national magazine of the American Society of landscape Architecture, October, 2006. This publication is not online, pdf copies by request.
“Celebrating a park's rebirth” by Marc Ramirez, Seattle Times, Sep. 23, 2005
“Pooling our Resources” – Paul Dorpat “Now & Then” column Dec. 12, 2006 – historic photo.
NW Source. “People’s Picks 2006: Best City Park”
Cal Anderson Park. Project information. The Berger Partnership, Landscape Architects. http://www.bergerpartnership.com/projects/parks_public/cal_anderson_park_5.php From the website of the landscape architecture firm that designed the park in collaboration with the community. Includes great photos.
Click here to view Aerial photographs of the park by Bre Pettis.
