(fall 2007 photo by Mark Bourne)
New information as the Alki Statue of Liberty Plaza gets closer to construction: The group that raised money for the project has gone public with details of what it’s planning for a Sept. 6 event celebrating its expected dedication, and the Parks Department project manager has talked with us about the latest details — including a couple recent changes in the plan, and the one big concern that could cause construction snags — read on:
First, the party plan.
According to the latest update on the Statue of Liberty Plaza Project website, festivities are planned for all day and into the night on Sept. 6:
“We are planning on starting the day with a Swearing-In Ceremony of new citizens. … Following that will be music, speeches by local, state and possibly national politicians … as well as some opportunities for regular old people to tell us what liberty means to them. Joining us will be the local Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America, both young and old, and we are also looking for anyone who was present at the original dedication of the original statue in 1952. … Additionally, there will be activities at the Bathhouse, including a display of memorabilia, a representation of what may go into a time capsule, and a continuously-running video about the history of the original Statue of Liberty in New York. … As the sun sets over the Olympic Range in the west, a luminaria concert will conclude this day of celebration and dedication to the principles embodied in our own “little sister of liberty”.
The tentative time frame for the day’s events is listed as 11 am-8:30 pm.
So – with construction not having started yet, you might wonder, will it really be done by September 6th? In an interview with WSB this week, Parks Department project manager Patrick Donohue told us the project should be “95% done” — possibly with some landscaping work to be done after the celebration. “It will be complete enough to hold the event,” he said.
This week, the city-hired landscape-architecture firm Susan Black and Associates is working with original firm CAST Architecture and the Parks Department to “complete construction documents so we can go out to bid,” Donohue said.
He told WSB that the latest rendering of what the plaza will look like, including the statue’s new pedestal, should be made public by next Tuesday; the project is not going back before the city Design Commission because of the tight timeline. In addition to various revisions following the first and only Design Commission review (WSB coverage here) last April, one big recent change: He says the new pedestal will not include a lighting element, which was envisioned in the original proposal. “There’s no power,” he explained, adding that there may be the possibility to add it in the future, but it won’t be in this stage of the project. Another change is that instead of a ramp leading toward the plaza area from the Alki Avenue sidewalk, there will be stairs; Donohue said the slope proved to be too steep for a ramp to be safe.
In an echo of last summer, Liberty herself will be off the beach and out of sight for about two months during the work — from the time construction starts around mid-July, till the statue’s return in time for the scheduled September 6th event, according to Donohue. As for how much of the area surrounding the statue will be inaccessible during construction, Donohue told us that’s still being determined — since it’s happening right by the water, the area has to be “secured” to be sure that runoff will not go into and pollute Puget Sound. “We’re in the process of talking with our operations people right now to see how much space we’ll need [to fence off].”
Of course, he added, the Parks Department is well aware that the busy summertime months include “a lot going on in the park,” so they’re taking that into consideration.
One possible wrinkle in what Donohue described as a “mandate” to be done by September 6th — The unsummerlike weather we’re experiencing so far. “We’re going to be pouring concrete and doing pavers – and if the weather continues to be cold and wet all summer, that could have an impact [on the progress].” If construction has to happen in the winter, he explained, money is added to the budget to deal with the possibility of weather-related delays — but money and time for weather woes are not routinely figured into a summertime project like this.
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WHAT’S NEXT: When the Parks Department approves the latest project rendering for public release, you’ll see it here. Meantime, all of our Alki Statue of Liberty coverage is archived here.
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