(Image: Downtown Seattle Association)
There is a subtext to the tussle over the design and “public benefits” planned for the $1.4 billion Washington State Convention Center.
Pike-Pine is downtown turf:
This week new banners will appear along Pike and Pine streets from Pike Place Market to Capitol Hill as part of the Downtown’s Pike Pine Renaissance. More than 60 banners now line Pike and Pine, complementing the private investments that Nike, Nordstrom and others are making to improve the experience along this corridor. The banners are the latest in a series of investments that were generated from a 2013 planning effort lead by the DSA and local landscape architecture firm, Gustafson Guthrie Nichol. This plan includes streetscape improvements, public area amenities and activation, light installations, community events and more.
Up the Hill, Pike/Pine is watching.
The new banners are a small battlefront but there is the potential for a border skirmish. Especially with the Downtown Seattle Association putting dollars behind the initiative:
As a part of this effort, the DSA is also working to activate public space and recently signed a management agreement with the City of Seattle to program Westlake Park. With private investment, the DSA purchased new furniture and games to activate Westlake Park year-round.
With the Pike-Pine Renaissance project to create “higher quality, more consistent pedestrian space through upgraded standards for sidewalks and intersections” also comes a branding effort. Will Pike/Pine mean Seattle’s old auto row transformed into bars, restaurants, and independent shops? Or Nike and Nordstrom?
Meanwhile, the downtown push to get the convention center expansion moving passed one important milestone Tuesday night when the design review board voted that the project can advance to its “master use permit” stage. The project’s city planner tells CHS there will be more opportunities for public feedback as the design and approval process plays out and who owns Pike/Pine — or is it Pike-Pine? — and where the borders are drawn fall into place.
How about Pink/Pine for the Hill?
How is an endless row of new bars some sort of improvement over “Nike or Nordstrom.? Be nice to have a little business diversity beyond bars.
Ummm…
How about NO to both since we already have a bunch of bars and shops like Nordstroms and Nike and bring back some culture, art, and music?
How about calling it PiPi?
perhaps i’m missing something here, but i can not follow where this article is going.
it makes allusions to Pike/Pine banners, or some sort of formal branding effort independent of what the DSA is pushing. however, no images of Pike/Pine branding are provided. in fact, the only image provided depicts neither Pike-Pine or Pike/Pine branding, but
PIKE
PINE
while the article makes fairly clear that Pike-Pine (or PIKEPINE) branding is a project of the DSA, it doesn’t make a similar connection for Pike/Pine.
this is interesting stuff, but there is not nearly enough context given in the article. or i’m missing something or am incredibly dense. all distinct possibilities. can someone help me out? thanks.