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BUILDING A NEW NORTHGATE BRANCH, COMMUNITY CENTER & PARK
PRE-DESIGN KICK-OFF MEETING RECAP
6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 21, 2003
Olympic View Elementary School, 504 N.E. 95th St.

Approximately 50 people from the community attended this meeting to discuss their vision for the new Northgate Branch, community center and park. Deborah L. Jacobs, city librarian of The Seattle Public Library, opened the meeting with welcoming comments and introductions of Greg Maffei, Library Board vice president and steward for the new Northgate Branch; and Ken Bounds, Seattle Parks and Recreation superintendent. Bounds described the opportunity for the project to be the “heart and soul” of the Northgate and Maple Leaf communities, and introduced Bruce Bentley, chairman of the Seattle Parks and Recreation Board of Park Commissioners; Erin Devoto, Parks planning and development director; Tim Motzer, Parks project manager for the Northgate project; and Maureen A. O’Neill, Parks sector manager. Jacobs then introduced Alexandra Harris, Library capital program director; David Kunselman, Library project manager for the Northgate Branch; and Bobbie Daniel, branch library manager for the Northgate Temporary Service Site. During the course of the meeting, Jacobs and Bounds also introduced Jackie Kirn, senior policy advisor with the Office of Policy and Management, who invited the public to comment regarding Mayor Greg Nickels’ Northgate action agenda; David Traylor, member of the Citizen Implementation Review Panel (CIRP), and a CIRP steward for the Northgate Branch (Ellen Judson, another CIRP steward, later joined the meeting); Claudia McCain, Library director of neighborhood libraries; Marilyn Sheck, Library director of information technology; Lois Fenker, Library director of technical and collections services; Lisa Richmond, public art project manager, Office of Art and Cultural Affairs; Carolyn Law, arts planner, Office of Art and Cultural Affairs; Bob Hull, Ron Rochon and Scott Wolf from The Miller/Hull Partnership, the architects selected for the project; and their design team members Bob Shrosbree and Mark Brands, landscape architects with Site Workshop.

Jacobs explained the intent of the pre-design meeting was for members of the community to share their desires for the Northgate Branch, community center and park. The library will be a new 10,000-square-foot branch developed in conjunction with a 20,000-square-foot community center and a 1.67-acre park. She described the meeting format and explained the meeting would break up into six stations, with Library and Parks staff and members of the design team taking comments and suggestions from those in attendance. The staff and design teams then briefly introduced themselves and gave an overview of their responsibilities. O’Neill described the new community center as a safe and welcoming place for the community to gather, emphasizing the multipurpose nature of all the center spaces. Motzer spoke about the park as a multiuse outdoor space, and detailed some of the planned features, as well as the challenges presented by the topography of the site. McCain invited attendees to provide input regarding what Library programs and services – traditional or untraditional – would best serve the community, and Sheck solicited input regarding Library programs and services related to technology, in addition to computers. Fenker emphasized the collection will be all new library materials, including multimedia, and introduced Tom Horne, managing librarian for technical and collections services. Richmond spoke about the opportunities for art in the branch and community center and the fact there is a good art budget for the project. Law invited attendees to pick up copies of the Parks capital project art plan developed for the Community Center Levy Program (CCLP) and ProParks Levy projects.

Wolf spoke next, stressing Miller/Hull’s commitment to creating a new heart for the Northgate/Maple Leaf community. He briefly discussed the next phase of the design process, developing the preferred site plan. Hull gave an overview of some of Miller/Hull’s experience with community projects and library design, and stated the firm’s primary design mission is to take advantage of the park as the setting for the buildings, to integrate the inside and outside elements, and to emphasize the connection to Thornton Creek and the neighborhood. Shrosbree outlined the four distinct edges of the site, and the topographical features including the slope and the area along Fifth Avenue Northeast.

Jacobs explained the meeting would break up into the stations, and invited people to circulate around the room and offer ideas and hopes for the new branch, community center and park. The meeting then broke into six sessions on the community center, park, library design, library collections, library services/programs, and public art. Those sessions yielded the following comments from members of the public on their hopes and dreams for the new Northgate Branch, community center and park:

The highlights from each breakout session were briefly summarized. Alexandra Harris introduced Greg Maffei, the Library Board steward for the Northgate Branch, who thanked the attendees for their participation and level of enthusiasm, and encouraged them to fill out library comment forms. He said there would be another public meeting in about three months, at the end of the schematic design phase. Harris also introduced Bruce Bentley, Parks Board chair, who also thanked the attendees for coming, and stressed their input would influence programming at the community center. He thanked the attendees and invited them to pick up comment forms for the community center and park. Harris noted the meeting’s comments would be shared with the Library Board, posted to The Seattle Public Library Web site at www.spl.org, and to the Parks and Recreation Web site at www.cityofseattle.net/parks. Harris concluded the meeting by asking people to send comments to Library staff members or e-mail the capital program office at capital.program@spl.org. People also may contact Kunselman at 386-4096 or by e-mail at david.kunselman@spl.org, or Motzer at 684-7060 or tim.motzer@seattle.gov. The meeting ended at 8:30 p.m.

Content Modified: Content Modified:19 June 2003

07/21/2006

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