(click to enlarge photos)

Published in The Seattle Times online on Jan. 9, 2025
and in PacificNW Magazine of the printed Times on Jan. 12, 2025

Seattle’s new Overlook Walk conjures up a ‘people’s viaduct’

By Jean Sherrard

For those who recall magician David Copperfield’s temporary vanishing of the Statue of Liberty, I have another disappearing act up my photographic sleeve.

Our “Then” photo, snapped just west of the Pike Place Market, shows the Alaskan Way Viaduct, torn down beginning in 2019.

For the forgetful or those unacquainted with this simultaneously beloved and detested ribbon of elevated highway, the viaduct’s double decks provided commuters with incomparable two-minute vistas of the city and Elliott Bay. The sinuous concrete structure bisected the city for 66 years, its traffic-induced bang, clatter and roar, amplified by concrete, thwarting normal conversation on the waterfront.

But presto change-o!

In our “Now” photo, the vanished viaduct is replaced by the newly

inaugurated Overlook Walk, an elevated park redefining Seattle’s relationship to its waterfront. Generous curved walkways, wide staircases and ample terraces allow visitors to freely wander and appreciate the marvels. And the loudest sounds are the cries of gulls.

But don’t take this conjurer’s word for it.

On a December visit to the Overlook, palming a copy of the 2019 photo, I polled locals and tourists alike, asking them to comment on the abracadabra. Many pulled insightful rabbits out of their lined winter hats.

Jenny and Peter Stuijk often have hiked the area from their Ballard home, but rarely made it past the Port of Seattle’s Centennial Park on the north waterfront. “For us, the Overlook is like a front door to the Pike Place Market,” Jenny says, and Peter finishes her sentence: “And the setting is breathtaking.”

“It opens up right in front of you,” says Seattleite Andrew Mosoreti, “and you can feel the living city on the Sound.” Workmate Gunnar Brent concurs. “For the first time in my life,” he says, “downtown and the waterfront are connected.”

Rosemary Koenig and her visiting mom Teresa appreciate the Overlook’s gentle curves. “I prefer a meandering path to a straight shot,” Rosemary says. “Add in a cello,” Teresa says. “I’d love music to amble to.”

French-born Seattle resident Sandrine Morris would conjure up street artists and musicians “to fill the big open space.”

Enchantment struck Tacomans Judy and Paul Rietmann. “This is a real gathering place,” Paul says. Judy slyly adds, “It’s a people viaduct.”

“I’m very impressed,” says Port Townsend’s Joe Breskin, comparing the Overlook to New York’s famed High Line park. “It’s the first investment in public space of this scale since Century 21’s World Fair campus.”

“It’s fabulous,” Leilani McCoy says, “with or without a kid.”

No mere sleight-of-hand here. To quote David Lee of Bellevue, “Quite magical!”

WEB EXTRAS

For a 360 degree narrated video of the column, click here!
More photos from the Overlook and environs: