After watching a presentation Monday by architects and designers from the international firm Atelier Dreiseitl, I guess I was supposed to echo the oooohs and aaaaahs of University of Washington Tacoma staff.
Three different designs were shown for how the UWT would redevelop its section of the Prairie Line Trail, the old rail line that brought the first Northern Pacific train to tidewater in 1873.
“The university loved all three of them,” said UWT campus facilities director Milt Tremblay.
I could understand his affection. The three designs – “Rail Spurs,” “Docks and Channels” and “Garden Rooms” – were very pretty. As university open space, they check all the boxes with swoops and eddys, seats and lounging areas, ponds and plantings.
The designers are also sure to qualify the project for state stormwater treatment grants for the way they capture rainwater from the hillside above and filter it for its final flow to the Sound.
What I noticed most, though, is what was missing. As a vital section of an urban rails-to-trails corridor, it is more roadblock than pathway. As an adaptive reuse of one of Washington’s signature historic icons, it flunks history.
First the corridor. Tacoma considers the Prairie Line (for some reason UWT calls its segment the “Hood Corridor”) an important part of its hoped-for network of bike and pedestrian trails. The city won federal transportation enhancement grants to plan its sections of the Prairie Line because of the potential for non-motorized transportation.
When the city gave UWT its rights to the middle 20 feet of the line through campus, the City Council stated that Tacoma “views the entire Trail as a vital element in its plans to link the downtown to the waterfront, as well as to southern areas of the City and the regional trail system.”
But such a use isn’t listed among the UWT’s nine Hood Corridor Objectives. Bike enthusiasts were told Monday they might be better off using Jefferson Street above campus. And Tremblay told the city Landmarks Commission last week: “One of the philosophies is, this isn’t a bike highway. Being on campus, we want it to be a more passive place where people stop, look, learn, listen.
“If you’re really a biker and you’re trying to get somewhere, we’re trying to direct you to other places.”
There must be some happy medium between a “bike highway” and the way these designs grudgingly allow bikers and walkers to traverse what resembles a pedestrian mall. A real trail, after all, only requires 14 feet of the 80-foot right of way. There are ways to control any possible conflicts.
Bob Myrick of the Tacoma Wheelman’s Bicycle Club attended the campus presentation and lamented the change from trail to something else.
“That was the way it was originally dreamed of, but now it’s changing,” he said later. “It’s more like a garden park.”
Elliott Barnett is Tacoma’s open space coordinator and has watched the UWT’s planning. He said the city will send the UWT its reaction to the three proposals.
“We’re looking for an ample through-corridor concept here,” Barnett said while acknowledging the complexities of the campus environment.
At least the UWT mentions history in its objectives. The design is to “respond to the industrial past” of the area and “honor the historic significance of the railroad terminus.”
But it’s hard to see much of either in the three designs. The original use will not be obvious. And though the architects might get points for retaining the steel rails, that doesn’t mean a visitor will always notice.
“In all options, the rail line stays there,” Tremblay told landmarks commissioners. However, it might be buried under berms or plantings or covered by stormwater ponds.
“You’re not going to be able to see it all the time, but you’ll know where it was,” he said.
Susan Johnson, an architectural historian attending the open house, said she found the designs generic. Lots of paving and wood are used, but little brick and steel.
“I don’t get the sense that it is Tacoma specific and I don’t see the industrial heritage,” she said.
Sharon Winters of Historic Tacoma told landmarks commissioners the railroad history is underplayed.
“I’m concerned with how far this is moving from the narrative of the Prairie Line,” she said.
Yes, the property is now owned by the university. Yes, it is in the midst of a college campus. But the Prairie Line and its history are public domain. The university may own the land, but it doesn’t own the story.
Encouraging a free flow of people into, out of and through the campus fits exactly within its ethic of a campus without walls.
The UWT seems in a hurry. If it wants bicyclists to slow down, it should, too.
Link to UWT webpage with Atelier Dreiseitl’s latest designs and a way to send comments
Peter Callaghan: 253-597-8657
peter.callaghan@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/politics
Twitter: @CallaghanPeter
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