Seattle’s Pioneer Square Historic District rests on fill at the edge of Puget Sound, between the industry lands along the Duwamish River, the new football/baseball stadium complex and the steel and glass high-rises of downtown. The people that populate this place day and night are as much a study in contrasts as the district’s surroundings. Art and antique galleries of national acclaim reside next to gun dealers and missions. By day, young dot-com urbanites and homeless people alike share the parks and by night, residents and club-goers are added to the neighborhood’s mix.

A place with such disparate constituencies is bound to have some conflicts. Quite often these conflicts manifest themselves in a perceived compromise of community safety by one or more of the neighborhood user groups. Lighting plays a particularly important role in assuaging fears and promoting a sense of security in any neighborhood.

Historic districts, in particular, face some unique design challenges in maintaining their character through lighting design. One fateful afternoon in June of 1889 set in motion the events that would lead to the construction of the brick and stone buildings that make up the matrix of the historic district.

A worker put a pot of glue on the stove. When it boiled over, wood shavings on the floor caught fire and then set the building ablaze. By the end of the day, the Great Seattle Fire had consumed the stick-frame, wood structures of downtown. Few structures escaped. No one was killed. Within a month, Seattle was back in business in a tent city. New building codes mandated brick and stone construction. This fiery beginning led to the construction of the buildings that are being preserved in the historic district today.  

Defining the Challenges of Lighting Historic Districts 

Today, Pioneer Square contains historic reproduction fixtures that are enhanced with some modern forms of lighting including neon and Christmas lights.

True purists would love to see the actual illumination levels of historic districts returned to the incipient state of that time. This is unfeasible given the radical increase in overall urban illumination levels in the past century. The contrast between historic districts and the surrounding city would create new problems of navigability and safety.

The style of the lighting fixture itself and the quality of light it displays have been left with the responsibility of conveying the character of the historic district. Many cities have actually rejuvenated gaslight systems and supplemented their light with additional modern illumination.

The restored Pioneer Square contains an array of strictly electrical historic reproduction fixtures, which have been enhanced with some modern forms of lighting including neon and strings of Christmas lights. These different forms of illumination are combined very successfully to create an atmosphere to the historic district that clarifies its boundaries distinctly. 

Illumination also plays a role in public safety, which according to a 1996 survey is a top concern of residents. And with good reason, another study in that same year found 1,249 "part 1" crimes -- thefts, robberies, assaults and burglaries -- were reported in the greater Pioneer Square area. This number of incidents is very high when compared with Pioneer Square's population of 1485. The explanation for this lies in the thousands of visitors attracted to the area weekly, especially during sporting events and on weekends.

While residents say they generally feel safe in Pioneer Square, they strongly object to people urinating in alleys, street drunks, aggressive panhandling, loitering and homeless people who sleep in doorways. Seattle police officer Lonnie Gillette says he sees the biggest change in these activities at night, "when it's a completely different picture.” 

What role does good lighting play in the prevention of these crimes? Unfortunately, the best answer available right now is that nobody knows. Studies in the United States and in Europe have examined this issue. They have come to no definite conclusions that can be applied across the boards. Part of the problem has been inherent in the science behind the studies, which often suffer from poor controls, poor scientific methodology, and failure to include long term follow-up. If it were so easy to reduce crime with lighting, then we would not even be discussing this design problem. Our cities have never been brighter, yet the crime rate is higher than ever, with an increase in standard illumination levels between 25 and 380 percent since 1925. The connection between crime reduction and increased quantity of illumination is vague at best. 

It is safe to say that good lighting in a park, neighborhood, or shopping mall may indeed bring more people out for shopping and recreation. If this is the case, there may be less crime, as more people are present. Though Pioneer Square may actually suffer from too many people being attracted to its amenities, especially at night to the clubs and homeless missions. At the same time, lighting designers have become aware that there are different qualities of light that can promote a sense of security in public spaces. Harsh, glaring lighting often gives a wasteland appearance to a street or neighborhood. It also makes the darker corners of the area appear darker by comparison, which is the main reason illumination levels have increased so drastically. 

Physical Inventory 

Lighting Fixtures

Pioneer Square has done a lot with a fairly concise palette of lighting fixtures. The staple pedestrian scale fixture is a historic globed standard with three to nine globes on the fixtures depending on their location. The nine-globe fixtures are used explicitly around the iron pergola in Pioneer Place. The standards actually used to do double duty by providing air vents to a subterranean bathroom. Although the facility has long been closed, vents are still visible in the light standards. The five-globe fixtures are used to highlight the totem pole that greets people entering the historic district from downtown. The three-globe fixtures are the standard street light used through the rest of Pioneer Square. The translucent globes of all these lights diffuse the light to help minimize glare by obscuring the light source.

Acorn-shaped historic replica fixtures have been used as lighting infill in Occidental Park. These lights are problematic because the housing is transparent and the light source is directly visible. This creates a high glare situation that makes the eye uncomfortable and makes the darker corners of the public places seem even darker.

Neon has been used widely around Pioneer Square both in storefronts and overhead street signs. They add a charm and character through color and motion that compound the vibrancy of the nightlife in the Square. They contribute an appreciable amount of light to the streetscape. Lights in storefronts and shop windows also add light to the streetscape.

Christmas lights have been strung through the trees in the pedestrian corridors. They illuminate the district year round. There have been many neighborhood discussions as to their constant use both trivializing the holiday they normally are associated with as well as diminishing the festive atmosphere they are typically used to create.

Lighting in the alleys has also been used to discourage illicit activity, but the actual fixtures used for the lighting is a hodge-podge. The problem in the alleyways is much larger than lighting alone can affect, programming these spaces with activity could help increase the sense of security its neighbors feel. Once these activities are decided upon, a lighting program can be implemented to support them. 

Public Space 

Though a dense core of buildings still remains, Pioneer Square has also been able to maintain a reasonable amount of open space and public amenity. There are two main plazas, Pioneer Place and Occidental Park, which includes a pedestrian mall spanning two blocks at the heart of the historic district.

Pioneer Place acts as the gateway into Pioneer Square from downtown Seattle. It contains a totem pole and an ornate pergola. At night this is the most highly illuminated part of the historic district, as much for the quirky traffic pattern as the pedestrian traffic. Occidental Park is an expansive cobble-stoned plaza, abutting a brick-paved pedestrian mall. This is the primary location where the acorn fixtures occur as infill lighting. Overall the space is well organized with respect to light, identifying the pedestrian corridors clearly. The major problem comes as the mall tries to cross Main Street. Automobiles are not made sufficiently aware that they should expect pedestrians crossing in the middle of the block. This could be solved by improving the lighting hierarchy to call out the crosswalks, either through a change in type of illumination-by using light bollards, or by changing the amount of illumination- by using five-globe light standards.

The streets on the whole feel safe, populated by late night food sellers, street musicians and people wandering between clubs. As with the pedestrian connections for the mall, some of the intersections and crosswalks look to benefit from a clarified lighting hierarchy.

Alleys, however, are another matter. Residents complain that some are drug dens and public toilets. Despite the city's efforts to clean them nightly, some are a mess of human excrement, overflowing trash bins and broken glass. As mentioned before, increased public activity in these spaces that informs the lighting program could do much to improve the quality and safety of these spaces. 

Social Inventory 

Residents & Business People 

One club located on the edge of Occidental Square has added their own exterior lighting to the street lighting. Two others located mid-block on the main street (First Avenue) have only neon signs to announce their presence. Location and clientele appear to play a part in the lighting decisions.

Community bonds are tight in Pioneer Square. Residents know one another, and the beat cops are considered friends. In 1996, the neighborhood groups banded together to form the Pioneer Square Community Development Organization, an umbrella group targeting some of the area's thorniest issues. All this cohesiveness was born of necessity. It took an unprecedented effort in the 1960s to save Pioneer Square. Back then, downtown interests wanted the area bulldozed for parking lots and a loop road serving downtown. The first victim was the formerly grand Seattle Hotel, which was razed in 1963. When the now infamous “Sinking Ship” parking garage replaced the landmark hotel, a stunned community got organized and fought back to protect Seattle’s past.

In 1970, the Pioneer Square Historic District was created, along with a preservation board to review architectural developments. The community spirit that defeated the plan led to the creation of Occidental Park and its associated pedestrian mall in the 1970s, and much of the landscaping that now forms a green canopy over streets, sidewalks and cafes.  

Homeless-missions 

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, men flocked to Seattle hoping to find jobs. They swelled the ranks of the unemployed, relying on soup kitchens and missions for food. Today, more than 500 men and women bunk down nightly at the Bread of Life Mission, Union Gospel Mission and the Compass Center. The relationship between the shelters and Pioneer Square is one of acceptance, in part because the missions have been there for so many years and most own their own buildings. The neighborhood on the whole seems to understand that the missions are not likely to go away and so the best they can do is work together to make their impact as small as possible on the community.

The missions themselves have done a good job of making their locations readily visible through open neon signage. This has made people aware of both the existence of the missions and the likelihood of contact with homeless people. 

Tourists 

There are three missions in the historic district. They serve a purpose that other neighborhoods have been loath to welcome. Beyond the neon mission sign, the light standards help reinforce the linear organization of the pedestrian/automobile corridor.

With two major athletic stadiums to the south and nationally recognized art and antique galleries, Pioneer Square has become a major tourist destination day and night. Though their presence is most directly felt during the day, as they wander the streets in tour groups, many tourists return in the evenings to partake of the food and music the neighborhood has to offer and become part of the final user group. 

The Party Crowd 

On any given weekend night, and quite often during the week as well, Pioneer Square is filled with people strolling the streets, checking out a new rock band in one club, a blues group in another, reggae in the next. Couples come here to dance, singles come to look and groups come to party. The joint cover shared between ten clubs in the district allows partygoers to partake of jazz, acoustic folk and experimental music all in a single night.

The heavy weekend foot traffic makes the streets safe early in the evening. As the clubs let out, the story changes. The neighborhood appears deserted and definitely not lived in, and often rowdy behavior ensues. There may be ways, through diminishing quantity and increasing quality of illumination, to portray the residential side of the neighborhood and make people more aware that they are in someone’s backyard as they leave the clubs. 

Identifying Further User Conflicts 

With concerns of safety paramount in the neighborhood, lighting was added to the alleyways both to reinforce visitor’s perception of safety as well as to discourage elicit and unsanitary behavior.

All the different people who populate Pioneer Square at various times of the night and early morning, bring different needs and perceptions with them into this place. To move closer to resolving issues of safety in the neighborhood, one must start by trying to understand the diverse needs of these groups. An inclusive community process is the perfect venue for identifying the different problems perceived by these groups. The author recently participated in the creation of such a process at the University of Washington’s Seattle campus. Using a method that combined a survey with focus groups that included community members from all the different user groups, the design and planning team was able to learn a lot about what the real problems were in that neighborhood. Pioneer Square looks to be ripe for just such a process, especially with all the recent neighborhood upheaval; Pioneer Square has recently weathered an earthquake, Mardi Gras riots and a truck colliding with and destroying the restored 1909 Pergola, all since the beginning of 2001. 

The survey should be used to get a better understanding of how and when the people use Pioneer Square and who these people actually are besides being a member of an over generalized user group. The follow up focus group should include cognitive mapping exercises, in which the participants identify the landmarks they use to navigate the neighborhood as well as to identify places they consider unsafe, annotated with why they feel it is unsafe. This process should help to identify and prioritize items for action, whether they are design-related or otherwise. Those items that are impacted by lighting can be further understood by creating localized comparative lighting designs, evaluated by the users who identified the experiment area as being unsafe. This worked with a good degree of success at the University of Washington. In Pioneer Square, alleyway lighting and public plaza lighting appear to be the most likely areas in the area to need this type of attention.  

As is often the case, this type of study may create as many new questions as they have answered. With a neighborhood as diverse as Pioneer Square containing such an active and committed resident population, this may be the only type of process that is inclusive enough to meet their approval. LASN