The Pier's water-oriented uses are active and interesting, encompassing areas of work, education, and recreation. It is a functional and friendly gathering space-- one that also preserves the waterfront's heritage and character. The uplands areas include housing, hotel and office facilities. Fish processing, trawler maintenance, and a transit shed reflect the Pier's working history. The Bell Harbor International Conference Center hosts worldwide conferences, complete with simultaneous translation services. The Maritime Museum beckons all ages to learn about Seattle's past and future waterfront through interactive marine displays and activities.

Laced throughout the complex are a variety of public spaces and viewing opportunities. Seattle residents and visitors can dock their pleasure boats at the short-stay marina, board a cruise ship, relax, or stroll along the boardwalk or marina dock. From several levels, people enjoy spectacular views of the water, as well as the city. Pedestrian bridges provide new waterfront access to existing, vital neighborhoods. A complex of three seafood restaurants offers outdoor, marina-side dining with uninterrupted views. The waterfront trolley connects the Pier to other Seattle points-of-interest.

The Bell Street Pier reclaims the waterfront with new construction, yet the experience is one of new uses blending with historic qualities. It is a place to convene, stay, work, play and live.

The project contributes to the city in numerous ways by providing pedestrian linkages from the waterfront to other urban neighborhoods, offering an urban trail to pedestrians and bicyclists, improving public access, and creating public spaces at the sidewalk level and roof and bridge elevations. Also presented are new views from many levels including reclamation of the Lenora Street Bridge creates a new gateway to Seattle--which for years stood as an unfinished bridge to nowhere.

A framework for economic opportunities created for restaurant and dock workers, private development (townhouses, a hotel, and a World Trade Center with offices for trade-related business), improved infrastructure; and the Bell Harbor International Conference Center will heighten the city's visibility to international visitors and increase prospects for trade.

As a civic amenity characterized by the waterfront, the Pier is void of commercial tourist traps and connotes an environmental awareness. Preserved and enhanced views, public access to the waterfront, and concern for fish migration are evidence of environmental values. Large openings in the deck along the shoreline keep visitors in touch with the land-to-water connection.

Forty-two permits from 14 agencies covered all aspects of environmental concerns including salmon migration, Indian treaties, and water quality. A full NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act)/SEPA (State Environmental Policy Act) EIS (Environmental Impact Study) was conducted.

Hewitt Isley has also contributed other recent urban projects to the Evergreen State. The Redmond Town Center--a multi-use development--extends south from the existing Redmond downtown street pattern. It was conceived as a shopping center reminiscent of a small-town main street. Fifty percent of the site was reserved for public open space and passive recreational uses, and public amenities (such as plazas and trail systems) were a design focus. Adjacent to the roadways are streetscape and courtyards containing site amenities. Buildings enclose the streetscape, offering a backdrop consistent with the historically significant buildings of the existing downtown.

Parking is on-street, in-structure and in a large lot to the south. The 400-car south parking lot is divided by the South Promenade and landscape medians to create six smaller sub-lots. Structures house 75-percent of the Phase I parking total of 2,050 vehicles.

Over 300 existing, mature fir and cedar trees were retained in the 60 acres of preserved open space. A three-cell stormwater filtration system, located in the open space, processes the project's stormwater and serves as a significant visual amenity of the Center. These "ponds" are organized around a large, central meadow and have already become home to Blue Heron, geese, ducks and fish. Fountains situated in the ponds provide aeration, and are charged by an on-site well that also keeps the water levels constant and supplies the irrigation water for all new landscaping. Wiers at the north end of cell 3 outfall into the river, and also serve as a ladder, allowing salmon refuge in the pond during periods of high velocity in the slough.

A new, multi-use trail currently provides a recreational loop around the central meadow and connects Redmond Town Center to Sammamish River trail. Eventually, linkages will be completed to Marymoor Park and east to a planned Bear Creek trail.

The Landscape Architects worked with the engineers to coordinate all site infrastructure and develop designs of the stormwater ponds, central meadow, south parking lot, and on-street parking areas.

A collaboration of Landscape Architecture, architecture and urban design through trellis elements spanning Post Alley and connecting the two gardens form Harbor Steps East Apartments-- a downtown residential, mixed-use development of 285 apartments, a major courtyard garden, retail, restaurant, and a 20-unit hotel, and the extension of Post Alley for pedestrian use. The project is located between Pioneer Square to the south and the Pike Place Market to the north.

The second phase of a four-phase development to rise above Harbor Steps Park, the project is part of a continuum of development that connects downtown Seattle to the waterfront via a major pedestrian hillclimb, helping transform downtown into a 24-hour community. The primary design concept integrates the project into the diverse, existing neighborhood, reinforcing street edges, and creating urban opportunities.

The block forms a spacious interior garden viewed by residents and the public over the bridge linkage of First Avenue to Western Avenue, and the extension and development of Post Alley. The garden is a visual linkage of green accomplished through trellis elements spanning Post Alley and connecting the two gardens.

Hewitt Isley believes that Landscape Architecture--as a service integrated with urban design and architecture--embraces, supports and reinforces the goals of the urban design process, and provides the necessary place making and local context for architecture. lasn