solving the seattle center problem : catching a moonbeam in a jar
With all of the controversy over whether Key Arena will have long-term tenants, you may have started thinking about the rest of Seattle Center and what the heck can be done to make it better and less of a monument to mid-century private-public partnerships. If so, it turns out that you weren’t alone. A special task force was called together nine months ago to deliberate on how to make the city’s “living room” into less of a fixer-upper. The P-I has a lengthy preview [#] of their report, here are the main recommendations:
- Seattle Center could stop being defecit spenders if the city would take on the $50 million in debt from the last Key Arena renovation.
- Overhaul the monorail since it’s the only one we’ve got
- Re-invent the Center House by letting in some sunlight
- Offload Mercer arena to the storage-hungry Opera
- Take back Memorial Stadium for underground parking, mixed sports usage, and a “grand entrance” to the Center
- Make Fun Forest more relevant, less carnie
The fun part about all of this is that the City Council will start talking about the Sonics deal before looking at the committee’s report (on Friday). And, of course, there’s the usual question of where we should find the necessary cash: the commission wants to avoid overcommercialization, Ron Sims wants to avoid more taxes.
Last summer, Megan Seling got all existential and depressed over Fun Forest [stranger], which is among the suggestions for areas in need of renewed relevance . What do you love or hate about Seattle Center, and what do you think is worth saving or changing?
The EMP should be a more relevant museum. It is one thing to have a visual art museum that takes the physical objects of art and puts them behind glass. It is a completely different thing to have a music museum consisting mostly of things behind glass as well, considering the fact that you cant put music itself in a display case.
And why aren’t there more concerts there? it should be THE place for shows, dont you think?
I dont love or hate the EMP. I am disappointed by the fact that such potential (goals, space, resources, money) is so thoroughly ignored.
For the most part, I agree. Aside from the concrete floor and odd traffic flow problems, Sky Church is a great venue for shows. Their sound and light systems are fantastic and it’s a nice size for midsized crowds. There’s also the issue of integrating a bar into the performance space. As it stands (particularly for all-ages shows), drinkers are placed entirely out of sight of the band.
The EMP does have the hands-on music area, which is actually pretty neat, but maybe not worth the price of admission. I wonder how fragmenting the space into music, sci-fi, restaurant, bar, and Allen art gallery helps make the space more workable.
Yes, the $20 entrance fee should be $10, and then I wouldnt be nearly as angry. And there should be a student discount, which I dont recall there being.
I have hope that maybe the art exhibit makes interesting points, though I wont see it until the Pop Conference this weekend. There’s potential for making cross-media references about modernity and abstract themes of expression, even if Allen didn’t mean it that way. I’m hoping not to walk in and just be extremely disappointed.