Two ways of doing it

“We are presenting three concepts. The first is re centering the psyche of Seattleites around the Bay. The second is re connecting the city with the waterfront. And the third is creating a vibrant new public raum.”

Oh, I like that take on a city entrance. A welcoming front porch.

I know I am repeating myself here, but I just find it too interesting not to. This quote above is from James Corner of James Corner Field Operations and his presentation of the Seattle waterfront design a little more than a month ago. I would say the goals for the Umeå waterfront are very similar though. With replacing the word bay by river it would fit right in at the aim for the City of Umeå on the waterfront project The City Between the Bridges (Staden mellan broarna). As Seattle is using the word re centering, re connecting, it seems like they are more aware of the origin of the heart of the city, but I think Umeå would easily sign on those statements too.

My two cities have chosen different processes to reach their goals for the waterfront projects. Seattle has given the assignment for the design of the 26 blocks to James Corner Field Operations, probably most known for the design of The Highline in New York. Very important though is the Central Waterfront Committee, a group formed by the mayor and the city council. Civic partnership between government, communities, philanthropy and business in Seattle will help drive the project and give it a strong foundation. The committee is to provide civic oversight and leadership to make the project not only be good design, but to actually build it and make it happen.

Umeå has chosen to keep control of the process and the design for the river waterfront within the City Hall, although interacting with the property owners along the 8 blocks and assigning architects for the different sections of the stretch. Ulf Nordfjell, gold medal winner of The Chelsea Flower Show in London, will be designing the landscaping for the most central parks along the waterfront. And the Norwegian architectural firm Söhetta, famous for the Alexandria Library and creating the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York will be designing the main attraction on the Umeå Waterfront, a new building for cultural arts; Kulturväven (The Fabric of Culture). Kulturväven is an example of the City collaborating with a developer, as the City and Balticgruppen formed a joint company to build this new landmark. 

It will be very interesting following these processes in Umeå and Seattle over the next few years. I am a very lucky woman being a part of two cities where building cranes is a constant and the visions sometimes are as high. We take our time, yes. But a waterfront is the front porch of a city. The entrance, the welcome, the hi there, come on in! We better get it right.