Freeway Park

About

Located between 6th and 9th Avenues, Freeway Park is bounded on the north by Union and on the south by Spring Street. To the east is First Hill, to the west the park overlooks Seattle's financial center. Freeway Park provides a space where residents, shoppers, downtown office workers, hotel visitors and the whole array of people from all backgrounds who make up the downtown population may come together to enjoy the social elements of a city park. 

Jim Ellis has been a lifelong civic leader who led the effort to create Freeway Park in 1976. Ellis also spearheaded initiatives to clean up Lake Washington in the 1950s; to finance mass transit, parks, pools, and other public facilities through "Forward Thrust" bond issues in the 1960s; to preserve farmlands in the 1970s; to build and later expand the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in the 1980s; and to establish the Mountains to Sound Greenway along the I-90 corridor in the 1990s. Most of the projects he was involved in happened only after years of opposition and were a direct result of Mr. Ellis' tenacity. Freeway Park was championed by Jim Ellis and built with the Forward Thrust funds in 1976.

The idea for a downtown park over the freeway is as old as the Seattle segment of Interstate 5 itself. By the time the last light through the city was completed in 1966, public-spirited individuals and the city, county and state officials were already talking about constructing a lid over the below-grade portion separating first hill from downtown.

With Forward Thrust bond money, as well as county, state and federal funding, the five-acre park became a reality in 1976. Seattle's Freeway Park, was the first park in the world to be built atop a freeway. Lawrence Halprin & Associates, under the design direction of Angela Danadjieva, designed the groundbreaking work of landscape architecture. In 2019 the park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Current Projects

Visit the Freeway Park Improvements project page for more information about that project.

Jim Ellis Freeway Park Fountain Discharge Retrofit Project

Spring 2024

Seattle Parks and Recreation awarded the fountain retrofit construction contract to reroute the discharge from the American Legion, Paul Piggott, and Canyon Cascade fountains from the storm drains to the sanitary sewer to JEM Contractors. This project was developed to upgrade the fountains to meet the new water quality code that was approved in 2012.

The work to complete the retrofit of the Canyon Cascade Fountain began in January 2023 but was delayed due to design concerns from WSDOT. We resolved those issues with a new steel tank design in May 2023. Thank you for your patience as we work to return all three fountains to operation by May 2024. 

If you have questions or need more information about the Freeway Park Fountain project, contact Morteza Behrooz at: Morteza.Behrooz@seattle.gov or (206) 612-8780