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Events and Receptions


OPENING NIGHT RECEPTION AND LECTURE
Thursday, May 1, 5:30 - 9pm    (included with registration; $20 charge for guests)
5:30 - 7pm Join us for a reception at the South Lake Union Center on the site of South Lake Union Park. A century ago, the original plan for a Seattle park system proposed by John Charles Olmsted recommended that Seattle set aside land for a park at the south end of Lake Union. Olmsted believed the proximity of the site to downtown Seattle would provide a unique and valuable waterfront park for the neighborhoods in Seattle's inner-urban core.

Nearly one hundred years later, in 2000 Seattle Parks and Recreation acquired the former Naval Reserve site at South Lake Union. SPR is currently in the process of developing the site into a 12-acre park providing much-needed greenspace in Seattle's rapidly developing South Lake Union neighborhood.

The reception will be held in the South Lake Union Center and the 1922 Steamer Virginia V will be docked at the Center and open for informal tours.

Reception cosponsored by the Canadian Consulate General
7pm WELCOME:
Douglas Jackson,
President, Friends of Seattle's Olmsted Parks
INTRODUCTIONS:
John Chaney,
Executive Director, Historic Seattle; Vice President, Friends of Seattle's Olmsted Parks
Ron Sims,
King County Executive (invited)

KEYNOTE LECTURE:
JANE HOLTZ KAY, "OLMSTED, NOW MORE THAN EVER"
One hundred years ago, John Charles Olmsted recognized the extraordinary natural landscape advantages that Seattle enjoyed, and recommended that Seattle preserve as many water views, mountain vistas, shorelines and natural open spaces as possible for future generations. As a result, Seattle now possesses one of the most diverse, fully integrated and interconnected urban park systems in the country. However, explosive growth over the last few years in Seattle and the surrounding region has sent development creeping up the foothills of the Cascades. Similar to other metropolitan regions across the country, Seattle is faced with the challenges of preserving open space, providing parks and recreation opportunities and protecting critical wildlife habitat while accommodating growth in increasingly dense urban areas .

Jane Holtz Kay will discuss the need to consider the Olmsted vision, philosophy and concepts as we plan for growth in our urban and rural areas in order to provide an interconnected and well-distributed park and open space system to meet the needs of future generations. Ms. Kay has broad experience in describing and analyzing the built and natural environments. Her commentary on green issues - from building design and preservation to land use and transportation - appears regularly in The Nation, where she is architecture and planning critic, as well as in such other periodicals as Preservation, Planning, Sierra, Architecture, and Landscape Architecture. She also writes frequently for newspapers, including the Boston Globe, the Christian Science Monitor, and The New York Times. She is the author of several books, including Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took Over America and How We Can Take It Back, Preserving New England, and Lost Boston.

Lecture cosponsored by:
Historic Seattle and Washington Trust for Historic Preservation

 

FRIDAY NIGHT RECEPTION AT THE RAINIER CLUB
Friday, May 2, 6- 8pm    ($25 charge)

6-8pm John Charles Olmsted was a guest at the Rainier Club in downtown Seattle for many months in the early 1900s while he worked on the plans for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exhibition, Seattle's first World's Fair in 1909. During his travels, J. C. Olmsted wrote to his wife every day. Their correspondence is filled with comments on local personalities he met, his daily activities, the local landscapes he encountered, and sites he saw during his field visits.


Join the NAOP Board, the Friends of Seattle's Olmsted Parks, the Rainier Club's Literary Arts Committee and members of Seattle's historic Rainier Club for an evening reception and a presentation of the personal correspondence between John Charles Olmsted and his wife, Sophie.

Also included in the evening's festivities will be the presentation of an Olmsted Award in recognition of significant contribution to the preservation and expansion of parks and open space.

Cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. Business attire.
Cosponsored by the Rainier Club

 
LUNCHEON AND PLENARY SESSION:
"THE OLMSTED VISION AND THE FUTURE OF PARKS AND OPEN SPACE"

Saturday, May 3, 12:30 - 2pm    (included with registration; $20 charge for guests)
12:30 - 2pm "The Olmsted Vision and The Future of Parks and Open Space"
A concluding plenary presentation by local and national experts on the Olmsted vision and the future of parks and open space in our urban areas, with emphasis on the importance of organizing communities and involving diverse populations in the effort to keep our parks vital and viable in the 21st century.

Panelists will include:
Mike Houck, Founder and Executive Director of the Urban Greenspaces Institute and Urban Naturalist with the Audubon Society of Portland, Portland, Oregon
Tupper Thomas, President of Prospect Park Alliance and Administrator of Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York
 
GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY AND CONFERENCE CLOSING PRESENTATIONS AT SEATTLE PARKS FOUNDATION RECEPTION
Saturday, May 3, 5:00 - 7:00   (included with registration)
5:00 - 7:00 Join the Seattle Parks Foundation, Seattle Parks and Recreation, the NAOP Board, the Friends of Seattle's Olmsted Parks, and local civic leaders for a Groundbreaking Ceremony and Conference Closing Reception in Volunteer Park.

In honor of Seattle's Olmsted Centennial, the Seattle Parks Foundation has spearheaded the fundraising effort to restore the Lily Ponds in Capitol Hill's Volunteer Park, the gem of Seattle's Olmsted park system. After securing a generous donation from the Tateuchi Foundation as well as additional grants and donations the Seattle Parks Foundation and Seattle Parks and Recreation are set to begin the restoration process. The groundbreaking ceremony, hosted by the Seattle Parks Foundation, will include a proclamation by the National Association for Olmsted Parks recognizing Seattle's Olmsted Park System, and in particular Volunteer Park, as significant landscapes designed by the Olmsted Brothers.

The Seattle Parks Foundation has also helped fund landscape restoration efforts based on the original Olmsted plans of the entry beds at the main entrance to the park. A permanent Olmsted Interpretive Exhibit is located at the top of the historic water tower in Volunteer Park. Participants will also have the opportunity to visit the exhibit and enjoy the territorial views of Mt. Rainier, the Olympic and Cascade mountain ranges, downtown Seattle, Lake Union and the Space Needle.

Hosted by the Seattle Parks Foundation

To learn more about the Seattle Parks Foundation: Click Here