Major Maintenance Project Information
Hiawatha Playfield Field Renovation

Address: 2700 California Ave SW; Seattle, WA 98116-2451

Current Status

November 13, 2009
Progress was slow due to wet weather this week.

Contractor Field Turf took advantage of two dry days this week to continue gluing work. Crews used electric shears to cut line areas out of the wet turf, dried the cuts and glued the lines in place.

Filling material and equipment are on site and we are waiting on dry weather to proceed.

Project Description

Budget: $3,600,000
Funding sources:
Seattle Parks and Recreation, $2.5 million
Seattle Public Schools, $1 million
King County Council (Dow Constantine), $100,000

Construction begins: Summer 2009
Project complete: Winter 2009

The Hiawatha Playfield will be renovated with synthetic turf and updated lighting. Baseball, soccer, and football will be represented with full-sized facilities. Three lanes of a non-conforming rubberized track will encompass the sports field. Each lane will be 3.5 feet in width. The existing field events located on the east side of the Community Center will also be renovated.

Hiawatha Playfield is an Olmsted park and as such any changes to its existing condition must be reviewed and approved by the Landmarks Board and its subcommitte -- the Architectural Review Committee (ARC). ARC has reviewed the concept twice in the past few months and the full Landmarks Board will likely review the project details sometime in February 2008.

The football grid will be minimally striped with boundary and 5 yard lines.

When Olmsted designed the Playfield in 1911, he only needed to accomodate baseball: football, in its infancy, was primarily played at the college level, and soccer wasn't yet recognized in America. Now, almost 100 years later, those three sports (plus track) must fit into the space as it was created from Olmsted's original design.

In order to accomplish this so that the sports fields are optimally oriented, the single, signficantly large elm located at the south end of the existing soccer field, must come down. This elm suffered storm damage in 2003 and is susceptible to Dutch Elm disease. As the elm will likely suffer additional impacts during the pending field construction, it is prudent to remove the tree now rather than compromise the fields' orientation.

In recent years 13 young trees were installed within the inside of the existing track. These trees will either be moved or replaced elsewhere depending on their value.

Community Involvement

• Meeting Notes 12/12/07 (PDF)