Seattle’s New Overlook Walk Offers Ample Park Space Near Pike Place Market

The centerpiece of a major revamp of Seattle’s waterfront opened this month, with city officials cutting the ribbon on Overlook Walk, a new overpass and park space connecting Pike Place Market and the waterfront over Alaskan Way.

“One of the last major upgrades planned as part of the 15-year project to decide how to remake the central waterfront after the demolition of the Alaskan Way Viaduct, the Overlook Walk is one of the most ambitious public works projects completed by the City of Seattle in decades,” explains Ryan Packer in The Urbanist.

According to Packer, Overlook Walk is designed primarily as a park and gathering space rather than a transportation connection, with parts of it set to close at 10pm every night. “While the Overlook Walk likely won’t make many people’s trips much faster, it will create the type of intuitive connection between some of the city’s most trafficked areas that simply hasn’t existed before, at least not since the elevated Alaskan Way highway dividing the city opened in 1953.”

Packer describes various elements of the Walk, including new playgrounds and stadium-style steps ready for concerts or events. “While many people have mixed feelings about the overall waterfront redevelopment, especially the new Elliott Way roadway up into Belltown and the incredibly wide section of Alaskan Way near Colman Dock, the Overlook Walk represents its high point, in more ways than one, and is poised to become one of the city’s most iconic new spaces.”