Can Seattle Become a Pedestrian Friendly City?
Jan Gehl addressed this question last night during his talk at the Seattle Public Library’s centerpiece building, the Central Library at 1000 Fourth Ave. The seventh event in the Urban Sustainability Forum program, it was co-sponsered by International Sustainable Solutions and the City of Seattle and is part of the Mayor’s Center City Seattle Strategy which hopes to create a livable, walkable, 24-7 community in the heart of Seattle.
The auditorium was packed with architects, urban planners, landscape architects, students and concerned citizens eager to hear Gehl’s advice on what Seattle can do to be a more active, vibrant, pedestrian-friendly city.
Gehl is the force behind GEHL ARCHITECTS - Urban Quality Consultants and author of several books including the (industry) famous New City Spaces. Project for Public Spaces has a well written and thorough profile on him.
Considering a potentially dry and analytical topic and Jan’s thick Danish accent, his lecture was regularly punctuated with chuckles from the audience.
He will be speaking again on June 8th (Wednesday) during a special dinner event, called Dinner with Jan Gehl, held in the street adjacent to King Street Station and Qwest Field. Originally planned for 200 guests, then bumped up to 300, despite the $75 a head cost, tickets appear to have sold out already! Jan’s apperance in Seattle is part of the International Sustainable Solutions group’s efforts to work with government, corporations and non-profits to build the sustainability industry in the Pacific Northwest by proliferating global best practices. They’ve led a highly-successful campaign thus far and have led two group tours to Europe that have been attended and praised by design industry professionals, local developers and city officials.
