Freeway Park, Urban park in Downtown Seattle, United States.
Freeway Park, officially Jim Ellis Freeway Park, is a 5.2-acre urban park built over a section of Interstate 5 and a city-owned parking lot, with 8th Avenue bridging above it. Designed by Lawrence Halprin's office under Angela Danadjieva, it mixes brutalist concrete forms with greenery across multiple levels of walkways, plazas, and gardens.
The park opened in 1976 as a pioneering project, the first park built directly above a highway in the country. This innovation set a new model for urban space creation over existing infrastructure.
The park's name honors Jim Ellis, the civic leader for whom it was renamed in 2008. Its design by Lawrence Halprin's office, supervised by Angela Danadjieva, is studied as a precedent that helped define a new land-use typology for American cities. The park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 19, 2019.
The park is crossed by 8th Avenue and has several entrances, including a 1982 addition with a staircase and wheelchair ramp that climbs several blocks up First Hill. Concrete surfaces can be slippery when wet.
The park's concrete architecture has become renowned among parkour enthusiasts around the world for its design and structural elements. Athletes and practitioners use the slopes, edges, and levels for training and demonstrations.
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