Washington Street Boat Landing Pergola and Habitat Beach

Restoration of the Washington Street Boat Landing Pergola 

The Washington Street Boat Landing Pergola, an iconic structure listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was successfully restored and reinstalled as part of the Elliott Bay Seawall Project. Originally built in 1920 by D.R. Huntington, the pergola served as a symbolic gateway to Seattle from Puget Sound and housed the Seattle Harbor Master. Over the years, it functioned as a landing for ferries and ships, a headquarters for the Seattle Harbor Patrol, and the U.S. Navy’s shore-leave entry point. However, the structure had been vacant since the mid-1970s. 

During the seawall’s construction, the pergola was carefully relocated to protect it. Construction teams moved the steel and iron structure, complete with its 16 decorated columns, approximately 2.4 miles to Terminal 25. The move involved dismantling its wooden roof and exterior office walls, which were stabilized and stored for restoration. The remaining steel framework was transported intact with temporary bracing for stability. 

The restoration process included repairing the office panels and windows, recasting missing ornamentation, and updating the structure to meet modern seismic standards. Once restored, the pergola was returned to its original location at the base of South Washington Street, where it continues to stand as a historic symbol of Seattle’s waterfront for future generations to enjoy. 

Award Winning

Washington Street Boat Landing is a Washington State Chapter winner of the American Public Works Association's 2019 Project of the Year Award and Historic Seattle’s 2019 Preserving Neighborhood Character Award!

Pergola Project Gallery

View of the refurbished pergola on Habitat Beach Black and white photo of the pergola in the 1920s Black and white photo of the dock in use in the 1920s. The pergola is painted white and cars are parked underneath. The viaduct can be seen on the right of the photo. Close up of the docks wooden piles which are leaning and damaged The pergola being restored, under an awning to protect it from the weather The pergola has been repainted and readying for concessions to open The restored Washington Street Boat Landing pergola looking out at Habitat Beach.

Pioneer Square Habitat Beach

Between Colman Dock and Pier 48, a new habitat beach supports the waterfront ecosystem, including enhancing the salmon corridor by adding rocks and nearshore vegetation. Improvements to the marine habitat began in October 2018 thanks to an agreement between Washington State Ferries and the City of Seattle to make these improvements on State-owned property. The plantings on the shoreline restore the function of a natural shoreline and improve ecosystem productivity.  

The Pioneer Square Habitat Beach opened to the public on July 1, 2023.  

Because the beach is a key component to Seattle’s nearshore marine habitat, some rules to keep in mind before heading down include no swimming or entering and exiting the water by personal watercraft, and packing out what you pack in. Additional rules and regulations can be found on the Friends of Waterfront Park website. 

Award Winning

Habitat Beach is a Washington Chapter and national winner of the American Public Works Association's 2020 Environment Less than $5 million Project of the Year Award!  

Habitat Beach Project Gallery

Aerial view of Habitat Beach Visitors to Habitat Beach enjoy the log seating, boulders, and native plantings Habitat Beach view looking west toward the Seattle Water Taxi Dock and West Seattle Work on marine habitat at the intertidal area began in October 2018 with the arrival of a work barge and deployment of the containment boom. A rock slinger was used to place various sizes of rocks A clamshell bucket was used to place different sizes of rocks. Sand and soil being moved up to the beach

Materials used to build the beach

Graphic showing the layers of Habitat Beach: armor rock, quarry spall, sand and gravel, covered with loose subtrate, armor rock arm, vegetated eco-bench, rounded loose substrate, beach sand with dune plantings, beach pea gravel, riparian planting soil, seawall

The completed beach is built with materials that mimic the existing ecosystem of Elliott Bay.

Art - Migration Stage

A night shot of people sitting on the Athropomorphic Dolosse and SeaBearer units.

Migration Stage at Yesler Way and Alaskan Way, near Pioneer Square Habitat Beach.
(Credit: Joe Freeman Junior)

Buster Simpson's Migration Stage presents a sculptural construct created for the present and in anticipation of the future. The installation consists of fourteen Anthropomorphic Dolosse and fifteen SeaBearer units and is located on Seattle’s downtown waterfront at the foot of Yesler Way. Migration Stage provides improvisational social amenities and is also intended to be appropriated for ecological utility as necessitated by climate and environmental changes. By enabling flexibility of placement, future generations have the option to re-set the stage.

Art is a tool. The forms of the concrete Anthropomorphic Dolosse and SeaBearer units draw from structural, ecological and cultural sources. Their functionality reflects the tradition of Indigenous tools that are both utilitarian and aesthetic objects.

Historically, a “dolos” referred to a children’s toy created from repurposed ox or lamb knucklebones. The bones had a self-nesting characteristic that inspired the original 1960’s concept of the dolosse (plural) that are now used worldwide as shoreline armor. The Migration Stage dolosse join a global presence of these iconic sentinels of the Anthropocene. For Anthropomorphic Dolosse, the dolos form has been anatomically modified to become an art tool with the addition of "arm" holes and "facial" indentation. The arm holes add to the utility of the 2900-pound figurative forms, becoming rope holds for anchoring woody debris to create marine habitat. As the Salish Sea rises with climate change, Anthropomorphic Dolosse could either remain in place for habitat anchoring, or be relocated by future generations as needed, repurposed as part of an ecological civic tool kit.

The ninety lineal feet of segmented SeaBearer units serves dual purpose, as seating and as portable sea barriers. The form suggests movable barriers or product stacked along the working waterfront, and foreshadows sandbag deployment against rising waters. SeaBearer units resemble buoyant booms and bladder containment. Metaphorically, the name “SeaBearer" infers that the installation is a bearer of information, news, a prophecy.

Today, Anthropomorphic Dolosse and SeaBearers provide a place to gather. They are catalytic social tools of improvisational engagement. Together they make up Migration Stage, an artifact to the future. Children who play on the installations today may one day come to think differently about their childhood playground, to see it as a tool, a storytelling opera, a Salish Sea dance of resilience, agility and equity.

Have a seat on the lap of mother dolos. The stage is set, or is it?