JULY 2020 NRPA.ORG

48 Parks & Recreation | J U L Y 2 0 2 0 | P A R K S A N D R E C R E A T I O N . O R G

Listening to Matt Walker talk about the Riverfront Park project in Spokane, Washington, it’s clear that his excitement is palpable.

“Pictures don’t do it justice. I wonder how amazing it looks from the sky,” he says.

Walker, a project manager for Hill International, is talking about Spokane’s Riverfront Park pavilion and its recent renovations, which began in December 2017 and were completed in September 2020. The project is one of many under the Riverfront Park Bond Program for which Hill is providing program, project and construction management. The renovation is a point of pride for its project manager, not only because of the role Walker played, but also because he’s been a Spokane resident for more than 16 years. This pavilion, he believes, will help breathe new life back into Spokane’s downtown Riverfront Park.

A Piece of History and a Warning to All Until recently, the pavilion had been hidden away by buildings. Like unsightly carpet in an old house, “the pavilion was wall-to-wall concrete,” Walker says. “It was a concrete jungle.”

However, the pavilion didn’t al-ways look this way.

In the 1970s, much like today, the world had the environment on its mind. It was the beginning of the “modern environmental move-ment,” a time when nature became

more than just breathtaking scen-ery. Scientific evidence had de-clared pollution a credible threat to a once thriving world that humans were slowly poisoning with vehicle emissions, factories and litter. Pro-tecting the earth became part of the nation’s agenda, so the United States created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970 and passed various “clean” legisla-tion, like the Clean Air Act of 1970 and the Clean Water Act of 1972.

In May 1974, Spokane host-ed Expo ’74, a world’s fair with a

theme that was the first of its kind: “Celebrating Tomorrow’s Fresh New Environment.”

Nature had been on the minds of Spokane officials well before the start of the fair. Citizens and politicians wanted to clean up the industrial downtown area, includ-ing railroad tracks that intersected streets and caused traffic jams, and dilapidated buildings that blocked views of the cherished Spokane River and Falls.

Officials and community mem-bers considered Spokane Falls to be the city’s greatest attraction and wanted to reunite the people with its roaring waters. But the town was small and didn’t have the money to fund such big dreams. As a solu-tion, officials devised a plan to host a world’s fair, which would allow the city to obtain state and federal funding to pay for the town’s clean-up. Once the fair left, the city could create a downtown park that would revitalize the community and bring nature back to its citizens, some

Spokane’sRiverfront Pavilion

How this renovation in Washington state serves as a portal to the past while looking toward the future

By Lindsey Wells and Elizabeth J. Zipf, LEED AP BD+C

PH

OT

OS

CO

UR

TES

Y O

F C

ITY

OF

SP

OK

AN

E P

AR

KS

& R

ECR

EAT

ION

W W W . P A R K S A N D R E C R E A T I O N . O R G | J U L Y 2 0 2 0 | Parks & Recreation 49

Light blades allow for the pavilion’s structure to be translucent during the day, but pay homage to its original form when lit.

50 Parks & Recreation | J U L Y 2 0 2 0 | P A R K S A N D R E C R E A T I O N . O R G500 ParParks ks & R& R& ecreation | J U L YU L 2 0 2 00 | P A R K SA A N D R E C R E A T I O N . O R G

of whom had been blinded by big, clunky commercial structures for so long they had forgotten that those water views even existed.

Ten countries participated in the fair. Each country received its own pa-vilion space to demonstrate its unique interpretations of the expo’s environ-mental theme. Some countries, like Canada, chose to celebrate nature by offering outdoor exhibits that featured a playground and outdoor theater, while Japan debuted a peaceful, lav-ish garden. In stark contrast, the Unit-ed States used technology to deliver its environmental message.

The U.S. Pavilion had a lush green roof wrapped over most of the structure, an outrageous con-cept in 1974. Trees stood guard around the site, while the pavilion’s exterior resembled a giant, taut, tilted tent. A white canopy hugged the net cable structure that upheld it, and painted on the entrance wall

was the motto “The Earth Does Not Belong to Man, Man Belongs to the Earth,” a precursor to the IMAX film playing inside the tent.

The film juxtaposed breathtaking images of earthly treasures like the Grand Canyon with dramatic flash-es of human destruction. Footage of dying trees weakened by smog, land torn up for its coal, and oil rig fires demonstrated humanity’s willing-ness to abuse earth’s resources. It was a cautionary tale that foreshadowed our world’s current climate crisis.

Nevertheless, Spokane main-tained a hopeful outlook on the fu-ture and a pledge to keep its prom-ise to the community.

Old Habits, New CenturyAfter the fair ended, the city fol-lowed through with its plan to turn the downtown fairgrounds into Riverfront Park, a 100-acre park that includes two islands, a diver-sion dam and powerhouse, seven bridges, and areas on the north and south bank of the Spokane River. The pavilion stayed.

“The pavilion is like the Riverfront’s living room. It’s centrally located, and it’s the heart of the park,” Walker says. Yet over four decades, the intro-duction of buildings and structures diminished its grandeur and obscured views of the river and falls.

Demolition with a Conscience“The pavilion has an archeology and attitude all its own,” says Guy Mi-chaelsen, a principal for Berger Part-nership, the pavilion’s landscape ar-chitects. “Its reimagining was based more on subtraction than additions. Our big move was to strip out all

structures but the historic net and the original integral ring building and treat the space as a wonderfully ab-surd and un-natural landscape.

Although demolition and con-struction can create environmental challenges, the team found ways to protect the grounds.

“We removed trees,” says Hill International’s Lorraine Mead, senior construction manager for the project, “but with the goal of planting two trees for every one re-moved.” They also removed berms of fill material that, now gone, al-lowed for panoramic views of the river, falls and surrounding greens.

“These renovations had the same environmental spirit of Expo ’74,” says Michaelsen, “but in ways no one could have ever imagined in 1974.” Thanks to decades of envi-ronmental research, the team could use innovative methodologies that didn’t exist 40 years ago.

“The site was previously occupied by rail yards and industrial activity that negatively impacted our soil,” says Berry Ellison, program man-ager for City of Spokane Parks and Recreation. “Creative stormwater engineering allowed us to avoid infil-tration into poor subsurface soils and convey clean water back to the river.”

To help ensure proper site clean-up, the construction team capped all on-site contaminated soil with either clean soil or hardscape. Workers also used contaminated soils excavated during construction of the Looff Carousel, ice rink, promenades and pavilion to build up the amphitheater bowl beneath the pavilion ring, which was then capped with clean soil, making it an environmentally friendly and cost-effective use of materials.

Because of the team’s thoughtful planning and hard work, the pavil-ion is now part of an open space

S P O K A N E

Recent renovations to Riverfront Park incorporate the environmental spirit of Expo ’74.

P A R K S A N D R E C R E A T I O N . O R G | J U L Y 2 0 2 0 | Parks & Recreation 51

surrounded by grass and plants, just like it was always intended to be. Walker says, “The renovat-ed pavilion welcomes nature in instead of hiding from it. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like it.”

The Comeback Kid“Everyone loves a comeback,” Walker says. “And the pavilion came back in a big way, especially thanks to its light display.”

Because the pavilion’s original white cover was never meant to with-stand the wear and tear of Mother Nature and time, officials removed it not long after the expo. The design team was tasked with coming up with a comparable replacement.

What was their solution? Install light blades. “The pavilion’s cable net struc-ture and silhouette [are] the same as when [they were] built for the fair. But suddenly, here the pavilion is, in the 21st century, and it’s covered in these gorgeous lights that are bright, yet sub-tle, something to marvel at without feeling overwhelmed,” Walker says.

Michaelsen says that part of the idea for light blades came from the community’s input.

“Many in the community seemed enamored with the idea of cover-ing the pavilion as it had been for Expo ’74,” Michaelsen says. “But as we worked with the communi-ty, we realized it was not a cover they wanted; they wanted to see the great shape of the structure. What emerged was the idea of letting the cable cone be translucent in the day, but become solid at night.”

The city’s P&R team couldn’t be happier with the results. “The de-sign-build team understood the [parks department’s] desire for a covered space,” says Ellison. “Their idea to

cover the pavilion in a dynamic light display with added shade sails that preserved the view of the sky certainly exceeded our wildest imaginations.”

A Progressive MethodInnovative ideas and technology were not the only elements of the project the city applauded. The proj-ect’s delivery method played a big role in the success of the project as well. “The parks department consid-ered several delivery methods for this project,” Ellison says. “We ultimate-ly chose progressive design-build be-cause of the advantages of real-time estimating, immediate feedback from our contractor regarding design concepts and schedule constraints. Ultimately, our ever-evolving pro-gram would have been nearly impos-sible with a traditional design-bid-build delivery method.”

“This method’s flexibility allowed for dramatic changes to the project,” Mead says. “It gave the project lots of opportunity to excel, and each team involved was able to successful-ly collaborate and fulfill the owner’s ever-expanding, imaginative vision.”

A Portal to the PastFor many, the pavilion was a celebra-tion of Mother Nature and all she has to offer, as well as a symbol of hope for a better, cleaner world. Now, it sym-

bolizes the city itself and Spokane’s unwavering determination to bring its natural beauty back to its people.

In 1974, a fairgoer could visit the pavilion to learn that the world was in danger. Today, it’s a place where a park-goer can be immersed in the nature that environmentalists so earnestly want to protect.

It’s also a place of community. “A guiding principle of our design was that the experience within had to ex-ceed the experience from afar,” Mi-chaelsen says. “With every step closer to the pavilion, we wanted you to see something awesome, something that would excite you and draw you in. In its reimagined state, the pavilion is better than ever from afar, especially at night, but more importantly, it’s an exceptional experience from within as well. And while most city icons require admission, the pavilion is a complete-ly free public place. It’s a community treasure, not a tourist novelty.”

So far, the pavilion has hosted con-certs, spin classes, a Native American ceremony, ghost stories, the mayor’s gala and weekend light shows. The openness of the pavilion, its accessi-bility and the misty falls it neighbors make it an even better place than the past could have ever imagined.

Lindsey Wells is a Freelance Writer based in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area (lindseywells29@gmail.com). Elizabeth J. Zipf, LEED AP BD+C is Senior Vice President of Global Marketing at Hill International (elizabethzipf@hillintl.com).

Riverfront Spokane is a place of commu-nity that brings natural beauty to the

city’s residents.