Built over a previously exposed reservoir, construction of this Olmsted-adapted, 11-acre park added four acres of open space to the second most densely populated neighborhood in Seattle. The park offers passive and active recreation, diversity, and community within the city, serving as the central hub for the neighborhood. The north end of the park features an interactive water feature, historic gatehouse, and expansive lawn; the south end is highlighted with the childrenÍs play area, wading pool, shelter house (community meeting space), and athletic fields.

Cal Anderson Park directly serves the immediate community of 16,000, including two neighborhood college campuses, the neighborhoodÍs main commercial streets (Pike, Pine and Broadway), residential streets and apartment buildings, and a future light rail station. Nine neighborhood entrances allow for easy access to the park and clear visibility. A fluid circulation system of curved paths accommodates the communityÍs heavy pedestrian traffic as well as its many joggers and bikers.

Cal Anderson Park has become the communityÍs front yard; upon arrival, visitors find a green, vibrant space with plenty of opportunities. Benches can be found alongside the main pathways, but many visitors choose to sit along the parapet walls or on the lawn. The incorporation of gracefully lit pathways, open views and programming safely accommodate a wide variety of uses and users. The park is maintained by individual park stewards, the Seattle Parks Department and frequently patrolled by the Seattle Police Department making it a place that many people feel safe walking through at late hours.

This park is always filled with the buzz of activity and community. Cal Anderson Park provides users with a variety of experiences, from picnicking and bocce ball on the lawn to people watching on a bench alongside the promenade. Users of all ages and groups of all sizes can be found enjoying the features of the park nearly 24 hours a day, including the interactive water feature, childrenÍs play area, built-in chessboards and lit athletic field and tennis courts.

The park is seen as a meeting place, a thoroughfare, and a destination in a very diverse community where all are embraced. Aside from private and personal use, the park hosts a variety of organized and guerilla community events including outdoor movie nights, the annual Independence Day picnic, free yoga classes, the Capitol Hill Urban Golf Tournament, Drag Queen Softball, Critical Mass and various athletic leagues and clinics.

Forbes.com, "Homepage for the worldÍs business leaders" and the web edition of Forbes Magazine, recently named Cal Anderson Park one of the 12 best urban parks in the United States. The project received a Washington Recreation and Parks Association 2006 Spotlight Facility & Park Award and an American Society of Landscape Architects Washington Chapter 2005 Special Mention. In 1900, the Lincoln Reservoir was constructed to provide SeattleÍs first delivery of water from the Cedar River Watershed. The green space surrounding it was designed by the Olmsted Brothers in 1904 and unofficially named Lincoln Reservoir Park. Once a popular park, it offered active spaces for baseball and a promenade for strolling and socializing. Realities of modern times required surrounding the reservoir with a 10-foot-high chain link fence; weeds, litter and illicit behavior arrived shortly thereafter. Fifty years of neglect and poor urban design decisions took their toll, and the park and its surrounding community declined. State regulatory requirements to cover all urban open-water reservoirs served as the spark that ignited the communityÍs interest in reviving the park and kindled much optimism for its future. The city chose in 1996 to construct a new subsurface reservoir within the footprint of the existing open reservoir. As the community continued to take notice of the siteÍs great potential, the park/reservoir site was designated a Seattle Landmark in 1998. The decision to bury an existing, open reservoir within a 100-year-old historic park put into motion the decade-long process of transforming a forbidding site into a vibrant public space and yielded four new acres of usable land. This spurred the revitalization of the neighborhood and emerged as an inclusive center of a strikingly diverse communityë‹a suitable challenge for those accustomed to dichotomies, since Capitol Hill is the center of SeattleÍs counterculture even while hosting some of the cityÍs largest mansions and finest establishments.