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Renton’s downtown Piazza today
There are only four and a half months until the Renton Farmers Market opens, and just five months before international visitors fill local hotels for the FIFA World Cup. But our 26-year-old downtown Piazza, which will host the Market and soccer celebrations events, currently looks more like a construction zone than a park.
Much of the foliage in this Piazza photo from 2023 is now gone.
Water features in the park are being eliminated. The Piazza fountain the way it looks today.
The Piazza in 2023, the way it looked before demolition last summer
Crews will be scrambling during the next 18 weeks in what could be consider a self-inflicted emergency, since the Piazza was a nice park before it was torn up last summer. As one of Renton’s stakeholders who helped plan and build the Piazza in 2000, I would not have chosen to rip so much of it out. The trees and other plantings were maturing to the original landscape architect’s plans. The shade from the trees, along with the park’s two (now eliminated) water-features, provided much-needed respite from summer heat.
As can be seen in today’s photos, some of the trees are remaining, but many have been removed.
The Piazza in 2023
The Piazza today. Note that Renton’s Piazza Dedication Stone is lying in the foreground.
The nearby “Legacy Square” project, across Logan Ave from the Piazza on the former Big-5 Sporting Goods site, is also up against a tight deadline. In 18 weeks this site is planned to have a stage and bandstand, with a million-dollar-television as a backdrop. The television will broadcast World Cup Soccer games.
This city flyer above, released just today, urges “Get Ready Renton Businesses!” Our businesses could make the same request of the city. “Get our parks ready Renton… and while you are at it, complete the delayed work on Rainier Avenue so visitors can get to the soccer games”
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