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The $12.8 million pavilion/piazza makeover looks way behind schedule, with just nine weeks to go before the world shows up. (Piazza photo taken two days ago)
On January 23rd I posted an entry titled “Renton races to put Piazza back together before World Cup.”
Now, with just barely two months to go (just 47 workdays), the Piazza construction timeline has gone from looking challenging to looking worrisome and mismanaged.
In addition to paying contractors $12.8 million to tear out and rebuild the Piazza and Pavillion, Renton has committed to pay a consultant up to $600,000 to “activate” the Piazza and Legacy Square this summer. Formal activities are scheduled to return to the Piazza by the June 2nd Farmers Market.
Ideally the consultants would use the next two months to install decorations, verify that the flower beds are tidy, walk-through the space with performers and vendors, and perform system sound and lighting checks. Instead, the consultants will be watching anxiously from behind a chain link fence as frantic construction crews work overtime to bury drainage and irrigation pipes, pour and finish concrete, affix plumbing fixtures, install wiring and electrical fixtures, plant trees, roll out sod, and establish flowers and shrubs… all within a nine-week window.
Even if all this work miraculously gets completed by June 2nd, it will have been a self-inflicted emergency that cost the city far more than it should have. There is little hope that this project will get completed with high quality and minimal overtime in less than nine weeks. An old project management axiom says you get to pick two: good, fast, or cheap. When you need it fast, you must sacrifice either quality or cost-efficiency.
If the lovely and well-established Piazza had never been torn out, we would already be holding spring events in this park, creating momentum and energy for this summer. The Park was “World-Cup-ready” in 2023, as shown in the photos below. But Renton’s leaders had the Piazza demolished last summer. We’re now approaching our biggest summer ever for the Piazza, and it’s a muddy construction site. Even in the best case the Piazza will have unestablished plantings and the concrete will probably not be fully-cured by the deadline (it typically takes 28 days to reach full strength). And as I’ve covered in previous blog entries, the Piazza will have lost its water features and the majority of its tree canopy just in time for summer World Cup crowds to arrive.
One of two Piazza water features in 2023 (now destroyed)
Piazza greenery during the Farmers Market in 2023
Ten months ago the Piazza looked like this, unmaintained and closed to the 2025 Farmers Market. Late that summer all the pavement, lawns, water features, and most of the trees and plants were removed.
Renton Farmers Market website tells residents to “meet me at the market” on June 2, 2026, and includes a photo of the original Piazza. Renton will be celebrating the Market’s 25th season.
As seen today, there is so much work to do before June 2nd
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