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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”
Nobody went near those “water features” unless it was to pee. The Piazza was outdated and not safe. No smart downtown resident went there after dark unless it was to score drugs or buy stolen property. It sorely needed fixing. It may have been a great design back in 2000, but like my Mom’s 2001 Malibu, it’s time had passed.
I’m glad something is being done.
And, the main part of the work is done. They have plenty of time to finish it.
I agree that this fountain was neglected the past couple years. It bothered me so much I posted a blog entry about it here. But the concern you mentioned, which I’ve heard from the city, is really a security/restroom availability issue. Getting rid of the fountain won’t prevent the same individuals from using other parts of the park as a restroom. The soccer mini-pitch, the million-dollar TV, the playground– we don’t want people relieving themselves on any of these amenities. Seattle has many large and beautiful public fountains, and they are not closing them. All world-class cities have abundant fountains and water features. What makes Renton so special that we can’t have them?
With regard to activating the Pavillion and Piazza, in past years we had both facilities so busy that their activities practically interfered with each other– a good problem to have as hundreds of visitors were coming into our downtown many nights of the year. We had to move Movies in the Park from the Piazza to Liberty park when the Pavilion Event Center became so steadily booked that it’s crowds were making it hard to hear the movies.
The Pavillion could have been booked for events 200 nights a year as it was in the past, except Renton stopped giving Rain City Catering a long enough lease for residents to book major events like weddings and conferences. In effect, the City stopped the Pavillion from functioning to draw crowds, and then stopped properly maintaining the facilities.
Renton taxpayers are now investing $12 Million dollars remodeling and re-landscaping the Pavillion, Piazza, and Gateway Park, and giving $600,000 to a consultant for programming these three acres through the summer of 2026. I hope it works out well for our city this summer and into the future, but it did not have to be so expensive, and the security and restroom issues will need to be dealt with or else the situation will be no better than it is now after a few years.
And as Seattle, Bellevue, and other neighboring cities add more and more water features to their parks, Renton will increasingly stand out as the only city that can’t have them.
At this point, the Public Works Director seems to view this park as nothing more than PowerPoint bullets. Managed from 50 miles away.
When is the mayor going to have the backbone to require city employees to show up and actually do their jobs?
Even King County does not allow staff to phone it in anymore. Our city deserves engaged employees who give a damn. We deserve people who care enough about this place to work in it.
You all do know this is grift right? Follow the money. Why would a city spend so much money revamping a mostly good park when it could have spent the money to bring in something new?
Bring in something better. Like what?
$12.6 million dollars could have paid for many alternative improvements to downtown. For instance, instead of remodeling the Pavilion event center into farmers market spaces, we could have built an additional Farmers Market building downtown. Then we could have both an event center AND a farmers market building in the heart block, bringing in far more visitors. Eugene Oregon just built a brand new one for $12.5 Million dollars.
We also could have used these funds to redevelop the Renton Transit Center property after the transit center moves out.
A little further away, for a fraction of the money, we could have covered the lap pool at Henry Moses Aquatic Center, making the facility a year-round pool. Many Renton residents would like to swim year-round. The pool deck is provisioned for this change, but we never had the money.
Countless improvement ideas have been submitted for downtown over the years, but tearing up the Piazza, taking out all the water features and putting in a million-dollar TV were never on the list.
Below is a photo of the building Eugene Oregon recently built for $12.5 million. (We could have had this AND the Pavilion Event Center)
agreed! just a waste of money.
1000% and the big screen TV will be crowd pleaser for the homeless now too. just stupid! no one is going to gather down there and watch whatever this sporting event is! 1. Where will they be parking??? no one wants to park downtown Renton at night anymore anyways!
Ten months ago residents were told that Piazza construction would be complete by the end of 2025. We’re now a month past that, and they’re still digging trenches for pipes and conduits. It does not inspire confidence that the project is going to come in anywhere close to being on budget, if its even finished in time.
Below is the Renton Reporter from last March telling us this would be done by the end of last year.
Delays in construction- Yeah, it’s almost like everything always goes 100% perfect all the time.
Which Boeing platforms were you on again, Randy?
My 33-year Boeing resume is too long to share in-depth here, but I’ll summarize by saying I brought projects in safely and on time. And many of these projects were hundreds or even thousands of times bigger than the Piazza project. You have to watch these projects every minute, make sure details get worked, make up time where you can, and have contingency plans to prevent delays from cascading.
In one of my many projects, I managed on-time and on-budget government certification of Renton’s largest-ever airliner, the 757-300. I oversaw same-day certification of the airliner in the USA and Europe, and achieved Extended Range certification at the same time.
I did similar key design and certification on the 737NG program, helping certify the incredibly safe and popular family of 737-airliners that preceded the MAX. I also certified the first inflight use of wi-fi in the USA, Europe, Japan, and around the world, as part of our Connexion by Boeing system satellite internet system , which we installed on Airbus Airplanes as well as Boeing airplanes. And I certified specially-equipped 757 and 737 aircraft with the Air Force and Navy, which carry dignitaries and generals, including the vice president. I also served as Certification Manager for Air Force One many years ago, and those planes are still in service.
In addition to these programs, I managed countless design upgrades and modifications to in-service airplanes. The ownership cost alone of a commercial airliner is between $1 million and $4 million per month, so it’s extraordinarily expensive to fall behind in building, updating or modifying even a single airplane. I was a considerate and reasonable manager, and my employees liked working for me; but they knew I would have no patience for anyone just letting a project drift months past its deadline, or (like Rainier Avenue) seemingly spending little energy on a project while it goes over a year past it’s deadline.
And those projects always came in on time and under budget?
I joined Boeing at a time when they rarely missed a delivery date, and I was mentored by the engineers and managers that made it happen. I took the same expertise and philosophy with me to my 28 years on City Council, and pushed hard as an engineer/councilmember to see us complete projects on schedule. I was not the only councilmember that did.
Lately I’m frustrated that I don’t see the same push by the Public Works Director, Council and the Mayor to get these projects completed at least close to the committed timeline.
Anonymous troll
Note that another current city project, Rainier Ave Phase 4, is nearly a year overdue and many millions over budget. We accomplished Phase 3 of this project on a southern section of Rainier, with all the same elements as Phase 4, while I was the senior member of Renton City Council. That project phase was completed three months ahead of schedule, on budget, and we kept five lanes of traffic flowing on most days.
This comment stream, along with yet another high-cost change on the Rainier Ave project on Monday night, inspired me to write a new blog post about Rainier Avenue change orders. You can read it here.
The same city council that you retired from and then ran a very unenthusiastic campaign to rejoin? Now you are a parrot for some group in Renton who seems complaint oriented as opposed to result oriented?
Nite nite, Randy.
There have been a few campaigns recently that have been “Renton Nice.”
They got clobbered by the “Seattle Hobbible” candidates.
After serving on City Council for 28 years, another four years on Council was not exactly on my bucket list. But I still live here, along with my five children and seven grandchildren, so I care deeply about our city and I will not sit idly by and let anyone else wreck it or misuse our tax money.
After twenty years of publishing my own original analysis, photos, opinions, thoughts and ideas– often tipping other news media about Renton stories– I’m not sure why anyone would say I was parroting someone else. But I do like birds, so there is that.
I’ve answered a lot of questions here. Perhaps, Anonymous, you could give more details about why you are so enthusiastic about eliminating the Pavilion Event Center, removing trees and foliage, and replacing water features with a giant TV, all for a price tag of $12 million. Do you think we don’t get enough screen time, so we need television in our parks? Was this your idea? And how do you feel about the project running so late… aren’t you concerned about contractor change orders and overtime/rush-work charges adding to the bills? How will you feel if we see an extra few million dollars added to our taxes because everything ran late? Are you happy with the project management and do you feel this is the best use of $12 million that you could have come up with?
Regarding the fountains. I have been at the Piazza multiple times each summer over the years and the fountains and water features were very much enjoyed by park attendees. Often families would sit near the fountains and eat their purchased food while the kids also played in or around the water. It is a big loss to lose those features, along with all the mature trees that have been removed, for what reason no one knows.
There was a prior comment about people peeing in the fountain. Please watch the Renton Committee of the Whole meeting from January 12, 2026. Pay attention at 29min45sec where the subject of toilets at Legacy Square is brought up.
There are no public toilets being built at Legacy Square. None. The city staff is ‘considering’ a ‘portable toilet trailer’ to service the expected crowds. Where exactly this public toilet trailer will be parked was not asked, nor would anyone know because they don’t have any answers to any questions on how Legacy Square supposed to come together or be used.
And not only where would they park a public toilet-trailer, let’s talk about parking in general. As someone who actually lives in downtown Renton, I know firsthand that when the Farmer’s Market was held at the Piazza, homeowners nearby could not park in front of their own house until after 6:30pm when coming home from work due to the Market crowd taking all the residential street parking. People didn’t want to park in the garage during the day, so does the city really think any attendees will park in the garage at night? What is proposed for parking for the event attendees? Do downtown residents have to expect they can’t park in front of their own house all summer? What about parking considerations for the church right next door, or the Renton Civic Theater across the street?
Speaking of the church and Civic Theater, has the City of Renton had any outreach to either of them? The city is putting a huge TV right up against the wall of the church. How will the noise effect church services? How will the noise of movies and broadcast games effect those who are watching a play at the Civic Theater across the street? What about outreach to the condominiums directly north across the alley? How would you feel if someone put a large TV screen right outside the window of your home?
I encourage everyone to watch the Committee of the Whole meeting. They City of Renton has been working on this since at least the summer of 2024 when they were soliciting buy-in at the Farmers Market, and they still have no answers or plan. The staff has no idea what’s going on, and deferred everything to their ‘consultant’. So what is the staff being paid for, and who is this ‘consultant’?
A project like this should have been built in an open lot up by the Landing, not next to houses and businesses. And yes, the lot where it now is, would have been better used as an indoor extension of the Farmers Market.
Again, I request you all to take the time to watch the Committee of the Whole meeting in the Youtube link above.
Hope those kids got tetanus shots after being in that water. But there was a reason why the city put up signs saying “for visual enjoyment only”.
It’s true that the city was not keeping it clean in recent years. But in past decades the artificial river, with the “Summer Breeze” statue of a little girl dipping her toe in the water, was a beautiful and effective splash zone. A good pressure washing, some chlorine, and improved security could have brought it back to its previous glory.
The water features certainly held up better than the TV/touchscreen that was installed at the Piazza a couple years ago. That TV gives us a warning about what will happen to our new million-dollar TV in a few years, if not sooner.
There is no value for communities to invest in the proliferation of screens.