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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
Protip: If you have something nice, don’t destroy it.
I call the tall dirt pile near the green pipes for my flower stall. The height will put the flowers closer to eye level. Please don’t put me in the mud puddle spot.
I do not understand the justification for quite literally clear cutting an entire city park. Imagine if they said ”hey lets cut down 90% of the trees at coulon for renovations” Cant have trees in the downtown area now can we? A part of the city that already has the lowest tree coverage.
WeRE tREe CiTY UsA !!!1!
Don’t worry…. they will replant them in neighborhoods where people don’t want them but have to maintain them
Will FIFA visitors impact Renton much?
I think our hotels will be full and our restaurants will get a lot of business. The 68,000+ attendees of the games at Lumen field will be from all over the world, unlike Seahawks games that attract local fans. Those 68,000 need hotel rooms, and they’ll be getting them throughout the Puget Sound region. Seattle is also sponsoring some major FIFA-related events at Seattle Center that will attract crowds of international visitors, some of who will stay in Renton.
I am less certain about how many visitors will be attracted to downtown Renton during the games. The City is purchasing a jumbotron to hold watch parties at Legacy Square, which could be popular. These watch parties will compete with sports bars, several large sponsored venues in Seattle, and of course the Seattle Center watch parties.
I suspect that international visitors that are staying in Renton hotel rooms will be largely drawn to activities in Seattle, so I’m not sure how many of them we will see downtown Renton. The activities in downtown Renton are more likely to draw local soccer fans, and with music and games the event might be festive like Renton River Days. In summary, I expect full hotel rooms, busy activity in downtown Renton, and some international visitors in downtown Renton.
I would enjoy hearing other people’s expectations regarding World Cup crowds this summer.
It will be a nothingburger: Every ten years, they try to get Americans to care about soccer, and nobody who isn’t running a learing center cares.
Wonder what they will do with the memorial for Marge Richter or the Dobson family homestead that were there previously.
Marge Richter was recent history. It’s sort of sad how quickly we forget.
“Every man has two deaths, when he is buried in the ground and the last time someone says his name.” -EH in For Whom the Bell Tolls
Full crew working this early Saturday morning. And there was still crew working at 7pm yesterday – a Friday night. Lots of overtime being paid for this project on the backs of taxpayers.
It would have been better planning to have the Farmers Market on Williams Ave again this year so the Piazza could be completed as a job well done vs a job rushed. But no one ever accused this administration of good planning – more resume padding and monument building then any prior administration that I can recall in my lifetime here.
And the Logan road closure – what a mess that’s causing.