SEATTLE — Victor Steinbrueck Park, overlooking Puget Sound at the north end of Pike Place Market, will reopen Friday, said Mayor Bruce Harrell. It’s been closed for more than two years for extensive renovations.
The decision comes amid concerns from the Pike Place Market Historical Commission about the city’s commitment to restoring and returning two totem poles that were removed in late 2022 and have not been reinstalled. The commission, which regulates changes to the Market, had argued it holds the authority to reopen the park and said it wouldn’t do so until the poles were returned.
Harrell, though, said the decision to open the park is not the commission’s, but that of the parks department. As he looks toward a grand reopening of the waterfront and a more connected Pike Place Market — before the World Cup’s arrival in 2026 — he’s declared it time for the park to reopen, with or without the poles.
The standoff over the poles has kept the park closed even after the renovations were completed. Over that time, the historical commission said the city had not taken basic steps to guarantee they would be restored properly and then returned. Since they were taken down, the commission said, the poles have been mistreated and allowed to degrade.
Seattle Parks and Recreation, meanwhile, has said the poles were in rough shape when they came down and disagrees they have substantially degraded further.
The poles will be returned, said Callie Craighead, a spokesperson for Harrell. The city has found a Native woodcarver to restore them. The city has notified the commission the park will reopen, she said.
On Wednesday, during its regularly scheduled meeting, the commission signed off on the park’s reopening, but with conditions — namely that the poles should be returned within a year; there be a community celebration when they’re installed; and, in the event of catastrophic damage during their renovation, they be replaced in kind. The commission also said the city should install signage and create a website that tells the story of the poles.
Erected in 1984, the two poles were designed by Native carver Marvin Oliver, with most of the work executed by James Bender.
As the city began discussing a needed renovation to the park nearly a decade ago — the membrane between its hills and the parking garage below had degraded — some questioned the poles’ place there. High-profile Native voices like former Seattle Councilmember Debora Juarez pushed for their replacement with something she said was more reflective of the tribes in and around what’s now Seattle.
That conversation has died down. The commission views them as integral to that space, so, in 2019, it made the park’s closure and reopening contingent on the poles’ return.
Renovations were delayed by the pandemic until late 2022. After the poles were taken down in 2023, the city broached the idea of replacing them. The commission pushed back, saying doing so would be a violation of the 2019 agreement. The question went before a hearing examiner in 2024, which sided with the commission, though largely on procedural grounds.
The renovations were finished last fall, but disagreement over the poles continued. With the city’s recent push to replace the poles, the commission became distrustful that it intended to bring them back at all, with some members saying the city was intentionally allowing them to degrade.
The commission has pushed for a binding document, laying out how and when the poles would be restored and returned, and argued for keeping the park closed until one was produced.
Meantime, nearby businesses have expressed frustration at the situation.
The commission continues to want the city to submit its plans for the poles’ restoration, but enough attendees at Wednesday’s meeting said they were satisfied the poles would return and be restored by a Native carver, and so the park should be allowed to open.
