Originally published Sunday, November 22, 2009 at 12:12 AM

Street signs to honor Seattle's parks designers

The green and white street signs on Seattle's historic streets are being replaced with brown signs to honor the historic Olmsted boulevards that run through Seattle.

By Susan Gilmore

Seattle Times staff reporter

To honor the legacy of the historic Olmsted boulevards that run through Seattle, the city is installing special street signs.

Several signs — brown instead of the city's usual green — have already gone up on Lake Washington and Queen Anne boulevards. In all, the city plans to put the special signs on 12 Olmsted streets.

"We wanted to point out to the residents of Seattle and visitors that this Olmsted legacy exists," said Brooks Kolb, a landscape architect and president of Friends of Seattle's Olmsted Parks. He said his group has been working for several years to get the signs, to reflect the work of the Olmsted Brothers of Massachusetts, who came to Seattle in 1903 to map a park system for the city.

The central feature of the Olmsted plan was a 20-mile parkway that ran from Seward Park to Discovery Park, through the University of Washington campus and Ravenna Park. Spur roads would connect Lake Washington Boulevard to Beacon Hill Park and Interlaken Boulevard to Volunteer Park.

After surveying the city, John Olmsted presented his proposed system of parks to the city in 1903. Of the plan, Olmsted said, "the primary aim should be to secure and preserve for the use of the people as much as possible of these advantages of water and mountain views and of woodlands well distributed and conveniently located."

That plan forms the basis for today's extensive, 6,200-acre park and boulevard system in the city. A prominent feature of the plan is the 20-mile-long landscaped boulevard system that links parks, playgrounds, playfields and greenbelts.

According to the Seattle Parks Department, the sign change is a way to raise awareness of the Olmsted philosophy of providing open space for everyone.

The sign replacement is being paid for by the 2006 Bridging the Gap levy passed by Seattle voters. All the street-name signs in the city, at some 13,000 intersections, are being replaced through that funding.

Kolb said his group recommended the Olmsted signs be painted brown to match National Park signs. "We want people to associate a boulevard with a park," he said.

The project will take several years. Rick Sheridan, spokesman with the Seattle Department of Transportation, said the city has replaced signs at 3,800 intersections in Seattle in the past three years.

The brown signs will appear on:

• Cheasty Boulevard South