Freeway Park, also known as Jim Ellis Freeway Park, is an urban park in Seattle, United States. It is the largest downtown public park in Seattle and it sits atop a section of Interstate 5. The Freeway Park connects the downtown of the city to the Washington State Convention Center and First Hill.
Lawrence Halprin and Angela Danadjieva designed the park and opened it to the public on July 4, 1976. The intention behind the design was to bring solutions to the urban planning problems and revitalize the look of the highway to make it look livelier. The park consists of a series of pathways and gathering spaces. There are also water features like fountains to distract people from the sound of passing cars and help them enjoy their time in the park. Green landscapes add a natural aesthetic to brutalist design as well.
The brutalist park is a cultural landscape for Seattle and it is often considered an unprecedented work that single-handedly created a new typology for American cities to follow.
Because of its unique architecture, the park is very famous among the parkour community. The World Freerunning and Parkour Federation listed Freeway Park as second on its list of the seven best parkour locations in the world.
The park underwent a renovation in 2008.
