Bellevue Meadow — Supernature

What if a vacant lot was activated as a pop-up landscape laboratory? ← the question David Malda of GGN was asking.

Before development or redevelopment in the city, there’s often a multi-year period of waiting. Typically, a site lays fallow and fenced off. Some weedy plants may get started, but otherwise it’s a place that doesn’t serve anyone (or any wildlife).

With distant plans for development, the client wondered what this site in downtown Bellevue could be and do in the meantime. GGN presented the idea of a low-input, high-impact temporary solution – a native meadow. This is the same sort of ecology that could and would exist here after a disturbance, and before trees (or skyscrapers) moved in.

This temporary park welcomes in the community -- human, bird, and insect – and provides a grounding amidst skyscrapers. It reminds people on their way to work what this place might have looked like before it was a city.

Go visit! It is just across the street from the Bellevue Transit Center. You can now even take light rail to it!

GGN brought us in to design the meadow. Together, we designed meadow communities that shift with topography and sun aspect, about 115 plant species in total. The whole meadow is built over structure, so with total control, we designed soils and slopes to reflect iconic meadows - the San Juan balds and the glacial outwash prairies of Olympia. Species include Balsamorhiza deltoidea, Camassia quamash, Allium cernuum, Anaphalis margaritacea, Festuca occidentalis, and many more.
Photos by Jonathan Hallet