BONUS EPISODE: Gas Works Park Update - Did City of Seattle Staffers Override Volunteers of Landmarks Preservation Board?

About this episode

Feliks Banel discusses the implications of Seattle officials' actions regarding Gas Works Park with preservation expert Eugenia Woo.

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Eugenia Woo, Director of Preservation Services for the non-profit preservation group Historic Seattle. An article in the Seattle Times on Monday, April 13, 2026 by Catalina Gaitán ("Seattle officials seek permit to fix Gas Works Park ‘hazard’") characterizes a move made by the City of Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections as a way for City of Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation officials to "sidestep" the work of volunteer members of the City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods' Landmarks Preservation Board, and move forward with removal of elements of the historic towers at the popular park. Parks and Recreation has been seeking permission to remove "appurtenances" - walkways, ladders, etc. - from the historic towers preserved in the park as part of landscape architect Rich Haag's revolutionary design more than a half-century ago. We dive deep into the issue with Eugenia Woo of Historic Seattle about how we got here, and what this means going forward - and we ask if cynicism is warranted when examining the facts surrounding this move by the City of Seattle to effectively undermine its own…

People in this episode

Guest: Eugenia Woo

Topics covered

• Gas Works Park
• Landmarks Preservation Board
• historic preservation
• Seattle

Keywords

• Seattle Times
• Department of Construction and Inspections
• Department of Parks and Recreation

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: CASCADE OF HISTORY

Places: Seattle, the City of Seattle, Lake Washington, the Old Oregon Country

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