Seattle’s 230-acre Washington Park Arboretum is beloved by residents and visitors for its beauty and tranquility. It is appreciated also as a living laboratory with a unique woody plant collection of over 40,000 trees and shrubs. Portions of the Arboretum were created by the City with initial plans in 1903-1904 by renowned landscape architects, the Olmsted Brothers. In the 1930s, the Olmsteds provided additional designs which were undertaken by Work Progress Administration crews in 1935-1941.
The present Arboretum includes a 1960-era Japanese garden, shown above, and a recent horticulture and education center. The park is surrounded by several urban neighborhoods, an interstate freeway bridge and its access ramps, and lagoons at the edge of Lake Washington.
BOLA, with consultant landscape architect Karen Kiest and historian David Streatfield, assessed the Arboretum’s historic and cultural significance. The resulting report included a survey of historic documents, and descriptions of current conditions of the Arboretum, its landscape, buildings, and plant collections.