NEWEST ON THE BULLDOG BLOCK

Garfield Superblock renovations bring a new look to

By Imbie Jones

The Garfield Superblock (GSB) is a park and promenade improvement project that is set to begin construction early 2024. The Garfield Superbock coalition led by Robert Stephens Jr. and eight other members, one of which being Sharon Khosla, who explained how the GSB came to life. “It started with Robert back in 2005, [During] the renovation of Garfield and Quincy Jones theater.” She talked about how Stephens was active in the community meetings around the renovation. When he learned they were taking away space from the park in order to build he felt as though additions should be made to improve the park as well. Stephen’s idea was to bring more art into the park, including seven sculptures, each one representing seven different ethnic cultures that have roots in the Central Area. Stephen drafted his original plan for Garfield Superblock in 2005, , but he did not receive any more funding from the district; they did not keep their promise of helping fund the project.. In

2019 he received a 25K grant from the Office of Economic development to revive the project.. The Garfield Superblock coalition began coming up with ideas to improve the park. “A new comfort space, new playground, a walking path that can go all the way around the ball fields so you can do loops,” are all things in the plan, Kholsa explained. They also are planning to install a parkour park, which would become the first parkour park in Seattle.

By doing lots of community outreach, The Garfield Superblock coalition have raised a total of $6.5 million but do still need $2.8 million more to begin the project next year, which they plan to achieve through grants. Once construction begins, the project should take 6 to 9 months to complete. Kholsa hopes that the superblock will have more to offer to the community. “A lot of older generations are going to find it a lot easier to walk around. I think it is going to bring a different level of