An Urban Fabric Analysis of the Pedestrian Corridor in Downtown Bellevue - Saba Fatima by Saba Fatima

Saba Fatima Student ID: 2070890 Autumn Quarter 2020

An Urban Fabric Analysis of the Pedestrian Corridor in Downtown Bellevue Saba Fatima Bellevue, Washington, is a satellite or edge city near Seattle, nestled between Lake Washington to the west and Lake Sammamish to the east. Its popularity is associated with the tech boom in the region during the last three to four decades, along with a thriving arts and culture environment. The city houses several photography and painting exhibits, sculptures, and performance venues of which the Bellevue Arts Museum, the theatre at Maydenbauer Center, and the Resonance at Soma Towers in Downtown Bellevue are beacons. The city of Bellevue has come to be known as a “city with great talent, a vibrant city center, and growing entrepreneurial businesses.” 1 The Central Business District of Bellevue, known as Downtown Bellevue, is situated at the junction of north-west and west Bellevue.

Figure 2 Aerial Map of Bellevue between Lakes Washington and Sammamish Source: Google Maps

Figure 1 Map of Downtown Bellevue 1. Bellevue Arts Museum; 2. Bellevue Galleria; 3. Maydenbauer Center; 4. The Resonance at Soma Towers Base Map Source: City of Bellevue Home | City of Bellevue (bellevuewa.gov)

(Bellevue is Top Place to Live, 2018). Bellevue is Top Place to Live. (2018, February 23). Retrieved from Hydesquare: https://www.hydesquare.com/blog/bellevue-is-top-place-to-live

Saba Fatima Student ID: 2070890 Autumn Quarter 2020 This paper analyses the urban framework guidelines adopted by the City of Bellevue to enable downtown Bellevue to respond to the livable city goals from the 2017 Downtown Livability Initiative2, and efforts to enhance the pedestrian environment in the city of Bellevue. The paper primarily focuses on NE 6th street, which has been envisioned as a “Pedestrian corridor” since early 1980s and traces its evolving socio-urban fabric over the last few decades. Design guidelines from the initial proposal in 1981 through current guidelines for the street along with influences from its immediate surroundings will be examined for the case study.

History of Bellevue Bellevue welcomed its first settlers, Aaron and Ann Mercer, in 1863. Almost ninety years later, in 1953, with a population of about 5,940, Bellevue was incorporated as a city. Early growth in the region can be attributed to the phone service reaching Eastside, and the opening of commercial stores 1907. The key driver of growth, however, came in 1913, with the inauguration of a car ferry service aboard the Leschi, with trips connection Seattle from Medina and Maydenbauer Bays in fifteen-minute shuttles.3 Subsequently, the Lacey V. Morrow Bridge (now I-90 bridge), opened on 2nd July 1940; this opened the Eastside development. Although growth was slowed by

Figure 3 Poster advertising ferry rides between Seattle and Bellevue Source: Tim Savy/LinkedIn

(City of Bellevue, 2017). Downtown Livability. Retrieved from bellevuewa.gov: https://bellevuewa.gov/citygovernment/departments/community-development/planning-initiatives/plan-archive/downtown-livability

(Eastside Heritage Centre, n.d.)

Saba Fatima Student ID: 2070890 Autumn Quarter 2020 World War II, after 1945, Eastside grew rapidly first as commuter “bedroom” suburbs linked to Seattle, and later developing its own commercial centers. Bellevue Square would emerge as one of the earliest Eastside commercial shopping centers. The original urban plan for Bellevue from the 1950s was designed to prioritize the automobile, with easy and efficient road networks, parking spaces, and auto-oriented land uses. With an increase in population and density, amendments and new policies redirected the focus to encourage pedestrian and transit systems. 4

History of Downtown Bellevue In 1882, Issac Bechtel, Sr., bought the land where modern downtown Bellevue is now located. For the next few years, along with his sons, he began to log and clear the land until the other settlers arrived, establishing sawmills, farms, and shingle mills which marked the downtown landscape in 1890. Bellevue began to grow rapidly after 1945. The

Figure 4 Fredrick & Nelson, Bellevue Square, 1948 Source: Tim Savy, LinkedIn

growing residential population provided a market for the development of new shopping districts. Although Bellevue had an older town center, 1946 saw the opening of the first shopping mall in Bellevue, the “Bellevue Shopping Square,” north of the historical town center. Bellevue Shopping Square replaced the strawberry farms showing how the agricultural land was quickly converted to new auto-oriented uses. The

(City of Bellevue, Washington, 2020). Pedestrian Corridor and Major Public Open Space Design Guidelines. Retrieved from Bellevue Municipal Codes: https://bellevue.municipal.codes/LUC/PedCorr_OpenSpace Note: The text of this document was adopted by the City Council, City of Bellevue, through Resolution No. 3946, on December 14, 1981, Resolution No. 4285 on December 12, 1983, and Ordinance No. 5100 on October 19, 1998. Other reference documents are: Ordinance No. 2945, Ordinance No. 3259, and Resolution No. 3948.

Saba Fatima Student ID: 2070890 Autumn Quarter 2020 first suburban department store was opened by Fredrick & Nelson and it drew business and growth to the then small town.5

Figure 5 Bellevue had become a major Northwest commercial center with the state’s fourth-largest population when this photo was taken in 1982. (Richard S. Heyza / The Seattle Times)

Between the 1960s and 1970s, downtown Bellevue underwent rapid change due to an influx of growth which necessitated a series of planning studies that resulted in a major new vision for the area. The resulting “Central Business District Subarea Plan” of 1979 called for the commercial center's transformation into a financial and business hub, with an agglomerating local retail, office spaces, residential, hospitality, and institutional land uses. The growth continued into the 1980s when the high-rises and skyscrapers that now define the Bellevue skyline began to be

(Matias, 2017). Jason Matias Fine Art. Retrieved from https://www.jasonmatias.com/bellevue-washington-history

Saba Fatima Student ID: 2070890 Autumn Quarter 2020 constructed (Figure 5). Further development of the area included the addition of public open spaces, such as the signature 20-acre Downtown Park and Compass plaza. 6

Constraints due to the pre-existing design of Downtown Bellevue Downtown Bellevue is comprised of large urban blocks that are often referred to as "superblocks." These superblocks stretch for about 600 feet on each side and are almost two times as long as any other typical North American city block.7 . Although the area was planned with smaller blocks, only every alternate

Figure 6 Early morning traffic cruises along Northeast Eighth Street at the intersection of Northeast 8th street in downtown Bellevue. The Eastside city has long been known for being carcentric. (Ellen M. Banner / The Seattle Times)

street was put in. Thus, the streets in downtown Bellevue area only have even numbers (Fig 8). Due to the large size of Bellevue’s superblocks, walkability is inherently hindered as a result of the nonhuman scale of the street layouts (Fig 6 &8). The vastness of the blocks also contributes to other issues such as a scarcity of intermittent open public

Figure 7 The Bellevue Transit Center along Northeast Sixth Street is a hub for people catching a bus between Bellevue and Seattle. The downtown Bellevue light-rail station will open a block east in 2023. (Ellen M. Banner / The Seattle Times)

(City of Bellevue, 2015). Downtown Subarea Plan. Retrieved November 2020, from bellevuewa.gov: https://bellevuewa.gov/sites/default/files/media/pdf_document/SP04.DowntownPlan_2015.pdf

(feet first, 2012). Downtown Bellevue Walking Audit Report. Retrieved November 2020, from feetfirst.org: https://feetfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Bellevue_2012.pdf 7

Saba Fatima Student ID: 2070890 Autumn Quarter 2020 space and lack of street-faced business frontages in the alleyways. Pedestrians are forced to choose from limited pathways to set on a walking route.8 Street networks are distanced and sparsely laid out making walking a non-pleasurable, exhausting activity. And therefore, although Downtown Bellevue is less than one square mile, it feels much bigger to a pedestrian.9 Jan Gehl, an urban theorist writes in his book Life Between Buildings, that walking is first and foremost, a type of transportation, and that acceptable walking distances for most people in daily scenarios has been found to be about 400 to 500 meters, i.e., 1300 to 1600 feet or up to 0.3 miles. 10 With Bellevue’s adoption of its first downtown land use code in 1981 that prescribed a multidimensional land-use of the downtown area, incorporating commercial and office spaces with residential spaces, the need for re-adapting the car-centric urban plan of downtown Bellevue for non-automobile users led to the construction of the NE 6th Street pedestrian corridor, that cuts through the large urban blocks that were otherwise unsuited for pedestrian use as a consequence of their vast scale, and un-facilitating walking environments.

(Wagner, A New Direction for Bellevue: From Cars to People and a Livable Community, 2016). http://hdl.handle.net/1773/35639 9 (Bach, 2007). A new Bellevue: Step by Step to a pedestrian-friendly downtown. Retrieved from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/a-new-bellevue-step-by-step-to-a-pedestrian-friendly-downtown/ 10 (Gehl, 1971). Life Between Buildings. Ch.4 Spaces for walking, places for staying, p.137 (J. Koch, Trans.) Washington, Covelo, London: Island Press.

Saba Fatima Student ID: 2070890 Autumn Quarter 2020

Figure 8 Alternate Streets of Downtown Bellevue, large urban blocks, and the pedestrian corridor. Source: Author

The Pedestrian Corridor- NE 6th Street Although the dominant mode of transport in downtown remains cars and private vehicles, public transit use accounts for 21% of commutes for residents and employees. It is concentrated largely around the Bellevue Transit Center11 (Fig 7) which serves twenty bus routes and witnesses moving densities12 of transfer bus passengers. Transit use in Bellevue has generally trended upwards, doubling between 2003 to 2013, and peaking at about 57,500 daily boarding and alighting in 2015. However, there had been a decline in transit riders between 2015 to 2018, which stabilized in 2019; usage frequency is expected to grow significantly with the arrival of

Ibid. Moving density implies the daily intensity of number of non-resident people using the space temporarily 11

Saba Fatima Student ID: 2070890 Autumn Quarter 2020 East Link service in 2023.13 The NE 6th Street is a 0.23 miles (about 1220 feet) long pedestrianized route that cuts through the “City Center” urban block and directly connects the main shopping zone of Bellevue Square and Lincoln Square malls and the Bellevue Transit Center (Fig 8). In the absence of the Pedestrianized NE 6th Street, residents, shoppers, and workers of the mixed land-use downtown Bellevue area would have to walk an average approximate of 0.6 miles or upwards, along the 600feet-long superblocks, to commute on foot between any combination of building types — shopping/residence, commute/residence, shopping/commute; well over Gehl’s recommended 0.3 miles.

Early Planning and Design Guidelines for the Pedestrian Corridor 1981-1996 In 1981, the City Council of the City of Bellevue passed an ordinance requiring the creation of a pedestrian corridor as a in response to a density increases in the Central Business District. The “Pedestrian Corridor” was to link the Bellevue Square shopping center with the tall Figure 9 Conceptual diagram for the 1983 initial plan of a strictly pedestrian corridor

(City of Bellevue, 2020). Trends in Transit. Retrieved from arcgis.com: https://www.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=4d97128120c44a46be0aeab9dd8b86c2

Saba Fatima Student ID: 2070890 Autumn Quarter 2020 buildings to its east. The original guidelines intended the Corridor to be strictly pedestrian with vehicular traffic being restricted to emergency vehicles only, to ensure a safe, lively, walkable

Figure 10 "Street as Plaza" Illustrative Plan, 1983

Figure 11 "Garden Hillclimb" Illustrative plan, 1983

Saba Fatima Student ID: 2070890 Autumn Quarter 2020 environment. Streets abutting the NE6th street would gain access to pathways for enhancement of pedestrian circulation through the blocks. The easterly third of the three legs of the street was to terminate with a transit canter for buses. While the Corridor as a whole was seen as a unit, its character was made unique in each of the three blocks it transverse through- i)“Street as a Plaza” between Bellevue Way to 106th Avenue N.E.; ii) “Garden Hillclimb” between 106th Avenue N.E. to 108th Avenue N.E.; “Transit Central” between 108th Avenue N.E. and 110th Avenue N.E. To address the lack of pedestrian scale, each super-block was sub-divided at mid-points with the mid-block intersections becoming nodes of activity. The width of these nodal junctions ranged between 6 feet (pedestrian only) to 26 feet (where a two-lane connection with a single sidewalk was present).14 On May 16, 1983, the City Council of the City of Bellevue amended the Land Use Code to include three Major Public Open Spaces (MPOS) in the CBD to serve as focal nodes for the district. Don Miles Associates/PPS, Seattle architects and planners were hired by block owners to draft the design guidelines for these spaces and on November 16, 1983, the Planning Commission voted to incorporate the guidelines. The MPOS were to be designed to serve a variety of recreational and public events, be aesthetically pleasing, and physically and visually accessible from the adjacent right-of-way. The vegetation in the MPOS must be plenty and endemic, reflecting the change of seasons. The three MPOS were identified as the following- i) The southern portion of 106th Avenue N.E.; ii) Bellevue Way N.E.; iii) the intersection of 110th Avenue N.E and N.E. 6th Street (Fig 9). At these MPOS junctions, where lane connects major arterials, the street width was about 42 feet.15

(City of Bellevue, Washington, 2020). Pedestrian Corridor and Major Public Open Space Design Guidelines. Retrieved from Bellevue Municipal Codes: https://bellevue.municipal.codes/LUC/PedCorr_OpenSpace The text of this document was adopted by the City Council, City of Bellevue, through Resolution No. 3946, on December 14, 1981, Resolution No. 4285 on December 12, 1983, and Ordinance No. 5100 on October 19, 1998. Other reference documents are: Ordinance No. 2945, Ordinance No. 3259, and Resolution No. 3948. 15

Ibid.

Saba Fatima Student ID: 2070890 Autumn Quarter 2020 1997-2013 In 1998, the architecture firm Hewitt Isley was appointed by the City to assist in the revision of the Design Guidelines for the Corridor to be keep with current thinking and development . The revised guidelines were developed in collaboration with the Pedestrian Corridor Committee which comprised of various stakeholders including property owners, developers, and city officials working with civic opinion through public workshops.16 Changes were made with regards to the identity of 6th Street. The two major influencing characters made to define the character of the street were: 1) The corridor ceased to be a pedestrian-only street, allowing vehicular travel on two of the three blocks enclosed within the corridor stretch limits. However, the primary focus remained with the pedestrian as the chief user, providing humanscale, open space and amenities, encouraging activities, and an inviting atmosphere for people on foot. 2) While still viewed as a single unit through function, each block was to stand out from the others and be individually identified with a “distinguishable and unique” character. 17 The Pedestrian Corridor was designed with the following design objectives:18 1) Provision of a safe, comfortable, lively, and attractive place for pedestrians. 2) Achieving an identity and an image as a special place. 3) Allowing for modification and expansion over time, responding to changes in surrounding conditions 4) Accommodating access to other major public facilities such as the transit centre, and other public spaces. 5) Reflecting the qualities of a truly “urban” environment with its intensity, sophistication, and diversity. 6) Reinforcement and stimulation of high-quality future adjacent development. 7) Reflection of characteristics of this locale: climate, vegetation, and topography. 8) Encouraging evening and weekend use, as well as weekday use. Ibid. Ibid. 18 Ibid. 16 17

Saba Fatima Student ID: 2070890 Autumn Quarter 2020 9) Provision of a focal point for downtown Bellevue. According to the City’s ordinances, segments of the 6th Street corridor were permitted to be partially or entirely covered for protection from weather. However, enclosing the corridor spaces fully was not allowed. The corridor was intended to remain open to public throughout the day, save for temporary closures for maintenance and special events. Overhead sky bridges, concourses below ground other than parking spaces were prohibited, so as to ensure pedestrian concentration in the Corridor.19 2013-2020 In 2013, a Citizens Advisory Committee reviewed issues pertaining to the Downtown Bellevue Land Use Code and developed a set of recommendations related to public open space and amenities, design guidelines, pedestrian environment, and parking spaces. Enhancement of the public realm quality was sought through creation of typology of different street types, hosting different types of amenities and public-space activating elements.20 The developed new Downtown Bellevue code specified five distinct streets types that new developments must adhere to. Specific suggestions relating to the pedestrian corridor included 1) The establishment of through-block connection requirements 2) Widening of sidewalks on selected streets 3) Enhancement of pedestrian streets through sidewalk-lined building ground floor requirements21

(City of Bellevue, Washington, 2020)

(Fesler, 2017). Retrieved November 05, 2020, from The Urbanist: https://www.theurbanist.org/2017/10/20/bellevue-adopts-new-downtown-livability-standards/ 21 Ibid.

Saba Fatima Student ID: 2070890 Autumn Quarter 2020

Policies pertaining to the pedestrian corridor 22 Land Use POLICY S-DT-3 Develop Downtown as an aesthetically attractive area POLICY S-DT-5 Organize Downtown to provide complementary functional relationships between various land uses POLICY S-DT-11 POLICY S-DT-12 Urban Design POLICY S-DT-35 POLICY S-DT-38

POLICY S-DT-40

Encourage the development of major civic, convention, and cultural uses within Downtown. Expand the convention centre as a resource for convention and community uses and explore opportunities for complementary uses. Create a pedestrian environment with a sense of activity, enclosure, and protection Minimize the adverse impact of Downtown development on residential neighbourhoods with consideration of through-traffic, views, scale, and land use relationships. Enhance the appearance of all types of streets and adjoining sidewalks with street trees, landscaping, water features, pedestrian scaled lighting, street furniture, paving treatments, medians, or other softening treatments as appropriate

Signature Streets ▪

POLICY S-DT-45 POLICY S-DT-46

Bellevue Way, Main Street in Old Bellevue, and the NE 6th Pedestrian Corridor are identified as Shopping Streets. ▪ 106th Avenue NE as Entertainment Avenue, ▪ 108th Avenue NE as Downtown’s Commerce Avenue. Continue to encourage the NE 6th Street Pedestrian Corridor as a major unifying feature for Downtown Bellevue. Provide incentives for Bellevue Way to realize its vision as a Grand Shopping Street, with an exciting mix of retail shops, restaurants, hotels, offices and residential units.

Table 1 Policies from Downtown Subarea Plan directly applicable to the Pedestrian Corridor, NE 6th Street 23

(City of Bellevue, 2015). Downtown Subarea Plan. Retrieved November 2020, from bellevuewa.gov: https://bellevuewa.gov/sites/default/files/media/pdf_document/SP04.DowntownPlan_2015.pdf

Ibid.

Saba Fatima Student ID: 2070890 Autumn Quarter 2020

Analysis of the Public Realm of the Pedestrian Corridor (NE 6th Street) The pedestrian corridor stretches west-east from Bellevue square to the Bellevue Transit Center. It is a short walk between the two bases, providing a safe and direct route, albeit a fleeting, rather uninteresting one. Despite efforts to create a design that engages people in outdoor social activities, the corridor only offers a few locations where the ground floors of adjacent buildings directly interact with pedestrians through storefronts and commercial activity (Fig 13 & 17). A substantial portion of the corridor, in the “Street as a Plaza” leg, is faced by a large open-surface parking lot and bare building walls, almost like “a

Figure 13 The Pedestrian Corridor in the "Street as Plaza" third of the length, lacking visual stimulation Image Source: Author

paradox of isolation in the midst of visibility,”24 with the lively surroundings of the Bellevue Arts Museum, the Bellevue Square, the Lincoln Square, and the Compass Plaza within visual distance, yet the experience of cold emptiness of the immediate surroundings (Fig 12). Attempts are being made to make solid walls visually

Figure 12 View along the Pedestrian Corridor of adjacent parking-lot space. This is also in the “Street as a Plaza” third of the Corridor. Image Source: Solomon Wagner

(Sennett, 1977). The Fall of Public Man. New York: Alfred Knopf.

Saba Fatima Student ID: 2070890 Autumn Quarter 2020 aesthetic at least, as observed on the wall of Doxa Church at the transit center end of the corridor, painted with floral graphic art (Fig 14). The streetscape in the “Garden Hill Climb” section, includes the presence of a bronze-like sculpture in the MPOS25 at 106th Avenue N. E, along with outdoor seating spaces and the occasional food trucks lined at the pedestrian crossing. This is the mid-junction of the entire corridor and experiences the highest activity found along its internal length. The division of the pedestrian corridor to create Figure 14 Wall-art on Doxa Church, adjacent to the three phases of “unique identities” (“street as

terminating end of the Pedestrian Corridor at the Transit Center. Image Source: Author

plaza,” “garden hill climb,” “transit central,” and a future fourth “civic center district,”)26 has not been very successful. Rather, it translates to cognitive memory, an image of the route as three distinct street stretches divided by two roads (105th and 106th Avenues) and reads as a short street with the boring parking lot part, the middle part with some food options, and the transit center end; and thereby the corridor as a unit lacks any uniformity or place-making attributes, except for its designation as a shortened pedestrian route.

25 26

MPOS: Major Public Open Space (City of Bellevue, Washington, 2020)

Saba Fatima Student ID: 2070890 Autumn Quarter 2020 Kevin Lynch writes in his seminal book, The Image of the City, that paths in the city are the most potent lines of movement by which the city as a whole can be ordered. He describes the ideal paths as having a singular quality which distinguishes them from their surroundings- a special use, a special activity along the margins, a unique spatial quality, a characteristic texture of floor or façade, or unique smells or sounds.27 The key to implementing these attributes, he describes, is to apply them consistently, to give continuity to the path. NE 6th Street, originally a pedestrian-only street now allows vehicular entry between two of the three segments. All three segments have entirely different, almost unrelated character besides its unifying theme of “walkability.” The floor texture also differs in materiality between the three segments, with gray cobble stone at the terminating

Figure 15 Varying floor-texture materiality across the three Corridor segments Source: Author

segments, and red brick texture in the central. A rhythmic regularity, like the one described by Lynch, “with repetitions of space openings, monuments, or corner drugstores,” is not seen, thereby taking away from the overall imageability of the Corridor.28 However, it does have “clarity of direction,” with the path being uni-directional, of a walkable distance, and straightforward.

27 28

(Lynch, 1960). The Image of the City. Cambridge and London: The MIT Press. Ibid.

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Figure 16 Pedestrian Corridor Segments, 2020 Map Source: Solomon Wagner Images: Author

Saba Fatima Student ID: 2070890 Autumn Quarter 2020

Identification of nodes of activity and the character of the Pedestrian Corridor In Fig 16, N1: Node1: Pick up/Drop off Driveway for Lincoln square, shared space with pedestrian corridor N2: Node 2: Food trucks and internal road activity along 106th Avenue NE N3: Node 3: Outdoor seating spaces, people use as rest spaces, loitering, and meeting spots N4: Commercial activity along 108th Avenue NE, along Bus Bay 1 of Bellevue Transit Center

N2 &N3): Along the length of the corridor, intentional participation in social interactions, loitering, sitting, talking, etc. are observed at the cross-streets where the MPOSs were planned, especially at the Compass Plaza (N2 & N3) which is the mid-junction between the shopping complexes and the transit center. Commuters and shoppers often use this route to cut through the blocks, and the restaurants (Inchin’s Bamboo Garden, and Coco Izakaya) flanking either side of the “Garden Hill Climb” segment of the Corridor often draw pedestrians into them. The public seating spaces just outside the restaurants (Fig 16; image 04) are obvious spots for people to eat their newly bought food, and through their presence, other people invite themselves to linger in

Saba Fatima Student ID: 2070890 Autumn Quarter 2020 the area, what William H. Whyte calls “Self-Congestion.”29 He further describes that people prefer sitting in the mainstream, observing the activity around them.

Figure 17 Compass Plaza Photo by Unico Properties

The compass plaza is located at the junction of an arterial road (106th Avenue N.E.) and the pedestrian route between two busy bases. This provides a great spot for observational behavior that people indulge themselves in. The seating is largely unshaded, inviting passersby during rare sunny days in Bellevue; but for the majority rainy days, they remain largely unused and people move instead, towards the shaded extensions of the storefronts. However, the mid-block of each segment of the connection is less activated and the people here merely walk through them to get to the other end. It is as though a street is produced between structures of solid, and

(Whyte, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, 1980). The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. New York:

Project for Spaces.

Saba Fatima Student ID: 2070890 Autumn Quarter 2020 “the space between is neither object nor residue”30; and in this case, unlike William Ellis’s description of a street in the contemporary city, it does not feel like a continuum.31 (N1): The NE 6th Street and adjoining Bellevue Way (N1) are lined with commercial stores with groundfloor access on the roadside, and cafes and restaurants extended until sidewalks. This ensures constant activity on the streets and perhaps the liveliest public realm in the entire corridor stretch, although it lies just outside the Corridor. It proves

Figure 18 Ground floor store fronts along Bellevue Way Source: Unknown

William H. Whyte’s argument that any activity located adjacent to the core becomes part of it.32 Furthermore, Bellevue Way is completely shut off to automobiles and transformed into a pedestrianonly street for special events such as art exhibits, performances, and the annual winter festival, “Snowflake lane”. Snowflake lane is hosted on Bellevue Way from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day every year

Figure 19 Snowflake Lane, Bellevue Way Source: Home - Snowflake Lane

(Ellis, 1986). The Spatial Structure of Streets (Stanford Anderson ed.). Cambridge and London: MIT Press. Ibid. 32 (Whyte, City: Rediscovering the Center, 1988). City: Rediscovering the Center. New York, London, Toronto, 30 31

Sydney, Auckland: Doubleday.

Saba Fatima Student ID: 2070890 Autumn Quarter 2020 since the past sixteen years and includes parades and performances every evening. The event draws thousands of people every day for its duration and transforms the public realm character temporarily. (N4): The “Transit Central” third of the Pedestrian Corridor is predominantly a series of steps connecting the Bellevue Transit Center which is at a slightly higher elevation level than the rest of the Pedestrian Corridor. It has direct access to the Compass Plaza, and the stepped pathway is sandwiched between the public and commercial buildings of the plaza, and the graphic wall of Doxa church (Fig 16; Images 5&6). It is also lined with vegetation on either side, that are endemic to Bellevue and transform seasonally symbolizing that changing seasons as recommended in the City’s land-use code guidelines for the Downtown area.33 In conclusion, the Pedestrian Corridor in Downtown Bellevue serves its functional purpose of reducing walking distances between the superblocks extremely well. However, it does not meet the envisioned lively street goal that it was designed to become; now transitioning within itself form a ghetto segment (Bellevue Square end), to a good public plaza segment, and then the speedy transit center segment. It has its empirical elements- the well-defined path, the lively node in the middle, busy edges at both ends; but the in-between dead space, and lack of a unique rhythmic pattern casts a gloom over the legibility of the Corridor and takes away from its “Sense of Whole.”34 References Bach, A. (2007, April 9). A new Bellevue: Step by Step to a pedestrian-friendly downtown. Retrieved from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/a-new-bellevue-step-by-step-to-a-pedestrianfriendly-downtown/

33 34

(City of Bellevue, Washington, 2020) (Lynch, 1960). The Image of the City. Cambridge and London: The MIT Press.

Saba Fatima Student ID: 2070890 Autumn Quarter 2020 Bellevue is Top Place to Live. (2018, February 23). Retrieved from Hydesquare: https://www.hydesquare.com/blog/bellevue-is-top-place-to-live Bellevue, C. o. (n.d.). Downtown Subarea Plan. Bellevue. City of Bellevue. (2015). Downtown Subarea Plan. Retrieved November 2020, from bellevuewa.gov: https://bellevuewa.gov/sites/default/files/media/pdf_document/SP04.DowntownPlan_2015.pdf City of Bellevue. (2017). Downtown Livability. Retrieved from bellevuewa.gov: https://bellevuewa.gov/citygovernment/departments/community-development/planning-initiatives/plan-archive/downtown-livability City of Bellevue. (2020). Trends in Transit. Retrieved from arcgis.com: https://www.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=4d97128120c44a46be0aeab9dd8b86c2 City of Bellevue, W. (1981). Pedestrian Corridor and Major Public Open Space; Design Guidelines. Bellevue: City of Bellevue, Washington. City of Bellevue, Washington. (2020, April). Chapter 20.25; Pedestrian Corridor and Major Public Open Space Design Guidelines. Retrieved December 2020, from Bellevue Municipal Codes: https://bellevue.municipal.codes/LUC/PedCorr_OpenSpace Eastside Heritage Centre. (n.d.). Bellevue History. Retrieved November 2020, from Visit Bellevue: https://www.visitbellevuewa.com/plan/bellevue-history/ Ellis, W. C. (1986). The Spatial Structure of Streets (Stanford Anderson ed.). Cambridge and London: MIT Press. feet first. (2012). Downtown Bellevue Walking Audit Report. Retrieved November 2020, from feetfirst.org: https://feetfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Bellevue_2012.pdf Fesler, S. (2017). Retrieved November 05, 2020, from The Urbanist: https://www.theurbanist.org/2017/10/20/bellevue-adopts-new-downtown-livability-standards/ Gehl, J. (1971). Life Between Buildings. (J. Koch, Trans.) Washington, Covelo, London: Island Press. Lynch, K. (1960). The Image of the City. Cambridge and London: The MIT Press. Matias, J. (2017). Jason Matias Fine Art. Retrieved from https://www.jasonmatias.com/bellevue-washington-history Sennett, R. (1977). The Fall of Public Man. New York: Alfred Knopf.

Saba Fatima Student ID: 2070890 Autumn Quarter 2020 Wagner, S. (2016). A New Direction for Bellevue: From Cars to People and a Livable Community. Seattle: University of Washington. Retrieved November 2020, from http://hdl.handle.net/1773/35639 Whyte, W. H. (1980). The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. New York: Project for Spaces. Whyte, W. H. (1988). City: Rediscovering the Center. New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, Auckland: Doubleday.