Diners at Anthony’s Beach Cafe on the Edmonds waterfront are among those anxious for the opening of the Port of Edmonds’ new public plaza.
Right now, chain-link fencing and hard-hatted workers stand between the restaurant’s windows and views of Puget Sound. But by the second week of June, the barriers should be down and the port’s newest amenity open to the public, according to Chris Keuss, port executive director.
The project, part of the port’s master plan, has been postponed several times over the past few years. Delays were due to the port’s preoccupation with lawsuits over and eventual purchase of Harbor Square buildings and bids that came in too high, said Marianne Burkhart, president of the port’s board of commissioners.
The cost has been capped at $219,328, considerably less than the $400,000 originally set aside for it, Burkhart said. The money, she added, is from interest earned on investments in a fund earmarked for public amenities.
Located on the west side of the Anthony’s Homeport Restaurant building, the plaza will offer visitors space to stroll, sit, eat and play. Features include a concrete paver walkway, grassy knolls and use of North Cascades river boulders.
Several parking spaces on the west side of the building are being displaced by the plaza, but port officials said there is plenty of parking south and east of the site.
The construction company building the plaza is Precision Earthworks, which built the base for the new Edmonds Skateboard Park.
In designing the plaza, John Barker of Barker Landscape Architects said his staff’s vision was that of an extension of Brackett’s Landing. The natural landscaping and public gathering places “celebrate the natural flow of the port,” he noted.
The plaza design was reworked after the postponements and the result is one that reflects significant “value engineering” to reduce costs, Barker said. “I think this plan is better,” he continued, citing the example of a grassy mound that replaced more-expensive and higher-maintenance wooden benches.
Replacing the small and messy sandbox at the northwest corner of the building will be a deeper, cleaner and neater one, Barker said. Lined with boulders, the deluxe sandbox will be about two-feet deep so “kids can actually dig in it,” he noted.
Anthony’s Beach Cafe has invested in a new stash of toys for the sandbox, added Anthony’s Beach Cafe manager Vanessa Oberg.
Restaurant patrons, Oberg added, haven’t complained about the temporarily obstructed views because they know “it’s going to be a real improvement.”
A heavy timber arbor containing posts rigged to fly flags also is in the plan. Part of that arbor will frame the door to the Edmonds Yacht Club, a tenant in the building.
Also at the yacht club’s entrance will be a six-foot compass rose crafted of sand-blasted granite, Barker said.
The stylized rose will be accurately placed, thanks to Leroy Middleton, a founder of Reid Middleton, Inc., civil and structural engineering firm. Barker said Middleton recently visited the site with his “big ol’ compass” and designated true north so the rose can be laid correctly.
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