03/05/2026
Gas Works Park will never look the same again. The city has ordered the removal of all those catwalks, stairways and pipes that added so much character to the preserved towers of the old gasification plant. And the “deconstruction” has already started. In a matter of weeks, those old rusty boilers will look pretty naked. The viewpoint I drew today with the Urban Sketchers Seattle Group will be forever altered, too. That big pipe reaching out of the fenced area is one of the parts slated for removal.
It’s hard to argue with the need to make the structure safer. At least three people have fallen to their deaths trying to climb the towers, most recently a 15–year-old whose family sued the city for not taking any measures after prior accidents.
I only wish someone had found a better solution other than altering the landmark so drastically. A taller, more secure fence?
