Seattle to Pick Project Manager, Engineers for Waterfront Project

By Nadine M. Post

City officials in Seattle say they will select the project manager and engineering team this week for the city�s nine-acre Central Waterfront project, a major redevelopment plan. The city has already named the 12-member design team.

Landscape architect-urban designer James Corner Field Operations was selected from four finalists as the lead designer for the stretch of land along Elliott Bay, which includes a surface street, to be made available by the planned removal of the two-level Alaskan Way Viaduct.

Design is set to begin in October. A conceptual design is expected in 2012 and a final design in 2015. Construction is scheduled from 2016 to 2018.

Nadine M. Post, ENR's former editor-at-large for buildings, is an award-winning journalist with 45 years of experience covering trends, issues, innovations, controversies and challenging projects. Post has written about many industry giants, including 10 ENR Award of Excellence winners. And she has covered disasters, failures and attacks, including the 1993 bombing and the 2001 destruction of the World Trade Center. Project stories include the redevelopment of the World Trade Center; the 828-meter-tall Burj Khalifa; Los Angeles’ Disney Concert Hall; and Seattle's Bullitt Center and Rainier Square Tower. In 1985, Post wrote McGraw-Hill's book Restoring the Statue of Liberty (1986) for the restoration’s architects—Richard S. Hayden and Thierry W. Despont.

Post a comment to this article

Live: July 16, 2026 at 2:00 pm EDT We'll address the current state of the construction market as we reach the halfway point of 2026. ENR invites three top forecasters asking them to share their views on the market prospects for the industry at midyear, both nationally & regionally, in the midst of these unique challenges.