Mobile Sessions

Seattle Fountain

EDRA43Seattle is pleased to offer Mobile Sessions with in situ sessions every day of the conference that highlight Seattle’s culture and history. Conference attendees can register for these sessions as part of their conference registration, or separately by clicking the links below.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 30, 8:30AM-5:00PM

Experiencing the Cultural and Natural History of the Pacific Northwest: The Bloedel Reserve and Chief Sealth's Grave

 

The Bloedel Reserve (www.bloedelreserve.org) , a 150-acre estate on Bainbridge Island, is internationally known for the landscape design of its garden/landscape spaces in its Pacific Northwest native forest setting. No place better exemplifies the character of the Puget Sound landscape and how eastern and western design traditions have adapted themselves to fit into, and make, this distinctive place. The Reserve's mission is "to provide a tranquil and refreshing experience of nature." Its guiding philosophy of "experiencing nature" was developed by its founder Prentice Bloedel who was influenced by the work of Jay Appleton, Charles Lewis and Rachel and Stephen Kaplan. For individuals interested in human responses to nature, landscape, and place-making, a visit to Seattle that does not include the Bloedel Reserve is unthinkable.

 

The Native American Suquamish Tribe's reservation is a short distance from the Bloedel Reserve. The grave of Chief Sealth, the Suquamish Chief after whom Seattle is named, is located in its churchyard. For those interested in the socio-cultural and historical roots of the city a visit to Chief Sealth's grave is a thought provoking and profoundly moving experience.

 

While at the Reserve, participants will begin with a 30-45 minute introductory walk to orient them to the Reserve's landscapes while leaving time for participants to explore the Reserve individually or in small groups, as Mr. Bloedel intended its nature to be experienced. The facilitator of this session, and Bloedel Reserve docents, will be available for participants wishing a more extended guided tour in lieu of individual exploration time.


Registration Fees:
Members: $70 early-regular/$85 late
Non Members: $75 early-regular/$90 late


Please note: registration fees include: ferry crossing, shuttle service, admission to the Reserve, and a box lunch. Maximum participants: 22


Click here to register

THURSDAY, MAY 31, 1:30PM-5:30PM

Learning about Places from the Past: A Visit to Providence Mount St. Vincent Continuing Care Facility


It has systematically been found in E-B research and literature that residents in skilled nursing and long term care (LTC) who feel their environment is responsive to their efforts, choices, and actions tend to enjoy better health than older adults who feel that they do not have control in their lives. Yet the relationship between life in long term care and resident well-being is a complex one. While the need to be moved from home into LTC may be necessary for both health and safety reasons, this move can lead to a loss of connections with family, friends and important grounding routines of home.

 

Led by the Environment-Gerontology Knowledge Network, this mobile session will visit Providence Mount St. Vincent Continuing Care Facility, located in West Seattle, about a 10-minute ride from the EDRA43 hotel. Providence Mount St. Vincent is one of the first skilled nursing facilities in the U.S. to focus on how the environment and person-centered care can impact LTC resident outcomes. The 195 resident skilled nursing center has neighborhoods and clusters of private and shared rooms for about 20 residents each. Merely by the implied structure of a residentially scaled shared living setting with a living room, dining room and kitchen, individuals have opportunities to create reciprocal relationships and associations that are similar to the concept of family ties. These ties are implicit in the formation of attachment to place, as well as a sense of identity. In addition, by living in small group settings, there are opportunities to reconnect with former home roles and tasks, (i.e., cooking, cleaning, socializing in the kitchen), which again can create the foundation for autonomy and validation.

 

Registration Fees:
Members: $35 early-regular/$45 late
Non members: $40 early-regular/$50 late

 

Click here to register

FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 1:30PM-5:30PM

A Walking Tour Through Downtown Seattle's Past and Future

 

This mobile session will visit three of Seattle's iconic downtown open spaces: Freeway Park, Westlake Park, and Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture Park. Freeway Park's first phase, completed by Lawrence Halprin in 1976 and recently restored, is a classic example of his work. Subsequent phases of the park and the Washington Convention and Trade center will lead to Westlake Park and mall with its distinctive "basket-weave" paving pattern. The session will continue through Belltown, an evolving "upscale" residential and commercial section of downtown, located on the "regarded" Denny Hill.

 

Participants will visit art and storm-water facilities that are part of the "growing Vine Street" installations. The session will turn back toward downtown at Seattle Art Museum's very successful Olympic Sculpture Park, following its zig-zag path over roads and railroad tracks, while "taking in" panoramic views of the city, Mt. Rainier, and the incomparable Olympic Mountains and Puget Sound, to the waterfront currently being designed by Field Operations in conjunction with the reconstruction of the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Participants' interests, time and weather, will determine whether the tour takes the Hillclimb steps to Pike Place Market or the Harbor Steps to Seattle Art Museum and the Garden of Remembrance at Benaroya Hall before depositing participants, footsore but satiated, at the hotel. The tour will provide innumerable opportunities for weary participants to live the Seattle lifestyle by defecting to coffee shops en route, such as the universe's first "Starbucks", or to find a Metro bus back to downtown Seattle. The session’s goal is to provide participants with a taste of "emergent placemaking" by examining the design evolution of Seattle downtown open spaces over the last 40+ years and to suggest how this development reflects and responds to the geological, ecological, social, and cultural evolution of the city over this period.

 

Registration is required for this event; however, there is no cost for registering for this session.

 

Click here to register

SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 1:30PM-5:30PM

A Watershed Approach: Improving the Hydrology and Habitat of Pipers Creek


Urbanization has many detrimental effects on local streams and rivers, including dramatic changes in storm flows and sediment transport, degraded water quality, decreased habitat complexity, and the loss of riparian vegetation. Despite these rapid changes, many of Seattle’s urban streams still support fish and other aquatic biota. Over the past fifteen years, Seattle Public Utilities has infused millions of dollars into stormwater drainage control, water quality improvement, and habitat restoration projects for the purpose of urban creek rehabilitation. This mobile session will tour one of these areas; the Pipers Creek watershed.

 

Located in northwest Seattle, Pipers Creek and the area it drains has been the focus of extensive research and design activities intended to reduce the hydrologic impacts of urbanization on receiving waterbodies and improve habitat conditions for fish and wildlife. Two stops within this session will be in the upper watershed where low impact design strategies have been employed at the street and neighborhood scale to reduce runoff. The final two stops will be along the stream channel where work has been completed to improve the instream and riparian habitat of Pipers Creek for salmonids and where the flow of Pipers Creek meets the Puget Sound.

 

Registration Fees:
Members: $35 early-regular/$45 late
Non members: $40 early-regular/$50 late

 

Click here to register