Donnie Chin International Childrens Park

Donnie Chin International Childrens Park, formerly known as the International District Childrens Park or International Children's Park, is a 0.2-acre (810 m2) public park for children in the Chinatown–International District (CID) neighborhood of downtown Seattle, Washington, United States. The park is at the northeast corner of the intersection of South Lane Street and 7th Avenue South, near the eastern edge of the CID. It was built in 1981, renovated in 2012, and features a bronze dragon play sculpture by Gerard Tsutakawa.

Donnie Chin International Childrens Park
  • International District Childrens Park
  • International Children's Park
  • Dragon Park
Donnie Chin International Children's Park (2019)
Location700 S Lane St
Nearest citySeattle, Washington
Coordinates47.596870°N 122.323529°W / 47.596870; -122.323529
Area0.2 acres (0.081 ha)
Created1981
Designer
  • Joey Ing
  • Thomas Berger (landscape)
  • Karen Kiest (2012 redesign)
Owned byCity of Seattle
Websiteseattle.gov/parks/find/parks/donnie-chin-international-childrens-park

Features and description

The affectionate nickname "Dragon Park"[1] derives from The Dragon, a bronze dragon sculpture and play structure created by Tsutakawa in 1978 under a commission from the Parks Department.[2] The original circular center of the park was divided into a yin-yang shape, with the southern half as a grass lawn and the northern half as a sand play area.[3]:15–16 The bronze dragon was originally located in the sand portion. The northeastern corner of the original park featured "The Mountain", a small rock hill for climbing with a slide from the top into the sand area, connected by a bridge on the eastern edge of the park to another pile of rocks and a play structure in the southeastern corner. The northwest corner had a "Neon Pavilion" with seating, and the southwest corner (at the corner of 7th and Lane) had a large stone berm/planter.[4]:9 [5]:9

The park was updated in 2012, removing the berm/planter in the southwest corner and rearranging elements of the play structures. "The Mountain" was replaced by seating.[6]

History

Land for the International Children's Park was donated by Dennis Su in the late 1970s.[7] The original design for the park is credited to Joey Ing[3]:2 [8] and the landscape architect Thomas Berger.[7] The original International Children's Park opened in 1981.[1] Because of poor visibility from the street and potential safety issues, the park was underutilized.[1][9]

Renovation

In 2007, the community organization Friends of International Children's Park (FICP) was formed to explore options to update the park's design.[1] FICP partnered with the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Washington (led by Professor Jeff Hou)[9] and the Wilderness Inner-city Leadership Development (WILD) program for a collaborative exploration of potential designs.[3] The redesign emphasized making the park more inviting for adults accompanying children to the park.[9] In 2008, $500,000 to restore the park was authorized by the Parks and Green Spaces levy,[1] which also provided $3 million for the Hing Hay Park expansion.[10] In total, the redesign cost $750,000, with the balance made up by donors.[9]

The draft design concepts for International Children's Park were finished by the landscape architect Karen Kiest.[11] Several design workshops were held in 2009 to present three concepts for community review and comment; Kiest planned to retain most of the existing trees along the north and east edges of the park and expand the southwest corner as a curb extension.[4] The final developed concept relocated the dragon to the northern edge of the park and kept the play structures along the eastern edge, allowing for a potential future expansion should the narrow parking lot east of the park be acquired by the city.[12] The renovation also added new artistic elements from Stuart Nakamura based on toys from the Asia-Pacific cultures of the Chinatown-International District: "Spin" (a spinning top in stainless steel),[13] "I-Ching Coin", and "SepakTakraw Ball".[14] The grand re-opening of the park was held on March 3, 2012.[7]

Donnie Chin

Donald Gregory (Donnie) Chin (October 7, 1955 – July 23, 2015)[15] founded the International District Emergency Center (IDEC) in 1968 as police and fire services were generally slow to respond to emergency calls in the CID.[16][17] Chin provided first responder services through IDEC on a volunteer basis for decades until he was shot and killed during a suspected gun battle between two rival groups in the early morning of July 23, 2015.[18][19] As of 2018 the murder is still unsolved.[20]

Spontaneous tributes to Chin following his death included a "crossed-ladder" salute from the Seattle Fire Department and flowers left at his family's shop in Canton Alley. Mayor Ed Murray, Governor Jay Inslee, and former King County Executive Ron Sims also paid tribute to Chin.[21] Mayor Murray launched a campaign to rename the International District Childrens Park to Donnie Chin International Childrens Park in February 2016. Chin was called "instrumental in the creation of the [original] park", as he had identified the need for a children's park in the CID during the 1970s.[22] In June 2016, the Seattle City Council voted unanimously to rename the park, making an exception for Chin, as typical city park policy requires renaming requests to wait until three years after death.[23]

References
  1. Cafe, Evangeline (September 24, 2009). "If FICP builds it, will they come?". Northwest Asian Weekly. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
  2. "Gerard Tsutakawa". sculptursite Gallery. Retrieved April 17, 2019.
  3. (Re)play!: International Children's Park Collaborative Redesign (PDF) (Report). University of Washington. May 2008. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
  4. Kiest, Karen (June 2009). International Children's Park (Report). Friends of International Children's Park. Retrieved April 17, 2019.
  5. Kiest, Karen (June 2009). International Children's Park (Report). Friends of International Children's Park. Retrieved April 17, 2019.
  6. Kiest, Karen. "Karen Kiest - Designing Healthy Landscapes: Site, Function & Process" (PDF). City of Seattle. Retrieved April 17, 2019.
  7. Nguyen, Stacy (March 8, 2012). "New [old] International Children's Park to bring generations together". Northwest Asian Weekly. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
  8. Sale, Roger; Randlett, Mary (photographs) (1994). Seeing Seattle. Seattle: University of Washington Press. p. 101. ISBN 0-295-97359-5. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
  9. O'Donnell, Catherine (March 8, 2012). "UW professor and students help redesign International Children's Park" (Press release). University of Washington. Archived from the original on May 17, 2012.
  10. Woo, Liana (November 1, 2008). "Commentary: Calling for more green in the I.D." Northwest Asian Weekly. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
  11. "International Children's Park Improvements". Karen Kiest | Landscape Architects. 2011. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
  12. Kiest, Karen (June 2009). International Children's Park: Final Concept (Report). Friends of International Children's Park. Retrieved April 17, 2019.
  13. Nakamura, Stuart (2014). "Stuart S. Nakamura, Public Art". Wix. Retrieved April 17, 2019.
  14. "Donnie Chin International Childrens Park". City of Seattle, Department of Parks and Recreation. Retrieved April 17, 2019.
  15. "Obituary: Donnie Chin". Dignity Memorial. 2015. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
  16. Wong, Dean (July 2015). "Donnie Chin — Every Asian community needs a dragon to protect it". Ethnic Seattle. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
  17. Moy, Kimberly (August 8, 1991). "Helping out in the neighborhood". The Seattle Times. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
  18. Sullivan, Jennifer (July 23, 2015). "Donnie Chin, Chinatown ID's 'frontline hero,' killed in early morning shooting". The Seattle Times. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
  19. Sullivan, Jennifer (November 6, 2015). "Investigation continues into death of Donnie Chin, Chinatown International District activist". The Seattle Times. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
  20. Bryan, Zachariah (August 23, 2018). "Case of Donnie Chin's murder grows colder — Assistant Chief on investigation: 'A lot of it is waiting'". Northwest Asian Weekly. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
  21. Buhain, Venice (July 23, 2015). "International District community leader shot and killed Thursday". The Seattle Globalist. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
  22. "Chinatown/International District park to be renamed after Donnie Chin" (Press release). Office of the Mayor, City of Seattle. February 17, 2016. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
  23. Thompson, Lynn (June 6, 2016). "Seattle park to be renamed after slain activist Donnie Chin". The Seattle Times. Retrieved April 16, 2019.

Donnie Chin
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