Retrofitting suburbia. Open space in Bellevue, Washington, USA

Abstract

This paper traces the maturation of Bellevue's urban pattern with particular attention to open spaces and stormwater drainage. Several significant events set the current course and led to a new interpretation of the city—country continuum. The seemingly conventional suburban values of this community led the citizens to oppose dispersed commercial development and re-focus the community's development energies on the downtown. More recently, re-zoning of the downtown area, development incentives and design guidelines have been leading to a re-invention of downtown following urban village models. The community resisted burdening itself with the exorbitant costs of engineered drainage systems and gambled on a surface drainage system. In 1974 Bellevue adopted a surface drainage system originally out of financial imperative, placing it at the forefront of innovative stormwater management. Working cooperatively, stormwater engineers and parks planners are weaving a complex web of public open space that integrates the utilitarian public corridors of the city with older patches of park land. The maturing of Bellevue represents a new constellation of values and evolving settlement patterns for the old suburbs.