Seattle is blessed with an interwoven web of waterways, lakes, rivers, canals, and Puget Sound, sometimes a barrier, sometimes a connection, and always shaping the experience and soul of our city. Over the web of water and the hills that shape it, a rectilinear street grid stretches across the whole city, a human-shaped attempt to organize and impose structure on a glacially shaped landscape.

Where our city meets the water is where the streets ends and something entirely new begins … a place of alchemy where a series of unplanned, leftover spaces–relics of the collision of engineering, planning, and geography can be seized and reimagined.

What began as a project about a fascination and passion for water turned into the documentation of the history of Seattle’s street ends. Over 142 street ends on Seattle’s major bodies of waters were visited and documented, with stories learned about those who visit them, maintain them, and love them, from designers, planners, activists, private owners, and Seattle Department of Transportation, the public owner.

In a collection of case studies, ideas explore how the street-end shorelines could be reimagined, aid in habitat restoration and ecological function, increase recreational opportunities, and serve the community. One can’t help but feel this report nudges the possibilities a little closer to reality.