SEATTLE -
Woodland Park Zoo has less than half the available parking of other zoos with comparable attendance, and demand exceeds capacity more than 100 days each year. The excess demand largely occurs during the peak summer season, on some days forcing hundreds of cars onto neighboring streets. A new garage and associated parking management strategies would move zoo visitor cars off neighborhood streets and onto zoo grounds, addressing a long-standing priority for the neighborhood.

The proposed parking garage is a major component of the zoo’s planned solution to the current traffic and parking problems caused by insufficient parking on zoo grounds. The parking garage will displace the current employee surface lot and administrative offices in the northwest part of the zoo, providing approximately 700 visitor parking spaces and increasing the zoo total to approximately 1,360. The garage will be built entirely above ground, with one level at grade and three levels above grade.

The garage will be designed to be within the guidelines for single-family zoning which are: maximum 30 feet tall; shafts for ventilation, stairwells and elevators that can extend up to an additional 15 feet; and planters or screen walls on the top deck that can be up to 4 feet tall.

Vehicular entry and exit will be directly off of Phinney Avenue North between North 56th Street and North 57th Street, and will provide access to the new west parking and the existing north parking lots. The garage will be set back from Phinney Avenue well over 100 feet, utilizing existing vegetation buffers and additional landscaping designed into the project. Pedestrian access from Phinney Avenue North will connect Metro bus stops to a gateway and path to a new West Entrance located slightly north of the zoo’s existing West Entrance. Access from the north parking lot will include a gateway and path to the new West Entrance.

Opening: 2008

Location: The parking garage will displace the current employee surface lot and administrative offices in the northwest part of the zoo.

Size: 700 vehicle capacity

Project Cost: $16.2 million

Designer: KPFF Consulting Engineers and Hewitt Architects (Seattle)

Project Manager: Dan Phillips, Woodland Park Zoo

Accredited by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, award-winning Woodland Park Zoo is famed for pioneering naturalistic exhibits and setting a standard for zoos all over the world. With conservation, education and excellent animal care at the core of the zoo’s mission, the zoo is helping to save endangered species in Washington state and around the world including tree kangaroos, snow leopards, red-crowned cranes, African wild dogs, western pond turtles and Oregon silverspot butterflies. By inspiring visitors and others to care and act, Woodland Park Zoo is making a difference in our planet’s future.