Danny Woo International District Community Garden

Danny Woo International District Community Garden. The Smith Tower can be seen background left.

The Danny Woo International District Community Garden is a community garden on the outskirts of the International District, Seattle, Washington. It was built in 1975 and provides 101 allotments and 77 fruit trees.

Allotment plots are allocated by preference to those aged over 65, residents of the International District and those whose income is below 30% of the median. The garden is managed by the Inter*Im Community Development Association.

In 1975 resources specifically targeted to Asian and Pacific Islanders were scarce. The concept of culturally-appropriate services was new; social and health service agencies like the Chinatown/International District community clinic and the Head Start Center were just starting up; and Seattle’s own P-Patch program was only a couple of years old. Urban renewal and the top down planning of the 1960-70s was in full effect, gradually surrounding and cutting up the International District with the King Dome (1976) and I-5 (1969).

Activists and organizations led by InterImCDA, an community advocacy group working on many neighborhood issues took up the need for a garden after a local Landscape Architect saw the need for a garden for the elders in the community (Santos, 2012). Executive Director “Uncle” Bob Santos, negotiated with local landowner and community leader Danny Woo to take Woo’s property on sloping open space on the north side of Chinatown/International District and convert it into a useful, functional space for the residents in the neighborhood. The vision was simple: A community garden for Asian elders to allow them to feel the earth in their hands, to plant the foods they missed from their native countries, and, most importantly, to provide social connections, recreation, and exercise for the aging immigrant residents.

Santos proposed an unprecedented private-public partnership that would eventually combine Danny Woo’s property, Kobe Terrace Park (city), and other patches of city land, into the Danny Woo International District Community Garden. Santos recalls the day he negotiated the deal, “Danny and Wilma Woo owned the Quong Tuck Restaurant and Lounge, and it was becoming the hangout for the InterIm staff and local community activists. One day I asked Danny Woo for permission to build a garden for the Asian elders on his property above Main Street. But as a nonprofit agency, I told him InterIm could only afford $1 a year for rent. I also asked him, ‘Oh, and by the way, could we have a long-term lease?’ Well, Danny said yes to the dollar, but no to the long-term lease. That was in 1975, and InterIm is still operating the garden.”

People came together to plan and build the garden, terrace the slope, haul the lumber, till the soil, and plant the first seeds. As they did this, they broke down racial, ethnic, and generational barriers. The garden is located at the edge of the historic Jackson regrade project (1907-1910), and likely on ground pre-dating the massive sluice cutting to cut through the First Hill/Beacon Hill ridgeline (Lewis, 1905). Santos tells the story of initial soil sampling, where he and a friend used a large truck tire rolled ahead of them to clear a path through blackberry brambles. Eventually, the site was sculpted into gardens by hand with little to no capitol. Terraces and staircases were created out of old railroad ties, fruit trees donated by a local who owned an eastern Washington orchard were planted, and the creation of tilth began by gardeners. Once the garden was complete, Bob Santos moved his annual Filipino Lechón, roasted pig celebration, to the garden from his personal home, and this tradition continues today. (Santos, 2012)

The garden is located in the Chinatown-International District of Seattle and was established in fits and starts from the 1850s until the 1920s. The district consists of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean, Thai, Laotian, Cambodian, Pacific Islander, and other communities. The garden is sited in what was for much of the district’s history Nihonmachi, or Japantown. Major conflicts with Seattle’s populations of European descent have been ongoing, but three major historical events include the 1886 mob expulsion of Chinese from the city; 1942-1946 Japanese Internment during World War II; And in the 1960-70s, the threat to and invasion of the neighborhood by I-5 and Kingdome construction.

Since 1975, the garden has been kept up by non-profit InterImCDA, whom has partnered with the approximately 70 Asian-American elder gardeners, community volunteers, and the University of Washington College of Built Environments to keep the garden going. Thomas Im, Neighborhood Planner (1997-2013), in partnership with Garden Managers, Jonathan Chen (2008-2012) and Rachel Duthler (2012-2013), have led InterImCDA’s contemporary work with the garden. In 2009, these garden leaders started the Garden Children’s Program which continues today with AppleCorps Americorps volunteer Corinne Cahill.

In 1989, UW Architecture students Leslie Morishita and Brian Reading began the now 24 year-old design/build partnership with the University of Washington College of Built Environments by helping build the main tool shed. Part of their mission was to diversify the then euro-centric focus of the UW Architecture program, and start a common design vocabulary in the up until then vernacular/informal garden. UW Architecture Professors Badanes, Vanags, and Onouye, and the Neighborhood Design/Build Studio did several projects in the following 24 years: (Morishita, 2013)

• 1989 | L.Morishita,B.Reading,B.OnouyeMain tool shed built & vision for unifying Asian architecture in garden created.
• 1990 | S.Badanes, A.Vanags, B.Onouye Pig roast pit and west vegetable washing station with deck and seating.
• 1991 | S.Badanes Front gateway and steps with rock garden & southern lookout along path. Street front park area on west side on Main St.
• 1996 | S.Badanes Accesible garden, work study student completed project.
• 2003 | S.Badanes “New Face Project” Developed the bramble patch at southeast corner of garden, added paths, stairs, plots and common planting areas.
• 2007 | S.Badanes Gathering place, cascading benches on southern slope of garden.
• 2010 | W.S. A. White-Wiegand Second tool shed and chicken coop construction.
• 2012-13 | W.S. G. Lee 100’ retaining wall, 50’ staircase by chicken coop, farm & nature center pre-design

Most recently, in 2010 UW BLA Work Study student Aaron White-Wiegand helped build the new chicken coop and children’s shed (Hou, 2013); and from the summer of 2012 to spring 2013, UW Landscape Architecture Work Study student George Lee led the design/build aspect of a $20,000 matching fund grant to replace a 100’ retaining wall with an Americorps crew, and a 47’ replacement staircase partnering with Im, Chen, and Duthler. Then, in the fall of 2012 InterImCDA was awarded a $100,000 matching fund grant to construct a Farm & Nature Center in the garden, primarily to expand their Children’s Garden Program. This project is the present issue in this Design Report.