Factoria Community Gathering Space

I can't believe it's been 10 months since I last posted.  The idea was to have a place to write and share thoughts about the grocery store closure--since then the momentum really picked up and life became more about doing rather than writing.  Now that the garden is (pretty much) put to bed and Sustainable Bellevue is out to pasture for a while it's time to assess and develop the direction for next year.

The big news this year was the creation of a public gathering space in Factoria.  A Lutheran Church there has been taking care of a historic orchard and recently added a p-patch to a growing list of ways to engage their immediate neighborhood.  This caught the attention of Pomegranate, and we became one of their special projects this year, which meant that they would offer to facilitate the design and building of a community gathering space.  Be sure to check out the video on the Pomegranate Center linked above.

We decided on an outdoor amphitheatre, a path through the orchard linking the public entries and p-patch to the amphitheatre, a formal gateway and a garden shelter.  All to be built in one three-day weekend at the end of July!  At the end of construction we had a wonderful party with roast pig and entertainment by Pat Wright and the Total Experience Gospel Choir.

Nick and Ingrid during the building of the garden shelter (in the background).

First you dig a hole.

While they were building the garden shelter we worked on drawing things from the orchard that interested us to be carved later into the supports of the garden shelter.

The processional looking back to the church from the amphitheatre.  Pathway candles were poured into concrete molds created by Ingrid and her kids' crew.
Update:  Now Milenko is interested in taking on Newport Hills!