Open house set to discuss reconstruction of Point Defiance’s Japanese Garden, and much more

Plans for Pagoda surroundings, pedestrian routes, parking also in the works; public invited to join conversation

The public is invited to see and discuss not only designs for the Japanese Garden next to Point Defiance Park’s Pagoda but broad plans for the Pagoda’s surroundings, including pedestrian access, bicycle routes, parking and more in an open house at the Pagoda from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, March 24.

One of the evening’s highlights will be a conversation about redevelopment of the Japanese Garden next to the Pagoda. There were Japanese-inspired gardens in the area of the Pagoda even before the streetcar station was built in 1914. After its construction, gardeners made more of an effort to design plantings in harmony with its Japanese-style architecture. In 1963, a project under the sponsorship of the Capitol District of Garden Clubs began to give the gardens a more characteristic Japanese ambience.

In 2012, with funding from the Japan Foundation through Sister City International, Metro Parks staff and designers from Tacoma’s sister city Kitakyushu began working on a new preliminary landscape design. Passage of the park district’s $198 million capital improvement bond in 2014 helped bring the collaborative effort to its next stage, and the garden was included in the 2015 Point Defiance Park Master Plan Update.

“We’re recreating an authentic Japanese-style garden,” Chief Planning Manager Doug Fraser said.

Some schematic designs already are available on the Metro Parks website at metroparkstacoma.org/japanese-garden. For anyone interested but unable to attend, any new designs and explanations will be posted to metroparkstacoma.org/japanese-garden. Anyone with questions before or after the open house may contact Fraser at (253) 305-1019 or dougf@tacomaparks.com.

The garden will be only the start of the discussion March 24. Metro Parks is examining the Pagoda’s entire setting, including other landscaping and foot traffic. In 2015, the State Recreation & Conservation Office awarded a $3.25 million grant to Metro Parks to create a dedicated pedestrian loop around Five Mile Drive, free from vehicular conflicts. The “loop trail” project, like the Japanese Garden project, will be completed under the umbrella of the park’s master plan update.

Also under the master plan update, Metro Parks is examining parking, access routes, replacement of the bridge that connects a pedestrian path to the Marina and still more.

“It’s all interconnected,” Fraser said. “In the next couple of years, we’ll be moving forward.”

When the work is finished, Fraser said, he hopes the new Japanese Garden will enhance the allure of Point Defiance Park to garden enthusiasts – “that it will be looked at as a destination garden.”