Exploring Seattle’s Black History and Black Future with Africatown — By Mia Alhambra

At the start of Black History Month, I had the honor of attending the groundbreaking celebration for Africatown Plaza in Seattle’s Central District. I can’t accurately reflect on the importance of this project without giving an overview of the neighborhood’s history.

A Brief History on Seattle’s Central District

In 1882, William Grose became the first Black person to buy property on East Madison— purchasing 12 acres of land from Henry Yesler, one of Seattle’s first white settlers. Grose’s land, what we now know as the Central District, became a place where Seattle’s growing Black community could flourish. After 1926, racist housing practices, such as racial covenants and redlining, made it difficult for Black residents to buy or rent a home anywhere outside of the neighborhood and prevented many of them from building wealth through real estate.

In 1960, African Americans made up more than 80% of the Central District, but by 2020, they represented less than 20% of the neighborhood’s population. Beginning in the late 20th century and into the 2000s, Seattle quickly grew into a tech hub that appealed to predominantly white professionals who could afford to live close to the city. The Central District was relatively inexpensive compared to other Seattle neighborhoods which appealed to new homebuyers. The rise in property values and new developments increased property taxes in the neighborhood—forcing long-term Black residents and business owners to sell and move to less expensive cities. Today, we see how gentrification threatens affordable housing, commercial affordability, economic development, and cultural preservation in the area.

Africatown Plaza

Africatown Plaza, a new mixed-use development in the heart of the Central District, will combat this displacement through the creation of architecture, landscape, and urban design that celebrates history, diversity, and identity. It will be a place where people who have previously been displaced or are at risk of being displaced can live, work, and flourish. The building will have:

• 126 units of affordable housing
• Community spaces for learning, sharing, and gathering
• A vibrant indoor space that will be connected to the outdoors with flexible spaces for meetings, lectures, and celebrations
• Various art installations by Black artists in over 20 locations throughout the development
• Retail spaces for continued communal celebrations around food, art, and crafts for upcoming entrepreneurs
• Flexible market stalls will allow for businesses to startup and thrive and grow with connections to the history and character of the Central District

Africatown Plaza is an example of how local experts in the A/E/C industries, as well as nonprofits and organizations committed to social justice, can have an impactful role in shaping our built environment. Besides many community members, collaborators include:

• Africatown Community Land Trust
• Community Roots Housing
• Coterra Engineering
• David Baker Architects
• DREAM Collaborative
• GGLO
• Glumac
• Laurie Allison Wilson
• PCS Structural Solutions
• Site Workshop Landscape Architecture
• Wa Na Wari

Throughout the design process, this integrated team engaged members of the Central District community—listening to and learning about their goal to create a Seattle where Black residents can thrive. At community engagement meetings, the team and participants discussed various topics, from residential needs like the residential unit mix, parking requirements, and community retail needs, to design preferences such as the building’s architecture, colors, and art.

Celebrating the Project’s Groundbreaking

On February 5, 2022, the groundbreaking of Africatown Plaza was celebrated in-person and virtually, and regardless of how you joined, the importance of this project and milestone were clear. The event included performances that celebrated African culture and speeches that highlighted how much this project means to the Central District. (And the Po'Boy & Tings food truck was pretty great, too!)

Many Black members of the community gathered for this celebration and I quickly noticed how tight-knit the community was—everybody knew everybody. These people grew up down the street from each other, reminisced on how they went to the same schools and frequented the same restaurants, and reflected on how the neighborhood’s Black population had changed over the past several decades. All the cheers, laughter, and applause throughout the event spoke to how involved the community was at every step of the design process.

Africatown Plaza shows us why Black lives and voices matter every day, not just during the month of February. As business leaders of the A/E/C industry, it is crucial for us to honor every human being’s intrinsic value and worth and recognize how the places we create impact the communities around us. It is up to each of us to work towards changing the narrative and mindsets of predominantly white organizations in a predominantly white industry to be more inclusive and empowering of the voices and stories of the individuals and communities for—and with—whom we design.

To learn more about Africatown Plaza, check out the project’s website.

Mia Alhambra is a Marketing Coordinator at GGLO. She is passionate about learning and telling stories about the built environment. Mia is a member of SMPS Seattle’s Marketing, Membership, and DEI Committees.