Northgate Link Opens Saturday

3 New Stations Connecting Seattle, Image Courtesy of Sound Transit

It is impossible to overstate how excited we are for the opening of the Northgate Link Extension this Saturday, October 2nd. The 4.3 mile project, funded by voters throughout the Puget Sound region in 2008, has been under construction since 2012. The light rail’s Line 1 Extension to three new stations in the University District, Roosevelt, and Northgate will expand transit options to millions of commuters across the region.

The Roosevelt Station, in particular, offers additional excitement at ScharrerAD. Christine was the Contract Package Manager for the project. She led the civil design team for the station building portion of the contract while still working at Hewitt Architects. Being able to continue this role, due to the generosity and support from our friends at Hewitt (especially David Hewitt) was pivotal to the initial success of the firm as she launched ScharrerAD. For some fun journeying down memory lane, check out these articles from Sound Transit highlighting progress during construction here and here.

The Roosevelt neighborhood has already transformed with increased density around the new station, including over 1,600 new units of housing. According to the Seattle Times, another 624 are permitted, roughly 1/3 of which are affordable housing. The impact of mass transit proved to be transformative with nearly 3,500 homes within an easy walk of the new station, and continues to shape and change our region for the better.

For more information about the new stations, Sound Transit has developed a guide to the new neighborhoods connected by Link Line 1. We hope to see folks exploring these neighborhoods on our new trains this Saturday, and beyond.