Georgetown STREAM Plant: STEAM Education in Context

Abstract

The Georgetown Steam Plant, a 1906 Seattle City Light plant located in the Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle, is undergoing a transformation. This design thesis proposes a reprogramming of the now-defunct plant as a museum and center for STEAM education. This allows for a revisioning of how interpretation and education on the site could expand beyond a focus on the turbines to include the story of its relationship to the surrounding landscape, a story that encompasses the Duwamish River meander from which the water to cool the plant was drawn, said river’s subsequent straightening, and the extractive rail-based economy which brought coal to the plant to heat the water. This project proposes a series of small structures and landscape interventions in the surrounding Georgetown neighborhood to support a networked exhibit on the themes of ground, water, power, and sound, that blend art, science, Georgetown’s history, and its contemporary issues.