After its expansion, the park occupies the south half-block north of S. King Street, between 6th Avenue S. and Maynard Avenue S.. The original portion of the park occupies the quarter block at the corner of S. King Street and Maynard Avenue S. The original park has an authentic pavilion in the center, along with benches and chess tables. Placed on a diagonal in the southeast corner is a small hanging bulletin board with its own tiled roof. One side contains an outdated map of the district and the other is for community news. Its placement is according to principles of feng shui. Parallel placement would have blocked the qi from flowing into the businesses on the opposite side of the street. There is a large mural dominated by a dragon and featuring scenes of railroad construction, the Kingdome, and the King Street Stationclock tower on the wall of the neighboring Bush-Asia Center, painted by John Woo in 1977. In addition, the park features a memorial cenotaph for ten Chinese-American veterans who were killed during World War II. The localAmerican Legion Cathay Post No. 186 holds an annual Memorial Day ceremony there. Tai chi classes and free music are presented in the summer. The annual Dragon Fest also centers on Hing Hay Park.
History
Funds to purchase the buildings and land at the corner of Maynard and King were made available by the Forward Thrust bond initiative, approved by voters in 1968. During the planning phase, the proposed park was generically named the International District Mini Park. The original park space was designed by the landscape architecture firm of Sakuma, James, and Peterson, led by S.K. Sakuma; the land was previously occupied by the Specie Bank of Seattle, built in 1911, and the park, originally, was completed in 1973. The pavilion and furniture were donated by the then Mayor of Taipei after a visit to Seattle in the early 1970s. He met with then King County Council member Ruby Chow, who explained to him that the city had purchased and torn down the condemned buildings on the land, proposing a park instead, but it needed to be as care free as possible because the city could not afford on going maintenance costs. After discussions with Ruby Chow, the mayor of Taipei offered to donate the brickwork, pavilion and bulletin board from his own private funds. He sent over a crew of trained workers to aid in its construction; the pavilion was completed in 1975.
Expansion
Using funds from a voter-passed parks levy, the city Parks Department purchased the former post office on the west side of the existing park in 2007, intending to demolish it to nearly double the size of Hing Hay Park, adding. The landmark feature of the design proposal was an artistic gateway for the new entrance on the southwest corner of the expanded park. Other features of the new design included seating, landscaping inspired by terraced rice paddies, and performance spaces. The Friends of Hing Hay Park, formed in 2012, met regularly with the internationally known design team of SvR and Turenscape. Construction of the expansion project began on January 6, 2016 shortly after the contract was awarded to WS Contractors; the old post office was demolished by February. The Hing Hay Park Expansion opened on June 29, 2017. Although the park was largely complete by April, the artistic gateway and light poles caused the park's opening to be delayed. The large artistic gateway, constructed of perforated red metal and measuring, was designed and fabricated offsite by StudioFifty50. It was installed in February 2018. A celebration was held on March 24, 2018 to mark the completion of the expansion project. StudioFifty50 also designed and fabricated the perforated red metal stair risers used elsewhere in the park expansion.
