The Pier 58 Jellyfish is the main play structure of the new playground installation that is part of the Seattle Waterfront’s redevelopment of Pier 58 (Waterfront Park). As the name suggests, it is a Jellyfish-shaped climbing structure standing 25 feet tall. The structure is primarily wood construction, which is fabricated off site by Earthscape Play and assembled on site.
The primary structural members are curved Alaska Yellow Cedar glulam columns which form the tentacles of the jellyfish and support the head structure above. Secondary stainless steel HSS framing supports the glulam columns. Tube sections curved into rings and spaced at intervals tie all the columns together. Rectangular HSS standoff members anchor the bottom of the columns to the underlying concrete slab while allowing the curved columns to continue floating above the playground safety surfacing and connect to adjacent play elements.
The head consists of four separate quadrants that were fabricated and shipped to site to be assembled onto the body. The main structural elements of the head are curved marine-grade plywood “ribs”, which are cut from 1½” thick sheets of plywood and screw laminated to form built-up beams. These main vertical ribs form the shape of the Jellyfish head, and support similar horizontal ribs between them to form a gridshell-style roof framing scheme. Cladding boards are attached to the plywood framing members to close in the head.
Earthscape in collaboration with Field Operations
