Placemaking & Planning

With its bright blue picnic tables and red umbrellas, NE 43rd Street Plaza provides a convenient and welcoming place for people to sit, eat, and enjoy the heart of the neighborhood. The 43rd St Plaza is a UDP-operated public outdoor seating area along NE 43rd St’s sidewalks, next to the U District Light Rail Station. UDP maintains the popular space daily.

Take a nighttime walk down the Ave and you’ll find yourself under a canopy of twinkling street lights! The UDP’s tree lighting program began in 2021 thanks to funding from the City of Seattle and Washington Department of Commerce to improve the nighttime strolling experience on the Ave. The tree lights extend along the Ave from NE 41st to NE 50th Streets, and are up year round.

Implementing public art is an essential way that UDP celebrates the vibrancy, culture and diversity of the neighborhood. Since 2020, UDP has led or collaborated on seven murals, and thanks to work by other organizations, property owners, and developers, the U District now has 12 murals, and counting. Take a tour of the murals using this guide from the Seattle Times.

Each spring, UDP hangs bright-red flower baskets along the main commercial corridor of the Ave. UDP also maintains the planters along NE 43rd St between U District Station and the UW campus, annually planting brightly colored flowers like spring tulips, daffodils, and crocuses.

Since 2023, UDP has collaborated with neighborhood stakeholders on a process to re-envision NE 42nd St between UW campus and Brooklyn Ave NE. The goal of the project is to redesign 42nd Street as a welcoming, accessible, and pedestrian-friendly gateway between the UW campus and the U District. Priorities include widened sidewalks, outdoor seating for adjacent businesses, strengthened connections to the Allegro Alley and the Ave, and mature trees and planting. View the draft plan here.

UDP designs and installs a variety of signage throughout the neighborhood to bolster a sense of place for the U District. This signage includes cross-street banners over University Way NE, wayfinding kiosks and other signage.

UDP works with the Seattle Department of Transportation, Sound Transit, and King County Metro to track and engage on the design and construction of transit infrastructure projects in the U District. In 2024-2025, these projects include the RapidRide J Line and 11th/12th Ave Paving Project.