Mount Baker station is a light rail station located in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. It is situated between the Columbia City and Beacon Hill stations on the 1 Line, which runs from

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Downtown Seattle Downtown is the central business district of Seattle, Washington. It is fairly compact compared with other city centers on the U.S. West Coast due to its geographical situation, being hemmed in on the north and east by hills, on the west by ...

, the

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, and Northgate as part of the

Link light rail Link light rail is a light rail rapid transit system serving the Seattle metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington. It is managed by Sound Transit in partnership with local transit providers, and consists of two non-connected lines: t ...

system. The elevated station consists of two

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms ...

s located west of the intersection of

Rainier Avenue The Rainier Valley is a district in southeast Seattle. It is located east of Beacon Hill, Seattle, Beacon Hill; west of Mount Baker, Seattle, Mount Baker, Seward Park, Seattle, Seward Park, and Leschi, Seattle, Leschi; south of the Central Distr ...

and Martin Luther King Jr. Way in the

Mount Baker Mount Baker (Lummi: '; nok, Kw’eq Smaenit or '), also known as Koma Kulshan or simply Kulshan, is a active glacier-covered andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington in the United States. Mount ...

neighborhood, part of Seattle's Rainier Valley. A light rail station in the Mount Baker area was first proposed in 1995 and approved the following year. Construction began in late 2005 and the station was opened for regular service on July 18, 2009. Trains serve the station twenty hours a day on most days; the

headway Headway is the distance or duration between vehicles in a transit system measured in space or time. The ''minimum headway'' is the shortest such distance or time achievable by a system without a reduction in the speed of vehicles. The precise defi ...

between trains is six minutes during peak periods, with less frequent service at other times. Mount Baker station is also served by five

King County Metro King County Metro, officially the King County Metro Transit Department and often shortened to Metro, is the public transit authority of King County, Washington, which includes the city of Seattle. It is the eighth-largest transit bus agency in t ...

bus routes that connect it to Downtown,

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, Rainier Beach, the Central District, and the University District.

Location

Mount Baker station is located west of the

and Martin Luther King Jr. Way intersection in the

neighborhood of

, at the foot of Beacon Hill. The area surrounding the station consists of

single-family detached home A stand-alone house (also called a single-detached dwelling, detached residence or detached house) is a free-standing residential building. It is sometimes referred to as a single-family home, as opposed to a multi-family residential dwelling ...

s and retail

big-box store A big-box store (also hyperstore, supercenter, superstore, or megastore) is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain of stores. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store. The t ...

s, housing 6,675 and employing 2,208 respectively. Nearby pedestrian amenities include a

bus station A bus station or a bus interchange is a structure where city or intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. While the term bus depot can also be used to refer to a bus station, it generally refers to a bus garage. A bus station is l ...

for

routes one block northeast and an

overpass An overpass (called an overbridge or flyover in the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth countries) is a bridge, road, railway or similar structure that crosses over another road or railway. An ''overpass'' and ''underpass'' together form ...

of Rainier Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way connecting to Mount Baker Boulevard and Franklin High School. In 2014, the

Seattle Department of Transportation The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is a municipal government agency in Seattle, Washington that is responsible for the maintenance of the city's transportation systems, including roads, bridges, and public transportation. The agency ...

began planning of its "Accessible Mt. Baker" plan, which would rebuild the street grid surrounding the station and adding facilities for bikes and buses. Part of the $10–20 million plan would move bus stops at the existing off-street transit center to the plaza under Mount Baker station, with bus lanes and a special bus-only street on South Winthrop Street between Rainier Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way; the proposal was funded as part of the "Move Seattle" levy passed by voters in November 2015.

Transit-oriented development

A 10-block, area surrounding Mount Baker station was designated as the Mount Baker Station Area Overlay District and approved for rezoning by the

Seattle City Council The Seattle City Council is the legislative body of the city of Seattle, Washington. The Council consists of nine members serving four-year terms, seven of which are elected by electoral districts and two of which are elected in citywide at-lar ...

in June 2014. The rezone raised building heights from a maximum of to with hopes of attracting

transit-oriented development In urban planning, transit-oriented development (TOD) is a type of urban development that maximizes the amount of residential, business and leisure space within walking distance of public transport. It promotes a symbiotic relationship between ...

around the station. The first major development in the rezoned area was the four-story

Artspace Artspace may refer to: * Artspace (website), an online marketplace based in New York City * Artspace, New Haven, an art gallery in downtown New Haven, Connecticut * Artspace Mackay, Mackay, Queensland, Australia * Artspace NZ, a visual arts cent ...

Mount Baker Lofts, which opened in 2014 and has 57 units and no parking spaces. The triangular block on the south side of the intersection of Rainier Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way is planned to have two apartment buildings. An

affordable housing Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on affo ...

complex with 95 units managed by Mercy Housing began construction in 2018 on the south side of the block, facing Hanford Street. Crossroads, an eight-story building with 160 units, retail, and 49 parking spaces, is planned on the north side by a private developer. The west side of Mount Baker Station is occupied by the former

Consolidated Laundry and is proposed for redevelopment into a mixed-use affordable housing complex along with an adjoining property owned by Sound Transit.

History

Mount Baker Station under construction, 2007

From 1891 to 1937, the Rainier Valley was served by the

Rainier Avenue Electric Railway Rainier may refer to the following: People *Rainier (name), a list of people with the given name or surname Places United States *Rainier, Oregon, a small city *Rainier, Washington, a small city *Rainier Beach, Seattle * Mount Rainier, a stratovo ...

, an

interurban The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 a ...

railway on

that traveled to

, including a stop at McClellan Street in the vicinity of the modern light rail station. A failed

rapid transit Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be c ...

proposal published in 1928 by the Seattle Traffic Research Commission recommended that a future southern extension on Rainier Avenue terminate at either McClellan or Winthrop streets in

. A modern light rail system for Seattle was proposed in 1995, including a station at the intersection of Rainier Avenue and McClellan Street in Mount Baker. The proposal was rejected by voters on March 14, 1995, and was condensed into the "Sound Move" that was approved the following November, retaining the proposed station in Mount Baker. In 1999,

Sound Transit Sound Transit (ST), officially the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority, is a public transit agency serving the Seattle metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington. It operates the Link light rail system in Seattle and Tacoma, r ...

, the agency charged with planning and constructing the light rail system, chose an elevated station at McClellan Street to be situated between a tunnel under Beacon Hill and a surface line on Martin Luther King Jr. Way as part of the

Central Link The 1Line, formerly Central Link, is a light rail line in Seattle, Washington, United States, and part of Sound Transit's Link light rail system. It serves 19 stations in the cities of Seattle, SeaTac, and Tukwila, traveling nearly between ...

route (now part of 1 Line). The light rail station, designed by Seattle-based

Boxwood ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

and engineered by

Federal Way Federal Way is a city in King County, Washington, United States. One of the most recently incorporated cities in the county, its population was 101,030 at the 2020 census. Federal Way is the tenth-largest city in Washington and the fifth-larges ...

-based BergerABAM, was tentatively named "McClellan Street" and unveiled to the public alongside Beacon Hill station at public hearings held in 2003. The station was named "Mount Baker" after the surrounding neighborhood by the Sound Transit Board in January 2005. Sound Transit awarded the

construction contract A construction contract is a mutual or legally binding agreement between two parties based on policies and conditions recorded in document form. The two parties involved are one or more property owners and one or more contractors. The owner, often ...

for Mount Baker station and the Beacon Hill Tunnel to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese

general contractor A general contractor, main contractor or prime contractor is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of a construction site, management of vendors and trades, and the communication of information to all involved parties throughout the course of ...

Obayashi Corporation is one of five major Japanese construction companies along with Shimizu Corporation, Takenaka Corporation, Kajima Corporation, and Taisei Corporation. It is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and is one of the Nikkei 225 corporations. Its head ...

in June 2004 for $280 million, the costliest component of the Central Link project. Construction began in September 2005 with the permanent closure of Stevens Street and utility relocation to clear the station site. By the following April, Obayashi completed erection of columns that would be used to support the elevated guideway and station. Mount Baker station was declared substantially complete in June 2009, excluding work on the

elevator An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...

s and

escalator An escalator is a moving staircase which carries people between floors of a building or structure. It consists of a motor-driven chain of individually linked steps on a track which cycle on a pair of tracks which keep the step tread horizo ...

s. Mount Baker station was opened to the public on July 18, 2009, during the first day of Central Link service. The station hosted the

ribbon-cutting ceremony An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly-constructed location or the start of an event.

for the line and served as the point at which the inaugural trains met and departed with passengers.

Station layout

Mount Baker station, designed by

architectural firm In the United States, an architectural firm or architecture firm is a business that employs one or more licensed architects and practices the profession of architecture; while in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark and other countri ...

Boxwood and engineered by BergerABAM, consists of two elevated station platforms, a community plaza beneath the station building, and a nearby

. The , brick-clad station building contains the

s situated above a plaza with

ticket vending machine A ticket machine, also known as a ticket vending machine (TVM), is a vending machine that produces paper or electronic tickets, or recharges a stored-value card or smart card or the user's mobile wallet, typically on a smartphone. For instanc ...

s at ground level. The station also has 24 spaces in a secured

bicycle locker A bicycle locker or bike box is a locker or box in which up to 2 bicycles can be placed and locked. They are usually provided at places where numerous cyclists need bike parking for extended times (such as during the working day), yet where t ...

. The station also houses three

art installation Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called ...

s as part of the "STart" program, which allocates a percentage of project construction funds to art projects to be used in stations. Sheila Klein's "Sky Within" consists of six

chandelier A chandelier (; also known as girandole, candelabra lamp, or least commonly suspended lights) is a branched ornamental light fixture designed to be mounted on ceilings or walls. Chandeliers are often ornate, and normally use incandescent li ...

s, recycled from former

street light A street light, light pole, lamp pole, lamppost, street lamp, light standard, or lamp standard is a raised source of light on the edge of a road or path. Similar lights may be found on a railway platform. When urban electric power distribution ...

s, that are suspended above the plaza level on the underside of the train guideway. The southbound platform has two

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

windows made by Guy Kemper, facing away from the station and towards the surrounding neighborhood: "Rain, Steam and Speed" serves as a colorful contrast to clear and

overcast Overcast or overcast weather, as defined by the World Meteorological Organization, is the meteorological condition of clouds obscuring at least 95% of the sky. However, the total cloud cover must not be entirely due to obscuring phenomena near t ...

skies, while "Seattle Sunrise" represents a

sunrise Sunrise (or sunup) is the moment when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon and its accompanying atmospheric effects. Terminology Al ...

against the

horizon The horizon is the apparent line that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This line divides all viewing directions based on whether i ...

. The station's

pictogram A pictogram, also called a pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto, and in computer usage an icon, is a graphic symbol that conveys its meaning through its pictorial resemblance to a physical object. Pictographs are often used in writing and ...

, a pair of

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited Summit (topography), summit area, and ...

s, depict

and

Mount Rainier Mount Rainier (), indigenously known as Tahoma, Tacoma, Tacobet, or təqʷubəʔ, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, located in Mount Rainier National Park about south-southeast of Seattle. With a s ...

(both visible from the station). It was created by Christian French as part of the ''Stellar Connections'' series and its points represent nearby destinations, including Franklin High School, the former site of

Sick's Stadium Sick's Stadium, also known as Sick's Seattle Stadium and later as Sicks' Stadium, was a baseball park in the northwest United States in Seattle, Washington. It was located in Rainier Valley, on the NE corner of S. McClellan Street and Rainier Av ...

Colman Park Colman Park is a park in the Mount Baker neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, located just south of the Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge (Interstate 90) along Lake Washington and inland to 31st Avenue S. It was listed on the National Register ...

, Cheasty Boulevard, and Mount Baker Park.

Services

Mount Baker station is part of Sound Transit's 1 Line, which runs from

through the Rainier Valley,

, and the

campus to Northgate. It is the seventh northbound station from Angle Lake and twelfth southbound station from Northgate, and is situated between Columbia City and Beacon Hill stations. 1 Line trains serve Mount Baker twenty hours a day on weekdays and Saturdays, from 5:00 am to 1:00 am, and eighteen hours on Sundays, from 6:00 am to 12:00 am; during regular weekday service, trains operate roughly every eight to ten minutes during

rush hour A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice every weekday: on ...

and midday operation, respectively, with longer

s of fifteen minutes in the early morning and twenty minutes at night. During weekends, 1 Line trains arrive at Mount Baker station every ten minutes during midday hours and every fifteen minutes during mornings and evenings. The station is approximately 22 minutes from SeaTac/Airport station and 16 minutes from Westlake station in Downtown Seattle. In 2019, an average of 2,601 passengers boarded Link trains at Mount Baker station on weekdays. Mount Baker is served by six

bus routes that stop at the Mount Baker Transit Center, a three-bay

located on Forest Street between

and Martin Luther King Jr. Way that opened on September 19, 2009. Routes 7 and 9 Express run through the transit center, connecting the Rainier Valley to Downtown Seattle and

; Route 8 terminates at Mount Baker, running north to the Central District, Capitol Hill, and the

Seattle Center Seattle Center is an arts, educational, tourism and entertainment center in Seattle, Washington, United States. Spanning an area of 74 acres (30 ha), it was originally built for the 1962 World's Fair. Its landmark feature is the tall Space Needl ...

in Uptown; Route 14 runs through the transit center, connecting Downtown and the

area of the city (that the station was named after); Route 48 terminates at Mount Baker, running north to the University District via the Central District; Route 106, which begins in the International District, switches to local, frequent-stop service at Mount Baker, running on Martin Luther King Jr. Way South to Rainier Beach and towards

Skyway A skyway, skybridge, skywalk, or sky walkway is an elevated type of pedway connecting two or more buildings in an urban area, or connecting elevated points within mountainous recreational zones. Urban skyways very often take the form of enclos ...

and Renton. On weekends, a Trailhead Direct shuttle connects Mount Baker Transit Center to several popular hiking trails in the

Issaquah Alps The Issaquah Alps is the unofficial name for the highlands near Issaquah, Washington, a suburb of Seattle, including Cougar Mountain, Squak Mountain, Tiger Mountain, Taylor Mountain, Rattlesnake Ridge, Rattlesnake Mountain, and Grand Ridge. The ...

References

External links

Sound Transit Rider Guide
{{good article 2009 establishments in Washington (state) Link light rail stations in Seattle Railway stations in the United States opened in 2009