Oops! Ballard park redesign gets an error set in stone

Friday, October 28, 2005

By GORDY HOLT
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Engraved granite slabs all the way from China were installed as part of the controversial redesign of Ballard's Bergen Place Park this week. But as it turns out, the engraver failed to consult the mason's version of SpellCheckAnywhere.com and click on Swedish.

The slabs were sized and engraved to surface five broad seating areas, each representing a Scandinavian country.


		Paul Joseph Brown / P-I
	Josh Locke, left, and Jim Pilcic move a slab of granite into position Wednesday in Bergen Place Park in Ballard. Names of Scandinavian nations are carved in the slabs.

To spell things out, each country's name has been cut into the stone in English and repeated in the country's mother language.

Thus, in shallow letters are "Norway Norge," "Denmark Danmark," "Finland Suomi" and "Iceland Island."

The slab for Sweden, however, failed to meet standards.

After the granite was taken off the boat, trucked to Ballard and unloaded at Bergen Place on Wednesday, Bricklayers Union Local 1 apprentices and their trainers, on hand as volunteers to complete the installation, discovered a flaw.

In the slab cut to read "SWEDEN" and "SVERIGE," the "V" in "Sverige" turned out to be an upside down A.


		Paul Joseph Brown / P-I
	One of the newly installed granite slabs has the Swedish word for Sweden misspelled. The word should be "Sverige." The mistake can be repaired, according to a bricklayer trainer.

Apprentice trainer Laird Donaldson said the mistake may be unfortunate and perhaps embarrassing, but not beyond repair.

"There are always ways to feather out mistakes like that. Happens all the time. Maybe they can thermal it with heat or try a stone patch," he said.

But it is one more nick in a redesign plan that already is facing criticism from the community.

Marianne Forsblad, executive director of the Nordic Heritage Museum, said Thursday that the decision to buy the granite engraved in China was a change from the original vision, which had the stone coming from all five Scandinavian countries.

"We were trying to get it donated and had made some inroads there," she said. "But it would have taken so long, and we were under tremendous time pressures because of the (Seattle Parks and Recreation) grant money involved."

"So now? One has to be positive about this," she said. "I'm sure things will work out."

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