Kent Town Square Plaza

Drip, drop, plop, splash. This town square is an interactive sculpture made of water and delight. The playful urban plaza living space promotes engaging activities, providing areas for resting, socializing and reading. Linking the historic downtown core and regional library with new residential, retail and transit development, Kent Town Square Plaza is home to a farmers market, community festivals, live music, plays and seasonal activities.

The Plaza design draws on the culture, history and environment of the South Puget Sound region, the Green River Valley and the City of Kent. The raindrop-inspired focal point fountain mimics the ever-changing pattern of raindrop splashes on the plaza surface. The paving pattern of intersecting concentric rings represent the ephemeral pattern of drops, played out through the use of concrete paving tinted in a range of blues, beiges, and reds that represent the Green River Valley floor.

The City capitalized on the momentum created by the opening of Kent Station—a downtown mixed-use development—to expand economic activity, new development, and pedestrian uses southward to the existing downtown. Success is being measured in an increase in property values, an emerging identity of the downtown district, a richer cityscape with a mix of housing and retail uses, a public plaza and a pedestrian streetscape with rich amenities.