Despite a new administration in the “other” Washington that is pursuing trade and immigration policies antithetical to ones that have helped make this free-trade, diverse and immigrant-friendly city a success, Seattle remains optimistic about the future. We’re still measuring success by the number of cranes on the skyline (more than 60), Amazon is on a hiring binge, and even Trump’s people are considering opening a luxury hotel in town to piggyback on our success. Short of taking a hit from a North Korean nuke, our growth and urban optimism seem unshakable.

One sign of that is the plan brewing—once again—for a Seattle Center refresh: our age-old, do-it-yourself rec-room remodel that never quite gets finished. I was struck recently by the durability of the concept of the Center, but also by how its refurbishment always seems to be on our civic to-do list (the last big plan was unveiled in 2008). I recently saw a map of the Center site published in 1950 in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer—a dozen years before the Seattle World’s Fair that transformed it. The concept features Memorial Stadium, an opera house, a theater, the armory, the arena, an art museum and a tall, pointy needle right in the middle. In short, it’s remarkably like what was actually built in 1962, and has many of the puzzle pieces we’re dealing with today.

But what is the Center the center of? For half a century, it has been detached from downtown, spreading over 74 acres at the foot of Queen Anne Hill, connected by a futuristic monorail through the no man’s land of the Denny Regrade. Few would say it was ever the center of civic life. Attempts to revitalize it over the decades have been legion, and have involved nearly every mayor since Gordon Clinton in the ’60s to Ed Murray today.

Growth is changing the dynamic, however. Downtown is on the move, expanding and poised to surround the Center. The office and residential high-rises of the Denny Triangle, Belltown and South Lake Union are maturing colonies of the urban core. The Gates Foundation is next door. Upzoning is planned around the Center grounds. The land on Mercer Street that borders the Center, where Teatro ZinZanni has operated in a tent, has been sold for a new development. The city is looking at possible redevelopment of the sites where Memorial Stadium and the studios of KCTS-TV now stand. Not far away, high-tech businesses are locating near Interbay. The Center is finally in the middle of urban growth, not an appendage.

Mayor Ed Murray has appointed Deputy Mayor Kate Joncas, formerly of the Seattle Downtown Association, to look to the future of the Center campus and to explore the possibilities of creating a new grand vision. We should know more this spring. There has been talk of locating a high school at the Memorial Stadium site. Open space advocates have long wanted that land for more open space, but it is owned by Seattle Public Schools, which has been reluctant to let it go. One concept has been to build a structure with parking underneath and a large outdoor amphitheater on top. Redevelopment of some kind there seems inevitable. Many would like to see the Center more connected to neighborhood needs; building a high school or even housing would satisfy that. Others would like to see a more park-like Center that is better integrated with its surroundings—a neighborhood, not a campus.

Mayor Murray has also put KeyArena in play by soliciting proposals to refurbish it to NBA and NHL standards to make it viable for professional basketball and hockey. It makes sense for the city to explore this, although it puts it in competition with Chris Hansen’s proposed SoDo arena. If the Key—I prefer its original name, the Coliseum—is viable, it would utilize city-owned land, reduce costs and prevent the Coliseum from becoming a white elephant in competition with a better arena across town. We should know more in mid-April, when the proposals from prospective developers are due.