At an open house last week, the Seattle Department of Transportation released colorful mock ups of the waterfront's seawall replacement project. SDOT is asking for public feedback on these designs (more here) through February 8. Add your comments here.

The drawings show all of the potential a new seawall offers—locations for new beaches and new park space, for example—but SDOT stresses that these are just design concepts. The city's preferred designs won't be presented to the public until April. (Furthermore, the drawings don't reflect SDOT's collaborations with james corner field operations, which will be designing the public space along the waterfront.)

(Click on drawings below to enlarge. If you still can't read them, here they are in .pdf one and .pdf two.) Behold!

Even at this early juncture, the mock ups show SDOT's commitment to restoring salmon habitat along the waterfront. "All of our discussions at this point center around light and habitat enhancements for juvenile salmon," says Jennifer Wieland, SDOT's planning and design lead for the project.

"Create more habitat is definitely a goal," confirms Bob Chandler, the program manager for Alaskan Way Viaduct and seawall replacement program. Chandler says that one-third of the juvenile salmon that exit the Duamish river migrate past the waterfront and "currently, we don't have the habitat to support them."

Construction for the seawall replacement is slated to begin in 2013.