Desktop Monkey:  Local

Last November, Mayor Greg Nickels charged the 17-member committee with updating the Center, and the group spent the intervening months collecting input from citizens and organizations. It put together the three alternative plans — with a fourth "no action" alternative — intended to create more open space and better amenities.

"Our task is to look out 50 years," said Jeff Wright, co-chairman of the Century 21 Committee, adding that in this phase of the process, they're letting their imaginations run wild.

One alternative would create a framework of green space around the Center House. The Fun Forest activity building would be replaced with amphitheater seating.

A second recommendation marks off a green window facing Broad Street and downtown and would require the city to purchase Memorial Stadium from the Seattle Public Schools. The land would be used for a parking garage to serve the Center and to create a 14,000-seat amphitheater, an exhibition hall and retail space.

A third plan would create two bands of green space stretching across Seattle Center's 74 acres and replicates plans for the purchase of Memorial Stadium and development of garages and retail space.

The three proposals each call for dramatic changes to the Center House, knocking out the old armory walls to create a glassy atrium.

The committee hopes to change the makeup of visitors to Seattle Center, transforming it from an event destination to an everyday public space.

The three plans and the "do-nothing" option will now spend the next year facing scrutiny for environmental-impact statements, to be compiled by URS Corp., to study their potential effect on surrounding neighborhoods.