Seattle’s parks are well-loved landscapes of trails, beaches, and gathering spaces—but even within these iconic places, quiet corners and overlooked edges often go unnoticed. Alec’s project asks: How can we transform these incidental spaces into moments of wonder?

Through site visits, sketches, and conversations with educators, designers, and community members, Alec built a flexible framework of ten steps for cultivating curiosity in public parks. The framework emphasizes three guiding values:

• Universal Experience — creating inclusive, engaging spaces for all ages and abilities.

• Empirical Learning — inviting hands-on discovery and observation.

• Childlike Wonder — sparking imagination and surprise in subtle, intentional ways.

Applied to Discovery Park, Clarke Beach Park, and Carkeek Park, the framework demonstrates how small interventions—whether sensory plantings, layered paths, or playful landmarks—can reveal new ways of experiencing familiar places. The approach is not about building more, but about seeing differently: adding, not subtracting; revealing, not replacing.

The project is both a personal love letter to Seattle’s park system and a practical toolkit for future design. By valuing what is often overlooked, Curious by Nature challenges us to notice, linger, and rediscover the landscapes we think we already know.