Open Year-Round
A park and event ground open through the winter
Downtown Juneau · Gastineau Channel
A New Front Door on Juneau’s Waterfront
On the downtown shoreline, a welcome center and cultural hall, a restaurant out over the tide, open ground for gathering, and a stretch of public seawalk that carries the waterfront walk further than it has gone before. Built for Juneau first, open through the year.
MORE SHORELINE
A park and event ground open through the winter
ONE BERTH
A single ship a day, at a dock instead of at anchor
5-Min Walk Downtown
Minutes from Franklin Street
The Waterfront
Juneau’s waterfront, opened up
Gastineau Channel has drawn people to this shoreline for generations. Áak'w Landing adds to that and opens more of the water's edge to more of us
Juneau has one of the most striking waterfronts in the country. Mountains straight up out of the channel, working boats coming and going, the tide moving through all of it. What the downtown waterfront
has not had is a way to walk the whole length of it.
Áak’w Landing is being built on a stretch of that shoreline, and it is designed to fit what surrounds it. Low buildings in warm wood and glass under Mount Roberts. Open ground around them rather than walls. A public walk that runs the length of the property and carries on.
The aim is not to put something new where nothing was. It is to take what already makes this waterfront worth standing on, protect the part of it that needs protecting, and give more people a way to reach it in more months of the year.
What Takes Shape
Walk It With Us
The best way to understand this place is to move through it, from the street down to the tideline.
You Come In at Street Level
There are no ramps sweeping overhead and no escalator hauling people up to a plaza. The welcome center sits at the same grade as Egan Drive, so arriving is as simple as walking in off the sidewalk. Wood beams, tall glass, and light coming off the channel.
Buses load and wait here rather than on Marine Way and South Franklin. That was a deliberate choice. Traffic downtown is the concern residents raise first, and this site can take the vehicles that currently line those streets. From here, town is a short walk, and most people will make it on foot.
Then the Ground Opens Up
Past the welcome center the site widens into a park and an event ground, with the cultural hall on one side. This is the part built for Juneau rather than for anyone passing through. Room for a summer concert, a craft market in the rain, a graduation photo with the channel behind you.
The cultural hall is where Huna Totem shares Tlingit art, story and craft, in a building made for it rather than a corner of a gift shop. Carvers and artists work where people can watch. Nothing about it goes dark when the season ends. The park, the event ground and the paths are maintained through the winter, at Huna Totem’s expense, because a place only becomes part of a town if the town can use it in the dark months.
And Then You Reach the Water
At the edge, a restaurant and a handful of local shops sit out over the tide, with a deck for eating outside on the long evenings. Around and below them, the seawalk runs the full water edge of the property and
continues on.
At the edge, a restaurant and a handful of local shops sit out over the tide, with a deck for eating outside on the long evenings. Around and below them, the seawalk runs the full water edge of the property and
continues on.
The berth sits just beyond. One ship a day, alongside a dock instead of swinging at anchor in the middle of the channel, which takes the tender boats out of the water and quiets the harbor. The dock is built for shore power, so ships can shut down and plug in once power reaches the site
The Plan
All of It, From Above
Buildings clustered toward the water. Parking and bus staging set back and out of the view. The seawalk tracing the whole water edge, and the berth beyond it.
Beyond the walls and the paving, this is a working piece of the city. It brings construction work now and steady jobs later, and it will be one of Juneau’s more significant properties on the tax roll. Those are the reasons a project like this earns its place, and they are the reasons this one is going in.
Who We Are
Huna Totem Corporation
Huna Totem is an Alaska Native village corporation representing more than 1,850 shareholders with ties to Glacier Bay and the community of Hoonah. In 2004 we opened Icy Strait Point, and more than four million travelers have come through since. Áak’w Landing is our first development in Juneau.
We build places where culture is shared rather than displayed, and where local businesses have room to work.
That is what we are after here. A destination that belongs to the town it sits in, designed in partnership with the Juneau community and with the Alaska Native communities of this region.
Questions
A Few Things People Ask
Construction and opening dates will be posted here as the schedule firms up.
Construction and opening dates will be posted here as the schedule firms up.
Construction and opening dates will be posted here as the schedule firms up.
Construction and opening dates will be posted here as the schedule firms up.
Construction and opening dates will be posted here as the schedule firms up.
Stay in the Loop
We Will Let You Know as It Comes Together
Áak’w Landing is being designed right now. Leave your email and we will send you the renderings, the milestones and the opening date as they land.
Questions about the project, or looking for the public record?
Email [project email] or see the City and Borough of Juneau project page.