On Monday, December 21, the last Christmas Ship sailing of the evening leaves Kirkland City Dock at 8:00 pm, with the Choir of the Sound on board. Earlier sailings that day perform at Matthews Beach at 2:35 pm and at Yarrow Point at 5:35 pm, and the evening run ends the day at Mercer Island. Argosy Cruises has it scheduled to perform off Luther Burbank Park from 8:40 to 9:00 pm. The City's calendar invites islanders to gather at the beach area from 8:30 pm for the lights, the songs and a holiday treat.

This year the ship arrives at a shoreline that has become a job site. The City expects the Luther Burbank Park Dock & Waterfront Improvements Project to begin this month and take about 15 to 18 months. On that schedule, the central waterfront stays fenced through this winter and next, and on the City's estimate the work wraps up sometime in the first half of 2028. What reopens will be a different waterfront. For decades the island's public shoreline has been organized around docks and moorage. The rebuild turns it toward small craft, paddlers and direct access to the lake.

A partial closure, drawn on a map

The City has avoided describing this as a park closure, and its wording is precise. In its August bid-award notice, the City said a portion of the park will close for construction and "the remainder of the park will remain open to the public throughout construction." The October 30 update names the four areas that will close:

Regular construction hours are expected to run 7 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday, excluding holidays. The City notes that hours may shift with site conditions. The contractor plans to work in phases and keep the active area as small as possible. Inside the named zones, the City's instruction is direct: "the park areas identified above will be closed during construction." A more detailed schedule and running updates on closures will be posted on the City's Let's Talk project page, which is the place to check before heading down to the water.

The calendar works in the Christmas Ship's favor. December 21 falls on a Monday, but an 8:40 pm performance comes well after the 5 pm end of the construction day.

What the shoreline is being rebuilt for

Read the scope line by line and a clear purpose emerges. The 2006 Luther Burbank Park Master Plan, which guides the design, envisions the waterfront as "a hub for small motorized and hand-powered watercraft activities." Almost every element of the project serves that idea, or serves visitors who never leave shore at all:

1. The north pier stays for larger boats. New decking goes in, creosote-timber piles are jacketed, and degraded piles are repaired or replaced, so the pier can keep offering moorage to motorized vessels 26 feet and longer.
2. The central and south docks are replaced outright. A new wave attenuator and mooring float will serve motorized boats under 26 feet. A separate special-purpose float will serve non-motorized craft and include an ADA-accessible kayak launch.
3. A new overwater platform extends from the plaza bulkhead. The City describes it as a stable surface where visitors can enjoy the shoreline and "get their feet wet."
4. North Beach gets a route to the water. Plans call for a concrete path from the north bulkhead, an ADA beach mat down to the waterline, and native riparian plantings in place of non-native vegetation.
5. The hidden path from the plaza to the playground becomes an ADA switchback trail with concrete stairs. New ADA connections also link in from the South Shoreline Trail.
6. The park will start drawing irrigation water from the lake. A new raw water intake lets the City put its Lake Washington water rights to use for park irrigation.
7. Behind the scenes: new sewer, electrical, stormwater and irrigation lines, a fire suppression system for the docks and the Boiler Building, habitat gravel, and a lakebed cleanup.

The direction is consistent. Large-boat moorage is preserved at the north pier. The rest of the shoreline is rebuilt at the scale of a kayak, a small runabout, or a visitor in a wheelchair who wants to reach the water's edge.

The Boiler Building, the brick landmark at the center of all this, already had its turn. The City finished seismic retrofits and other improvements to the Boiler Building and the restroom and concession annex in 2024. That work cleared the way for this phase, which covers the docks, North Beach and the waterfront plaza around it.

A marine contractor, a $6.7 million contract, and the plaza's bronze medallions

The City Council awarded the construction contract to Quigg Bros., Inc. on September 1, 2026. Quigg Bros. is an Aberdeen marine construction firm. Its recent waterfront work includes the Des Moines Marina Redevelopment, completed across 2025 and 2026, and the Port of Poulsbo Breakwater Replacement. The total construction contract for the dock and waterfront work is $6,730,000, including sales tax. The Mercer Island Reporter covered the upcoming work in late October, noting the contractor, the 15 to 18 month timeline and the partial park closure.

Not all of the money is local. The project is funded in part by the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Funding Board, the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the King County Flood Control District. The Washington State Department of Natural Resources leases the shorelands to the City at no cost for public access to state waters.

The plaza improvements include new surfacing, picnic tables and benches, signage, and the Mercer Island Medallions public art project. Island artist Marsha Rollinger was commissioned to create 12 bronze medallions for the renovated plaza, and the Mercer Island Arts Council recommended the integrated art plan in 2023. The medallions are part of the plaza work in this phase, so they belong to the same rebuild that closes the central waterfront this winter.

Four December dates, one on the water

Because the central waterfront is closed, the island's holiday season gathers elsewhere for most of the month. The City's posted calendar has three events before the ship arrives, two of them under one roof:

• Thursday, December 3, 5:30 pm: Holiday Tree Lighting, with performances by the Mercer Island High School Choir and Creation Dance Studio. BECU and Puget Sound Energy are sponsoring.
• Saturday, December 5, 10 am to 3 pm: Holiday Makers Market, presented with the Mercer Island Chamber of Commerce at the Community & Event Center, 8236 SE 24th St.
• Friday, December 11, 6 to 8:30 pm: Community Holiday Party at the Community & Event Center, also sponsored by BECU and Puget Sound Energy.
• Monday, December 21, 8:40 to 9 pm: the Argosy Christmas Ship off Luther Burbank Park, with the City inviting guests to the beach area from 8:30 pm.

The Christmas Ship Festival has been a Northwest tradition since 1949. The Spirit of Seattle, strung with hundreds of white lights, visits around 40 waterfront communities each season, and its choirs sing to people on board, to boats following on the lake, and to crowds on shore. This year the Luther Burbank stop falls in the early weeks of the scheduled waterfront rebuild.

Crossing the island to any of these dates has its own construction detour this season. On Gallagher Hill Road, crews have begun trenching for a new 10-inch water main. The City expected the downhill lane between SE 40th Street and 93rd Avenue SE to close in early November, sending downhill drivers via Mercerwood Drive to East Mercer Way, with traffic impacts lasting up to six months.

If a winter of watching the public dock come apart and go back together has you thinking about your own shoreline, from moorage and dock condition to how a waterfront property should be positioned when the time comes, The Gray Team would be glad to talk it through. Request a confidential valuation and private consultation, and we will bring the same attention to your stretch of Lake Washington.