The project is of special note because it has involved extensive community planning and participation as well as exceptional coordination and cooperation between the City of Seattle and King County. The City’s Departments of Neighborhoods and Transportation and King County’s Department of Transportation worked together to jointly fund the City’s $338,000 project in the intersection of NW Market Street, Leary Way, and 22^nd Avenue NW. The Market Street intersection improvements, led by the City of Seattle, included paving, building decorative stamped crosswalks, improving drainage, and upgrading the traffic signal for future bus operations.

A few years ago, bus stops in the heart of Ballard were identified for capital improvement as a transit hub in King County’s Six-Year Plan. Metro Transit’s recently completed the hub to move transit and traffic through the intersection more quickly and significantly improve the pedestrian crossing. Metro consolidated and improved bus stops, enlarged and enhanced passenger waiting areas, improved sidewalks on NW Market Street and the crosswalk at Ballard Avenue NW, and added new internally lighted bus shelters accented with the artwork of Steve Gardner.

Clark Design Group, a Ballard architectural firm, worked with the Friends of Tom Miller, King County and the Ballard Transit Hub Advisory Committee to incorporate a gathering place into the transit hub.

The dream of a gathering place began with Tom Miller, a Ballard restaurant owner and community activist. The corner of Market Street and Ballard Avenue is now home to a bench, tree and plaque in Miller's memory that creates a meeting place in the heart of the community. The Seattle Department of Neighborhoods awarded a matching grant for the creation of the Tom Miller Memorial and Metro also worked with the community contributing to and helping construct the Miller memorial.