Rusting towers and tanks of a coal gasification plant that ran from 1906 to 1956 form the heart of Gas Works Park, one of the most unusual public spaces in the country. The Seattle Gas Light Company converted coal into combustible gas for the city's heating and lighting systems; by the time it closed, the site was heavily contaminated with coal tar and benzene. Rather than demolish the industrial structures, landscape architect Richard Haag proposed in 1975 to incorporate them into the park design, painting the towers bright colors and converting the largest building into a picnic shelter.
The result was controversial — leaving industrial ruins in a public park was a radical idea — but Gas Works Park became one of the most influential park designs of the twentieth century. The park sits on a Lake Union peninsula with views of the Space Needle and float planes taking off from the water. Summer evenings fill the hilltop with kite flyers and families watching fireworks over the lake.
The contamination remains, capped beneath the soil — a fact the park makes no effort to conceal. Honesty about the past is part of the design.