Seattle's new Waterfront Park fully opening 2025!

Waterfront Park is the new 20-acre park that serves as a new public space where the Alaskan Way Viaduct once stood. 15 years in the making, this park stretches from the Stadium District in the south, along the waterfront piers, all the way north to Belltown connecting the surrounding communities to the waterfront, the environment, and to each other. The park includes separate bike lanes, pedestrian walks, bench seating, fountains, art sculptures and installations, and plenty of native plantings.  

This new park is designed to be a canvas for Seattle’s rich and vibrant culturally diverse communities to come and create on – Pier 62 offers event space for programming, fitness classes, intimate performances and concerts, and informal group get togethers, all while having the mountains and sea as a backdrop! And the best part is that majority of the programs are free to the public including the many amenities like chairs, tables, lounge benches, wheelchair accessible tables, restroom facilities, large chess set, and small turf field for soccer. (Fun fact: the turf field was donated by the Sounders, Seattle's own soccer team). Friends of Waterfront Park hosted only two ticketed events this year - their annual fundraising event, Pier Party, and in collaboration with KEXP, the first Afropunk in Seattle (an event famously known in Brooklyn, New York).  

Image courtesy of Friends of Waterfront Park, photo by Erik Holsather

But this new park is truly unique in that it runs the length of the central shoreline and includes various different locations. Starting in the south, Stadium Plaza offers a new safe pedestrian connection to the stadiums with additional space for nine semi-permanent art installations showcasing Indigenous artist Kimberly Saladin with plans to rotate the art exhibition’s artist yearly.  Future plans for this area might include food trucks and other vending opportunities.  

Pioneer Square Habitat Beach, which opened to the public earlier this year, is a connection to the water and provides a safe place for not only local marine life but also local Seattleites to enjoy. And during low tide catch a peek of the new and improved Elliott Bay Seawall, designed to encourage natural ecosystem growth, and optimize the salmon migration corridor.  

The new Colman Dock terminal offers locals and visitors a safe, clean, and comfortable ferry traveling experience to and from the outer Puget Sound communities like West Seattle, Bremerton, and Bainbridge Island. Gone are the days of waiting for a ferry in a dark, cold, and damp industrial-esque tunnel. The new curvy-white Marion Street Bridge creates a beautiful pedestrian walk into Downtown – a welcomed sight over the previous winding bridge eye-sore from the Viaduct days.  

Although the park is inherently family-friendly, there are several locations throughout the park tailored specifically for the young (or young at heart) including Pier 58 with its historic Fitzgerald Fountain, additional greenery and seating, adjacent public restrooms, and the new marine-inspired playground with a one-of-a-kind 20-foot tall Jellyfish tower: not to mention the sweeping views of the Sound, distant mountains, and the iconic Great Wheel. This is one feature that I am most looking forward to for grand opening in 2025.

Render provided by Field Operations, courtesy of the City of Seattle

Overlook Walk is truly a beautifully designed architectural wonder and is the first-ever, direct pedestrian connection between Pike Place Market and the waterfront - making giving and taking directions a whole lot easier! Situated partly on top of the Seattle Aquarium’s new building, Ocean Pavilion, the walk includes cascading steps and gathering spaces including ample seating, thousands of native plantings, climbing structures and slides, a café with covered pavilion seating, and 360-degree breath-taking views of Waterfront Park, Downtown Seattle, and the mountains and sea! If you're missing the old Viaduct views, Overlook Walk made it possible to have those same views while not having to see them while driving but rather while seated comfortably among plants. There's also several small details that make a huge difference: Indigenous artwork stamped into the concrete and small lighting elements that make the entire walk twinkle after sunset.

Waterfront Park is going to be absolutely worth checking out and coming back to week after week and even daily for local Seattleites. I can't wait to share more details from each section of the park, especially after grand opening in 2025.

Other Related Blogs to check out:

• Your Guide to Overlook Walk

• Family-friendly day at Waterfront Park 2024

Follow along and explore the new waterfront with me @emilyexploringearth

Blog by Emily Ferrer