In 2009, the City of New Westminster bought an abandoned timber wharf site and transformed it into an urban riverfront park with equal parts built on land and water.
Since the founding of the city in 1859, the historic waterfront on the Fraser River had been put to industrial use. With sawmills, salmon canneries, and shipping and rail services lining its shores for more than a century, the 3.2-hectare site was contaminated with heavy metals, petrochemicals and other substances. A compact and highly urbanized city, New Westminster was also short on green space and acquiring new parkland was becoming a high priority.