On the shores of Lake Union near downtown Seattle, Gas Works Park rests on the location of a former coal gasification plant. The 19.-acre site was acquired for parkland in 1965. Opened to the public ten years later, the park, with its Great Earth Mound summit (constructed from on-site excavated material), was designed for passive uses (e.g. strolling, flying a kite), offering unrivaled panoramic views to the downtown.  The park’s designer, landscape architect Richard Haag, has referred to “thinning the forest” to describe how he edited the conglomeration of industrial towers, stacks, pipes, and sheds. A central feature, the boiler house, was converted to a picnic shelter, complete with tables and fire grills, while a former exhauster-compressor building was transformed into an open-air play barn, housing a maze of brightly painted machinery for children. This groundbreaking project has been celebrated for its ability to garner public support and shift public perceptions regarding post- industrial landscapes. It is considered revolutionary for its reclamation of polluted soils using the natural processes of bioremediation. Both Gas Works Park and the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island in Washington, the two seminal projects of Haag’s career, were awarded ASLA’s Presidential Award for Design Excellence.