Waterfront parks reopen, paid for with help from Melinda French Gates

The string of waterfront parks connecting downtown Seattle to neighborhoods north of Magnolia and the ship canal reopened Thursday, marking the end of a yearlong, $56 million overhaul funded entirely by private philanthropy.

Myrtle Edwards and Centennial parks have been remade to better reflect their place on Puget Sound, led by Melinda French Gates, with checks from MacKenzie Scott, the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation and Expedia Group. Where there were once sprawling lawns, there are now native meadows for pollinators. Aging art has been refurbished, pedestrian paths widened and the derelict home to the "Happy Hooker" snack stand has been torn down and replaced by a Native-designed wood and glass cafe and bathroom.

Perhaps most dramatically, the two beaches that were previously clogged with driftwood, floating trash and invasive blackberries have been transformed into yawning access points to the water. Despite its place on Puget Sound, Seattle has often felt detached from its shores. The hope is the two beaches can reestablish that connection: Where reaching the water used to mean scrambling over rocks, now the parks' paths segue directly into sandy shores gently sloping into lapping waves.

The reopening is the culmination of what, by the standards of public space, has been a lightning quick timeline. First made public in 2023, the project's construction began in March 2025 and finished roughly 14 months later.

Such is the power of private dollars. French Gates was the ringleader of the project, a new foray for her philanthropy into public space and not a field she imagines returning to with any regularity.

But when she saw the city's new downtown promenade and Overlook Walk coming into view back in 2019, she began to think about the rest of the city's waterfront to its north. She reflected on her own experiences walking and running in Centennial and Myrtle Edwards parks and thought more could be done to weave them into the city's fabric.

"I saw that over time, Myrtle Edwards and Centennial parks, they were sort of hiding in plain sight," she said in an interview. "There were amazing views out across the Olympics and Puget Sound, but they could just be so much better."

Formally known as Elliott Bay Connections, the project also includes a new bike and pedestrian path that begins just north of Overlook Walk near Pike Place Market. Crews replaced old trolley tracks on the east side of Alaskan Way, and now the path leads nearly directly into the Olympic Sculpture Park where Myrtle Edwards Park begins.

The two parks were built in the 1970s on rubble left behind by the construction of Interstate 5. Combined with a smaller plot of land owned by Expedia, they stretch for a mile and a half, a distance roughly equal to the walk from T-Mobile Park to the Seattle Aquarium.

For many Seattle residents, they exist only as things to pass through while commuting to and from downtown. With railroad tracks running parallel to the east, access to the parks is mostly limited to the north and south, with the exception of the Thomas Street pedestrian bridge to Uptown. The bike lane that runs through them connects Magnolia to downtown and feeds into the Ballard Locks and beyond.

Their removed location gives the parks a hidden feel. On the one hand, that is part of their appeal, but it's also made them easy to overlook, said Lara Rose, partner and principal landscape architect with Walker Macy, which led the design of the new parks.

"I would characterize it as very plain, almost left over," she said of the stretch along the water before the redesign. "It was first turned into a park in the 1970s and so it didn't feel like it belonged to Seattle. It didn't feel and it didn't offer the things that most people today expect in modern parks."

So when French Gates first kicked off their overhaul, the team behind the redesign used a guiding principle to steer the work: "What these parks want to be."

In turn, much of the lawn has been removed to make way for more than 74,000 new plants, nearly all of them native. Beach access was key and the two primary access points are significantly larger and more inviting than they used to be.

The rose garden on the parks' northern end, which had become overshadowed by hedges and was feeling "tired," said Rose, was dug up and replanted to allow for better views of Mount Rainier.

Before the remodeling, the parks were replete with so-called "desire lines" - muddy paths beaten down by people seeking water access, better jogging and clearer views. The team formalized those paths, while repaving and widening the ones that already existed.

Near the second of the two beaches, crews have installed a children's "exploration area" made up of finished wood bolted together for climbing. It's not quite a playground but is a clear invitation for playing.

The parks' seating has been replaced with wooden benches that mirror the seating along the new downtown waterfront, an intentional decision to establish a connection in visitors' minds. The bike paths now have lighting, and the wayfinding signs are larger and more artistic.

Designers worked closely with local tribes to weave Indigenous culture into the parks. The 13 moons of the Coast Salish lunar calendar are carved into boulders through the park and First Nation architect Alfred Waugh, principal of the British Columbia-based firm Formline Architecture + Urbanism, designed the new cafe and bathroom space in Centennial Park.

At a ribbon cutting Thursday, Mayor Katie Wilson reflected on her affection for the parks, when she'd bring a hammock and laptop to do her work.

"It's actually really remarkable how different it feels and how intentional," she said. "All of the planting, the vegetation, the architecture, the play structures, it's just amazing."

Audrey Lew and John Tilden live close by and watched its reconstruction. Walking on its new paths Thursday, they gave their hearty approval of the results.

"The combination of the waterfront being improved and then these parks now makes it a nice long walk," said Lew.

Conversations around the project began in 2019. They were derailed by the pandemic, but picked back up in 2023.

The entire cost is covered by private donors, though Seattle issued more than 60 permits along the way. Maintenance of the park will also be covered by private dollars for the first five years before handing off responsibilities to the City of Seattle and Port of Seattle.

Inherent in public-private partnerships is the question of how much influence wealthy individuals should have in shaping public space and priorities. The new bike lane on the east side of Alaskan Way, for example, was constructed at nearly the same time a city-financed bike lane on the west side was opening, even as other dangerous corridors in the city have no separation for bicyclists and pedestrians.

French Gates, though, felt confident the public would support work to revitalize the parks. The project took extensive public input and provided opportunities for individuals to reshape its direction.

"We can spur the government to try and do right things, and I guess I haven't met many people who don't like a public park," she said. "Ultimately the government has to decide how they're going to prioritize the issues of the city. I'm just doing a tiny little piece, but it's a piece I'm very proud to be part of with the many, many, many partners who are involved in this."

Not every ambition of the project was met. Plans for projecting lights onto the towering grain silos was scrapped, as was rebuilding the closed fishing pier in Centennial Park - both efforts that would have required too much time, money and coordination to fit the timeline for reopening.

French Gates had high expectations for the project. Yet, she said, it's actually better than my wildest dreams.

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This story was originally published June 4, 2026 at 4:49 PM.