Since 2020, Friends of Waterfront Park has been working with hundreds of community partners to develop public programming on Pier 62, with the goal of ensuring that everyone who visits the park feels like they belong. In 2023, we worked with those partners and the community that has coalesced around our programming and community engagement efforts to co-create a Cultural Master Plan—a guiding document that outlines our commitment to fostering inclusivity, equity, and cultural vibrancy throughout our work.

The Cultural Master Plan is grounded in authentic commitment to racial equity and to ensuring that the park will reflect community values and ignite positive change for Seattle and the people who call it home. Perhaps just as important as the document itself is the process that was used to create it. Friends hired Third Way Creative to facilitate a series of conversations across the city, involving 142 people in 11 roundtable sessions, centering Indigeneity and community voices. The process engaged a diverse group of individuals, in their own neighborhoods, to explore ideas for events, art, food, and vending.

When the full park opens in 2025, this framework will position Friends alongside community and serve as a roadmap to a culturally revitalized waterfront for generations to come.