Park

Westerpark

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Westerpark places a broad green landscape beside the brick industrial buildings of the former Westergas works. Its story links the city’s nineteenth-century growth, gas production, environmental repair, and new public uses.

Guide

Old brick works meet the trees here, placing two Amsterdam histories in one view. The park’s industrial buildings belonged to the Westergasfabriek, built in 1889 to produce gas for the city. Gas production stopped in 1967, leaving a contaminated site that could not simply be turned into housing.

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Quick facts

  • The Westergasfabriek was built in 1889.
  • Gas production ended there in 1967.
  • The expanded cultural park opened in 2003 on a remediated former industrial site.

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