Chunks of onyx stepped along the waterfront, green spaces and multiple playgrounds fill a public park built on a former industrial port in Los Angeles by international architecture studio Sasaki.

Opened in 2024, the Wilmington Waterfront Promenade spans 10 acres along San Pedro Bay amid the Port of Los Angeles – one of the world's busiest seaports and a leading gateway for international trade in North America. It was designed to reconnect Angelenos to the Pacific Ocean.

Sasaki has completed a waterfront transformation and public park in the Port of Los Angeles

Sasaki, which is headquartered in Boston, served as the lead landscape designer, architect and engineer working with the Port of Los Angeles to enhance waterfront access for the harbour community, as well as residents and visitors.

"The park is all about the water; the design centers around trying to create multiple experiences in which you view and interact with the water's edge," Sasaki associate principal Philip Dugdale told Dezeen. "Sometimes quite obviously, but at other times, in a more playful manner."

It was designed to be an urban oasis

Designed to be an oasis in the industrial context, the roughly triangular park is divided into three zones banding northward from the southern waterfront between Berths 183 and 186.

Set between the existing Banning's Landing Community Center and a future restaurant site, the Waterfront Promenade is approximately 1,300 linear feet (396 metres) of pedestrian boardwalk.