Burlington is blessed with a beautiful, powerful site: Green Mountains to the east, Adirondack Mountains to the west, overlooking Lake Champlain. Historically the waterfront was a rich, constantly changing center of commerce, industry and recreation. By the 1960's only a decayed, industrial wasteland, populated by oil storage tanks, remained. The city controlled little of the waterfront and lacked connections to that waterfront as a whole.

Various plans were proposed through the mid 80's, but none were realized. They did spark public interest in the waterfront and a consensus grew for significant public space along the water's edge with appropriate private development back from this edge. In the late 1980's the City of Burlington began a series of public interventions culminating in a community boathouse, a bikepath and a waterfront park. By 1991 the time was ripe for considering private development which might support and help activate, especially during the winter, the public spaces.