Can Liège’s new Katherine Johnson park give the Longdoz the green space it lacked?

Liège

Place

Liège

The city where the park was developed and inaugurated.

Why it matters

The city where the park was developed and inaugurated.

About

Liège is a city and municipality in the Belgian region of Wallonia, and the capital of the eponymous province. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from borders with the Netherlands and Germany. In Liège, the Meuse meets the river Ourthe. The city is part of the sillon industriel, the former industrial backbone of Wallonia. It is still the principal economic and cultural centre of the region.

Official site ↗View source record ↗

For residents, the immediate gain is unusually tangible: somewhere to sit, play and cool down in a densely built neighbourhood that had little accessible greenery. According to the project information relayed by #Liégeois, the park combines a central lawn, picnic tables, drinking water, paths, loungers, climbing and sliding structures, and a playful fountain whose jets can be activated on demand. Two murals connect the landscape to Liège’s cultural life: one was produced by the Belgian collective Atelier Louves, and another by young people from Latitudes Jeunes working with the Liège-based association Spray Can Arts.

The transformation cost €2 million and was fully subsidised by the Walloon Region through its urban-development programme, Today in Liège reported. That makes the park a Walloon policy intervention as well as a municipal amenity: regional money has replaced a long-disused private industrial footprint with public land intended for recreation, neighbourhood events and informal social contact. The site’s gates are scheduled to close at 20:00 in summer and 17:00 in winter, a restriction the city presents as necessary to protect the facilities.

The Longdoz once combined factories, railway infrastructure and working-class housing, but industrial decline left gaps in its urban fabric. Palmolive ceased operating on this site during the 1980s, according to #Liégeois, and Liège acquired the land in 2018. Residents, neighbourhood organisations and municipal services began discussing its future in 2019 through three participatory workshops. The pandemic interrupted face-to-face work, but the Longdoz-Boverie neighbourhood committee’s own account shows that contacts continued before construction began in June 2024.

The park’s name adds an international note without changing the essentially local character of the story. Liège’s municipal council approved the name Katherine Johnson in 2023, honouring the African-American mathematician whose trajectory calculations supported NASA missions. The neighbourhood committee argued that explaining Johnson’s life could encourage girls to imagine themselves in scientific careers. That is a specifically Liège-centred use of an American legacy, not an attempt to turn a neighbourhood redevelopment into a US story.

The broader European significance lies in what this modest project represents. The European Environment Agency says lower-income urban communities typically have less access to good-quality green space, while parks and trees can provide shade, support health and create places for exercise and social contact. The European Commission’s Urban Nature Platform similarly urges cities above 20,000 inhabitants to develop accessible, biodiverse parks and other green infrastructure. Liège’s project was not identified as EU-funded, but it follows that wider European direction: recovering developed land instead of consuming a fresh site, adding tree cover and involving residents in the design.

There is nevertheless a useful tension between the official and neighbourhood readings. Works alderman Roland Léonard, a Socialist municipal politician, described the park during construction as something that would be “offered to the neighbourhood.” The Longdoz-Boverie committee places greater emphasis on continuing local responsibility, writing that public spaces are also “under our responsibility” if they are to remain enjoyable. Its account records concerns about illegal dumping on the former wasteland and, nearby, requests for more facilities for teenagers. A completed park therefore settles the land-use question, but not every question about maintenance, age-inclusive programming or the distribution of green space across Liège.

Attention now shifts from construction to use. The city will need to maintain the young trees, fountain, play structures and murals, while residents and associations test whether the space can sustain neighbourhood celebrations, outdoor culture and everyday recreation without creating friction for adjacent homes. No public post-opening evaluation, visitor estimate or detailed long-term maintenance budget has yet been identified. Those measures—not the inauguration photographs—will show whether this ancienne friche industrielle transformée becomes a durable shared place.