Thyssen Steel Works from 1899 to 1985, this site has been exposed to arsenic mud, hydrocarbons, and heavy metals. In the early 1990's the Internationale Bauausstellung Emscher Park Initiative held a competition to renew this section of the Ruhr Valley. Landscape Design firm Peter Latz + Partner won the competition and began work designing a landscape park in 1991. Determined to maintain the steelworks as an industrial landmark, Latz incorporated the existing buildings into his design, transforming walls and chimneys into climbing sites and a gasometer into a dive training pool. With one exception, all areas of environmental concern were contained onsite, either buried underground or capped with topsoil. This employment of recycling techniques minimized both environmental and monetary clean-up costs.