Infamously known as "The West Coast of New England," Burlington, Vermont is the cultural and economic hub of Northwestern New England and the Champlain Valley regions.
Since the late 1970s and the early 1980s, Burlington's downtown district has undergone substantial revitalization with the opening of the Church Street Marketplace pedestrian mall in 1981 and the later construction of Waterfront Park and the ECHO Lake Aquarium in the mid-1990s.