Jeanes recalls how the lookout had been an important part of his childhood. “My father used to have many visitors, particularly from overseas, and in the ’60s to ’80s, he would always take them on scenic drives around Ottawa,” Jeanes says. “When he could do it in the ’60s and ’70s, driving around Nepean Point was an important part of that driving tour of the National Capital.”

Since 1915, the lookout has featured a statue of French explorer Samuel de Champlain. The sculpture was created by Hamilton MacCarthy to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Champlain’s arrival. Three years after the Champlain statue was erected, MacCarthy created a kneeling Indigenous man to be placed underneath the explorer’s raised platform. The statue’s name was informally changed in 2013 from Anishinabe Scout to Kitchi Zìbì Omàmìwininì or “great river people” by advocates pushing for Algonquin recognition in Champlain’s travels. The statue was then officially renamed Kichi Zìbì Innini, meaning “great river man,” in 2023 by the National Capital Commission, which manages the site.

In 2014, the National Capital Commission kicked off an international design competition, with architects and firms pitching how they would redesign the lookout to turn it into a main attraction of the city. The “big river landscape” proposed by Janet Rosenberg Studios, a Toronto-based firm in landscape urban architecture, won the job and also a 2026 Ontario Association of Architects Design Excellence and Service Award.

The design team created a layout offering an accessible clifftop view of the city’s skyline, with the river as the focal point. They also established an advisory and design committee of local Indigenous community members, including Kirby Whiteduck and Anita Tenasco, to assist with the park’s design and interpretation.

After years of planning and construction, the lookout officially reopened to the public in May 2025 with a completely new look. A new pedestrian footbridge connects the point to Major’s Hill Park, and layered metal sculptures of Ottawa area animals and native plants appear in the point’s lowered outer edge, which is called a ha-ha in landscape design. A two-level structure called “the whispering point” resembles a wooden white-capped wave crashing over the edge of the lookout. The top of the whispering point provides an elevated platform for a better view, and the sheltered lower section’s nooks direct attention toward the river. (The whispering point was damaged seven months after opening when a school bus driver illegally drove the path, scraping the top of the vehicle along the wooden panels. The structure is in the process of being repaired.)