Downtown Cary Park is a vibrant 7-acre public park in North Carolina serves as a hub for recreation, relaxation, and social gatherings, revitalizing the downtown business district. The park’s comprehensive sustainable framework highlights the native ecologies of the Piedmont region and employs green infrastructure solutions to address persistent flooding issues. Nature-based play areas and natural systems are integrated throughout the park.
A series of outdoor rooms are interconnected by multi-dimensional vantage points, including elevated walkways, meandering paths, and water features. Three pavilions provide year-round gathering spaces and contribute to the park’s financial sustainability. Key areas include a plaza with a pavilion and interactive water feature, an inclusive children’s play environment, a flexible great lawn for large community gatherings, and a gathering house and garden for special events and quiet contemplation.
The park’s circulation design connects and extends activities across all ages and interests. Utilizing a 30-foot grade change, elevated walkways visually and physically link the distinct park rooms. Water management and sustainability are addressed across the topography. Positioned at the top of an important urban watershed, green infrastructure is implemented for both performance and enjoyment. A series of water features, swales, and rain gardens create a public amenity where visitors can interact with water throughout the park. The on-site water detention pond collects runoff and alleviates downstream capacity stresses, detaining water to 500-year levels during peak demand conditions and protecting floodplain functions. This natural pond replaces concrete culverts that previously displaced water offsite, causing downstream neighborhoods to flood.
Native planting and regional plant communities require less water and thrive under heavy use. In addition to preserving 40 mature overstory trees, 650 new regional variety trees were added, along with more than 72,000 plants across 125 distinct species. A variety of birds, frogs, insects, and pollinators have found a new home in the park, with bird species diversity increasing by 156% since opening.
The Academy Plaza Pavilion offers comfort amenities and event space, along with a unique market concept providing park-goers access to snacks and sundries. The Bark Bar is an open-air, all-season pavilion offering libations in the park, adjacent to an off-leash dog area featuring play mounds and water features. An undulating roof creates covered outdoor seating and provides restroom amenities for park patrons. Another pavilion offers rental space for community and private events. The park’s calendar includes core programs held weekly, a rhythm of monthly and special events, and seasonal activities to draw people outdoors year-round. Collaborative partnerships have been key to early success benchmarks. In its first year of operation, the park welcomed over 750,000 visitors, establishing its prominence as both a local and regional attraction and generating revenue well ahead of its stabilization plan.
Downtown Cary Park
Location: Cary, North Carolina, USA
Landscape Architect: OJB Landscape Architecture
Architecture: Park Pavilions: Machado Silvetti Architects
Civil Engineering: Withers Ravenel
Structural Engineering: SGH
MEP Engineering: Cosentini
Lighting Designer: LAM Partners
Irrigation: Irrigation Consulting Inc.
Water Feature: Fluidity Design Consultants
Signage/Wayfinding/Graphics: RSM Design
Photography: Tzu Chen