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…