West End Square balances history and innovation. It is a neighborhood park for the West End Historic District’s growing population, and also a testing ground for incorporating technology in a public space both as a means to support maintenance and operations but also as a public amenity in itself.
West End Square broke ground in January 2020 and opened to the public on March 26, 2021. Formerly a surface parking lot, the site has been transformed into the only neighborhood park in the West End Historic District.
James Corner Field Operations, the landscape architect and design lead, developed a steel shade structure that wraps three sides of the park, referred to as the “Frame.” The Frame activates the street edge by creating a diversely programmed threshold between the Historic District’s sidewalks and the Square’s garden interior. The Frame’s major design elements include:
