PHOTOS: See inside Detroit’s new Wilson Park before it opens this weekend

After eight years of planning, design, and construction, Detroit’s 22-acre Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Centennial Park will open to the public on Oct. 25, bringing a host of new outdoor amenities to the Detroit Riverfront.

The park is located at 1801 W. Jefferson Ave., just west of downtown Detroit, on the site of the former West Riverfront Park. The Detroit Riverfront Conservancy will operate the park, which sits on land owned by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The project began in 2017, when Detroit Riverfront Conservancy staff set out to reenvision West Riverfront Park, then a mostly unremarkable site with few amenities. 

“One of the stated goals from the very beginning … was to create an iconic world-class park for all Detroiters to enjoy,” says Detroit Riverfront Conservancy CEO Ryan Sullivan.

The conservancy engaged a community advisory team of 21 Detroit residents to visit other notable parks across the country and provide initial input on the park’s design.

“We asked them to dream about parks that they see in these other cities that are deeply incredible and transformational, but also places that bring all walks of life together,” says Rachel Frierson, Detroit Riverfront Conservancy chief operating officer. “And so they saw them, told us what needed to be Detroit-ified about it, and so we really created a unique space.”

Landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh, designer of many notable parks including New York’s Brooklyn Bridge Park and Chicago’s Maggie Daley Park, was selected to design the park in a competitive process. The resulting park is an expansive site divided into four distinct zones: the Delta Dental Play Garden, the Huron-Clinton Metroparks Water Garden, the William Davidson Sport House, and the DTE Foundation Summit. Here’s a first look at what each of Wilson Park’s four zones will have to offer visitors beginning this Saturday.

Delta Dental Play Garden

This area of the park encompasses the Henry Ford Health Fort Wayne Tot Lot, an expansive play area, and the Gilbert Family Foundation Water Wonderland. It includes one of the park’s most striking features: a 20-foot slide inside a massive sculpture of a bear, known as the Bernstein Bear. The bear, and several other pieces of play equipment shaped like giant woodland animals, were designed by the Danish firm Monstrum. Monstrum staff based two of their designs – a fox and a “bird with no wings” – on Play-Doh concepts created by Detroit students.

“The architects traveled throughout the state of Michigan to draw inspiration for the park, and you really see that manifest in this area with the creatures for the play structures: the bear, the beaver, the otter,” Sullivan says.

The Gilbert Family Foundation Water Wonderland will have a separate grand opening in spring 2026, given that cold weather will soon render its water play amenities unusable for several months. The area will be a “splash zone” featuring a variety of water-related play equipment. 

Sullivan says the water play area is also inspired by Michigan’s great outdoors “in the sense of trying to evoke the experience of being at a beach up north, or on Lake Huron, and digging a trench, letting the water come in, damming it up with rocks and sticks, and then breaking the dam at the end of the day and letting the water rush back.”

William Davidson Sport House

Named after former Detroit Pistons owner and philanthropist William Davidson, this 28,000-square-foot concrete and steel structure houses two basketball courts. The courts are covered to protect visitors from precipitation, but a 2,000-square-foot skylight and the otherwise open-air design still gives users a sense of being out in nature.

Although basketball will be one of the sport house’s uses, it won’t be the only one. Marc Pasco, director of public relations for the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, lists yoga, tai chi, and even kids’ literacy programs as other potential uses for the space.

“We’re looking forward to the park opening and seeing how the community uses it and how the community wants to use it,” Pasco says. “… We’re just really keeping our options open to see how we can use the space.”

Huron-Clinton Metroparks Water Garden

This 2.5-acre zone of the park uses a low dam, known as a weir, to circulate Detroit River water into and out of a large man-made pool surrounded by trails, seating, and a small bridge. It represents the first Huron-Clinton Metroparks facility in the city of Detroit, which Metroparks CEO Amy McMillan describes as the fulfilment of a “goal that has existed for most of [the Metroparks’] 85 years.”

“Being able to achieve this big, longstanding goal is part of this promise that we’ve made to the region to make sure that we are serving people equitably,” she says. “This is just a huge step forward for us.”

McMillan describes the water garden as “a gathering place” and “a place of discovery,” but most importantly “a living classroom.” Metroparks staff have developed a programming plan that focuses on educating visitors about the natural world in and around the water garden. The park provides a unique opportunity for people to interact directly with the Detroit River, something that’s available in few other places along the riverfront.

“One of the things that the community has said for years and years is that they wanted to have an opportunity really to sort of touch the river, to engage with the river, and the water garden is a way to do that,” McMillan says.

Sullivan notes that local fauna have already flocked to the water garden. Crayfish, turtles, mink, and a variety of birds have already been spotted on the site. 

“It’s amazing that this park is so alive,” Sullivan says.

DTE Foundation Summit

This large, grassy hill offers views of the Detroit River, the Ambassador Bridge, and the Gordie Howe International Bridge. Pasco describes the summit as a way to carry on the open-ended event space that the former West Riverfront Park offered.

“We really got accustomed to using that space,” he says. “It was a great way to connect with the community, to have all that space, to do these events. So when we were coming up with the designs for the park and working with the designers, we wanted to maintain an area [where] we could still have green space and have some freedom to do things like that.”

Pasco says potential uses of the summit include everything from movies in the park to small-scale musical events to sledding, picnicking, and general outdoor play.

Expanding the Detroit Riverwalk

Wilson Park’s opening will also bring the opening of a new segment of the Detroit Riverwalk. The segment will run over a quarter of a mile between the former Joe Louis Arena and Wilson Park. It represents one of the final steps toward realizing the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy’s longstanding vision of establishing a continuous riverwalk from the MacArthur Bridge at Belle Isle to the Ambassador Bridge. After the new segment opens, the only remaining gap in that vision will be a stretch of about two-thirds of a mile between Wilson Park and the Ambassador Bridge, on property currently owned by the Moroun family and CSX.

Sullivan says he believes that the full “bridge to bridge” vision for the Riverwalk will eventually “come true.” In the meantime, he’s very excited about Wilson Park opening up the newest stretch of the Riverwalk.

“To just think that you’re going to be able to go from [Wilson Park] to Belle Isle, 100% in greenway, on the Riverwalk, it’s never happened before in the industrial history of Detroit,” he says. “So that connectivity is going to be tremendous, and I am just so thrilled about that.”

On the verge of finally opening the park to the public, Sullivan says he has “a huge amount of excitement and anticipation and gratitude.” 

“It’s taken the help of so many people and organizations to make this happen,” he says. “This has been a seven-year-plus journey, with some ups and downs along the way. So to be on the doorstep of having people come in and enjoy it, it’s a great feeling.”