Copyright M Live Michigan
DETROIT – The newest addition to Detroit’s world-class waterfront is a 22-acre park that’s been eight years in the making. Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Centennial Park, named after the Buffalo Bills’ founding owner and longtime Grosse Pointe Shores resident, opened Saturday, Oct. 25th. The grand opening of the park kicked off with the annual Detroit Harvest Festival and live music by artists including Motown legends the Jacksons. The park, designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh, architect of Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York City and Chicago’s Maggie Daley Park, features rolling hills, a wetland-like Water Garden created by Huron-Clinton Metroparks, a massive playground and an indoor-outdoor sports area. The William Davidson Sport House, named after the former Detroit Pistons owner, features a 28,000-square-foot overhang that shields two full-size basketball courts from the elements. A 2,000-square foot skylight allows the sun to shine through onto the courts, each emblazoned with the Detroit Pistons logo. The five-acre Delta Dental Play Garden features a sprawling playground, including several slides designed by Danish firm Monstrum that are inspired by Michigan wildlife, including a beaver, an otter, and the park’s most iconic attraction - a 23-foot-tall slide attached to a giant bear. Dubbed the “Bernstein Bear,” the popular attraction stands atop a hill with views of Detroit’s skyline. Detroit resident Christian Plummer was visiting the park Tuesday with his 5-year-old daughter, Lola. It was their second trip to the park - on Saturday, the chaos of the grand opening had made Lola nervous to ride the bear slide. On Tuesday, she couldn’t get enough of it. “She wasn’t about it, at first. But we came back today and now she can’t stop,” he said. “We live in the city, so this is a really good thing to have for the kids.” The play area includes seven slides in total, as well as several swing sets, climbing areas and a splash zone called the Gilbert Family Foundation Water Wonderland. A smaller, fenced, toddler-friendly area called the Henry Ford Fort Wayne Tot Lot is nearby. The Huron-Clinton Metroparks Water Garden is a man-made inland pond fed by the Detroit River through a rocky dam, known as a weir. Walking trails, bridges and even a pebbled beach allow guests to take in nature in the serene 2.5-acre area of the park. Designed to allow residents to engage directly with the river, the area serves as a miniature wildlife preserve and living classroom, with educational programming planned for an open-air amphitheater facing the river. The Water Garden is the first property inside Detroit city limits operated by the Metroparks, the organization that operates 13 sprawling nature parks across Southeast Michigan. At the far western end of the park is the DTE Foundation Summit, a high elevation point atop a grassy hill that offers views of the Ambassador Bridge and upcoming Gordie Howe Bridge, as well as a panoramic vista over the park and Detroit River. The opening of the park coincided with the addition of a new entrance to the Detroit Riverwalk, and expanded the length of the Riverwalk with the addition of a boardwalk in front of Riverfront Towers. The Detroit Riverfront Conservancy called the expansion “a massive step” toward the completion of the envisioned 5.5-mile multi-use path stretching from the Ambassador Bridge to the MacArthur Bridge to Belle Isle. Ralph Wilson Park is located at 1801 West Jefferson in downtown Detroit. The park is open every day from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., and forms the western end of Detroit’s world-class Riverwalk.
