The Bay: “One Park for All” in Sarasota

Honor Award

General Design

Sarasota, Florida, United States
Agency Landscape + Planning
Client: The Bay Park Conservancy

“

The community-driven design for Bay Park is truly for the community and includes a local context in the design and use of materials.

”

- 2024 Awards Jury

Project Credits

Dix.Hite + Partners, Local Landscape Architect

Jon F. Swift Construction / HASKELL, Contractor

Cummins Cederberg Inc, Environmental Consulting and Permitting

Horton Lees Brogden Lighting, Lighting Designers

HR&A Advisors, Economics and Governance

Kimley-Horn and Associates, Civil Engineers, Local Landscape and Permitting

Moffatt & Nichol, Coastal Engineering

Sasaki Associates, Civil Engineering and Permitting

Sweet Sparkman Architects, Architecture

Studio Ummo, Environmental Graphics

Zaragunda Inc., Programming

Stutler Strategies, Owner's Representative

Monstrum, Play Designers

Engineering Matrix, Inc., Systems Engineer

Wilhelm Brothers, Landscape Contractor

Snell Engineering, Structural Engineer

Dewberry, Site Surveyor

Edgewater Resources, Waterside Surveyor

GeoPoint Surveying, Surveyor

Fishman and Associates, Food Service Consultant

Novum Structures, Specialty Engineering

Urban Conga, Custom Furnishings Design

Eamonn Hutton, Professional Landscape Architect

Estello Raganit, ASLA, Associate Landscape Architect

Gina Ford, FASLA, Principal & Founder

Matthew Macchietto, ASLA, Professional Landscape Architect

Susannah Ross, ASLA, Director, Landscape Architect

Tatyana Moscicki-Tsapley, Professional Landscape Architect

Xi Yang, ASLA, Senior Landscape Architect

Chris Clanfaglione, ASLA, Professional Landscape Architect

Project Statement

A compelling first phase following an unprecedented and inclusive master planning process, The Bay is the City of Sarasota’s first signature waterfront park. Located where the city’s iconic Boulevard of the Arts meets the Sarasota Bay, The Bay is a living demonstration of 21st century sustainability principles, a memorable community gateway to and on the water, and, in its craft, a loving reflection of Sarasota’s unique natural and cultural context. This 10-acre park brings together active, changing spaces for Sarasota’s diverse community, regional trail and mobility connections, and intimate places of deep nature immersion within the City.

Project Narrative

The Bay is the City of Sarasota’s first signature waterfront park and a gateway to its expansive bay. Conceived as an active, sustainable gathering place for Sarasota’s diverse community, the park is a model of environmental stewardship, a highly-anticipated realization of a community-driven vision, and a well-crafted expression of Sarasota’s heritage. The Bay is a legacy destination now, and for many generations to come.

A Green and Blue Oasis Every feature of The Bay is designed with a sensitivity to environmental processes and sustainability. The design team transformed the pre-construction condition, a relentlessly impervious parking lot, into an ecological oasis. Early inventory and analysis determined baseline metrics against which improvements could be measured and impact goals established and exceeded.

The realized design delivers innovation across various site systems. Not only do the rain gardens, denitrification trenches, and large-scale infrastructure, alike, capture, hold, and treat water locally, but they also work together to treat over 70 million gallons of stormwater that passes through this site annually from off-site. The team protected, moved or otherwise enhanced dozens of large trees in the work, providing continuity and nourishing a sense of place; extensive native plantings and ecological restoration expand their impact.

A Community-Driven Place A series of community-driven principles and extensive community input on design strategies provided the design team with consistent needs, aspirations and goals that served as touchpoints through every phase of the project. In addition to the thousands of points of contact throughout the public design process, the design team actively engaged with various focus groups and local experts to review and provide feedback on the design, ensuring that a great diversity of lived experiences would be reflected in the realized park.

To meet a wide array of needs, the park design provides a framework of spaces – some flexible, while some more fixed in program offerings. These include a recreational mangrove walk, a shade structure and concessions pavilion, a large-scale events and performance lawn, a playful beach and living shoreline, a sculptural play structure, and an intimate performance green that creates a sense of community. Multi-modal paths allow for discovery and adventure while introducing visitors to more intimate, nature-immersed places of respite.

Uniquely Sarasota The Bay is designed in material expression, craft, and “vibe” to reflect the unique natural and cultural character of Sarasota. A tropical beachfront community with a rich history of Modernist architecture, Sarasota is characterized by lush vegetation; a lovely contrast of sleek precast concrete and sandy, shelly surfaces; and a refined ruggedness appropriate for an overheated, coastal environment. The site provides access to one of Sarasota's most iconic experiences – the viewing of the fantastical and explosive sky at sunset.

The project leans into a Sarasota-driven palette that includes etched wood decking, elegant precast elements, a casual crushed coquina surface, oolite elements on nature-engaged edges, and sculptural metal structures. The project’s unique Mangrove Walk is made of a rubberized surface, bringing a warmth that resonates with natural stone and sand elements while also providing a signature fitness circuit for a wide range of people.

Products

  • Furniture
    • Vestre
    • Landscape Forms
    • Site Pieces
  • Lumber/Decking/Edging
    • Kebony Clear
    • Mullets Aluminum
  • Parks/Recreation Equipment
    • Play Space Play Surfacing
    • Rubberway Path Surfacing
  • Hardscape
    • Hanover Pavers
    • Preferred Pavers
  • Lighting
    • Selux

Plant List

  • Imperial Bromeliad
  • Horizontal Cocoplum
  • Beach Creeper
  • Dwarf Burford Holly
  • Wild Coffee
  • White Indigo Berry
  • Contie Palm
  • Fragrant Alcantarea
  • Red Ginger
  • Green Island Ficus
  • Jungles Bromeliad
  • Pink Muhly
  • Burle Marx Philodenrdon
  • Xanadu Philodendron
  • Firecracker Flower
  • Sword Fern
  • Cardboard Palm
  • Pineapple Guava
  • Gumbo Limbo
  • Shady Lane Black Olive
  • Buttonwood
  • Silver Buttonwood
  • Royal Poinciana
  • Southern Live Oak
  • Royal Palm
  • Puerto Rican Black Hat Palm
  • Mahogany
  • Cabbage Palm
  • Giant Leather Fern
  • Green Carpet Natal Plum
  • Green Island Ficus
  • Coontie Palm