Overview:

- The new Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Centennial Park will officially open on Detroit's riverwalk Oct. 25.
- This 22-acre, $80 million project features distinct zones including a large play garden, a water garden, and a sports pavilion with basketball courts.
- The park's opening will also connect a major segment of the riverwalk, linking it to other greenways and city neighborhoods.

By DUANTE BEDDINGFIELD
Detroit Free Press

This story originally appeared in the Detroit Free Press and is republished with its permission. Check out the Free Press photos from a sneak peek at Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park at this link.

Many years in the making and after more than three years of construction, the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy will officially open the new Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Centennial Park on the city’s acclaimed RiverWalk Oct. 25.

The $80-million project spans 22 acres of green space, as designed by New York-based Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates. Van Valkenburgh Associates also designed the Brooklyn Bridge Park, as well as other signature parks across the U.S. The park is a major step in completing the conservancy’s goal of developing 5.5 miles of revitalized waterfront along the Detroit riverfront.

The park honors the legacy of entrepreneur, veteran and philanthropist Ralph C. Wilson Jr., the late owner of the Buffalo Bills who lived in Grosse Pointe Shores.

Conservancy CEO Ryan Sullivan said the park was designed “very intentionally” to have a mix of activities for people to enjoy.

“It was really critical,” he said, “that the park had something for everyone — people of all ages, all abilities — something for everyone to enjoy.”

A play garden

The park features four main zones, beginning with the Delta Dental Play Garden, one of the largest play gardens in the state. A series of bigger-than-life animals, such as a 26-foot otter and a 20-foot Berenstain bear, feature slide tunnels built in, and an additional slide bay close by features a variety of heights, styles and speeds. Swings, a treehouse and more creations are also on hand.

The Gilbert Family Foundation Water Wonderland, which will open in spring 2026, encourages interactive water play. The Henry Ford Health Fort Wayne Tot Lot — an area designed for young children that includes smaller play structures, including a miniature Fort Wayne — also features creatures designed by Detroit students.

“This all started back in 2018, so these same students that were elementary school kids at that time designing these structures that are now actually existing, are going to be with us at the opening as juniors and seniors in high school,” said Sullivan.

Multiple slides are featured in the five-acre Delta Dental Play Garden at the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Centennial Park in Detroit on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. Photo by Mandi Wright/Detroit Free Press.

A water garden

The second zone, the Huron-Clinton Metroparks Water Garden, spans 2.5 acres and is the first Huron-Clinton Metroparks location within the city of Detroit. A weir system will pump freshwater from the Detroit River into the Water Garden and cycle it out regularly through the waterway.

“We talked about community engagement from the beginning of the project,” said Sullivan. “One of the things that people in the community really spoke about was that they wanted to have more access to the water. And, if you think about Detroit, where can you touch the river water? We live on one of the most abundant sources of water in the entire world … yet as Detroiters, we don’t really have access to that except for Belle Isle.

“So, this was the concept and idea behind the water garden: How can we bring people closer to the water so that they can touch it, they can feel it, they can be around it, and that they can learn, do science experiments, field trips, etc.”

The conservancy’s chief development and communications officer, Cassie Brenske, said ice skating is a future possibility at the water garden, but it can’t be guaranteed yet.

“It’s about 8 feet deep, so everything will be kind of an experiment to see what’s possible,” she said. “It’s a ‘wait and see’ on this one. We’re working with Huron-Clinton Metroparks, and they’re very familiar with working with water.”

#Ad

An impressive summit

The DTE Foundation Summit, a lush and expansive gathering place, offers sweeping views of the Detroit River, the Ambassador and Gordie Howe bridges, and the Detroit and Windsor skylines. It’s perfect for picnics, a stroll, or a spot to relax and watch the river. It is also intended for year-round events, like movie nights in the park, live concerts, large community gatherings and is perfect for wintertime sledding.

A Pistons partnership

Zone four, the William Davidson Sport House, is a soaring open-air pavilion housing two Detroit Pistons full-sized basketball courts under a 2,000-square-foot skylight in a weather-protected space. At more than 28,000 square feet, the Sport House is named for late Detroit philanthropist, businessman and former Pistons and Detroit Shock owner William “Bill” Davidson.

“This is the area that, when we bring youth here — especially teens — that brings the most excitement and fire to their eyes,” Sullivan said. “They get excited about the idea of playing on these two incredible full-size basketball courts where we’re going to have activities, tournaments, clinics for boys and girls, men and women and people of all ages to play. Also, imagine things like fashion shows or volleyball matches, or in the wintertime, maybe some of those igloos and other things. This is a covered space that we can program for people 365 days a year.”

Kevin Grigg, Pistons senior vice president and chief communications officer, said the Pistons organization views the Sport House as an extension of its courts program, which began when the team moved back to Detroit and the organization refurbished and created 60 basketball courts throughout every district in the city across 44 parks.

“It wouldn’t be right not to join the Riverfront Conservancy and build two state-of-the-art courts with glass backboards here at the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Centennial Park. So we’re happy to be here,” Grigg said. “We’re happy to support the Riverfront Conservancy and this transformative project right here on probably the best riverwalk in the nation.”

A vision comes to life

DRC’s 20-member community advisory team (CAT) helped shape the plans for what the park would become, working since 2018 and traveling to parks in Philadelphia, Chicago and New York to bring back ideas.

“I want to cry because this means so much,” said CAT member Donna Lindsey-Law, “that the Riverfront would offer the community to be involved in the development of such a beautiful thing come to life. As I walk through this park today, all the meetings, all the sticky notes, all the arguments, all the ‘yes,’ all the ‘no,’ is here. I’m just like a child in a storybook when I see.

“My main purpose is not for today — I’m looking through the rearview mirror, generations and generations of all these babies that will be able to grow up and enjoy such a beautiful park.”

Sullivan expressed great enthusiasm for what the park will mean to the overall region.

“When we open Wilson Park, we’re not just opening the park itself: We are also opening the west riverfront,” he said. “So if you think of the RiverWalk from where Joe Louis used to be, all the way behind Riverfront Towers, connecting through here to Wilson Park, that segment of the RiverWalk is going to open on Oct. 25 when the park opens. And then imagine coming through that segment, coming through Wilson Park, and then up the southwest greenway … that takes you all the way up to Bagley, right in the heart of Mexicantown, southwest Detroit, Corktown, right in the back porch of Michigan Central.

“Imagine going from that point all the way through Wilson Park to the RiverWalk and then down to Belle Isle. That is what is going to be unlocked and opened when Wilson Park opens in just over three weeks’ time. So yes, we’re incredibly excited about the opening of the park, but we are equally excited about the connectivity that this opening is going to bring to everyone in our city, and all these incredible assets that we have in the city of Detroit that are going to be brought together by this set of greenways and parks.”

Conservancy chairman Matt Cullen said Wilson Centennial will become “the most iconic park in the United States.”

“The opportunity to have that here and to make good on our mantra, bring in everybody — I think it changes the way people in the city feel about their city and feel about their community and the way they interact with each other,” Cullen said. “It’s going to be a microcosm of our entire region that’s out here every day, and that’s pretty cool.”

MORE PARKS COVERAGE