3 years later, are Vine City green spaces the new standard for urban parks?

Westside Park is huge. Midtown’s 10th Street temporary park project has an ideal location. And the Grant Park Gateway features dynamic design and, yes, views of elephants and giraffes.

But when it comes to the full complement of urban parks, does a new green space in Atlanta — or any other American city, for that matter — hold a candle to Historic’s stunning and functional Rodney Cook Sr. Park Vine City?

With that question in mind, we recently looked back at the 16-acre, $40 million photo project as it approaches the third anniversary of its opening.

After 15 years of planning and four years of construction, the park debuted in summer 2021, solved the neighborhood’s chronic flooding problems and became an immediate hit with Westside neighbors and visitors, according to responsible for the project.

For those who haven’t been, Cook Park is located two blocks west of the Georgia World Congress Center, connected by new protected bike lanes to the BeltLine Westside Connector trail and the rest of downtown.

The central pond and other areas of the park can store up to 9 million gallons of stormwater, the equivalent of a swimming pool the size of a football field and 28 feet deep . Its rolling natural landscape offers views of Midtown and Downtown, with security cameras overlooking the park itself.

Some other highlights, as previously reported for Urbanize Atlanta by the Trust for Public Land-led project:

• An outdoor classroom, with a mini raised stage and seating.
• An outdoor gym, now covered by awnings and by far one of the largest in Atlanta, is designed to accommodate visitors of all fitness levels.
• Two athletic fields with stadium seating mark the southern boundary of Cook Park. The courts were striped for a variety of uses: basketball, football, four squares, volleyball and futsal.
• Cook Park’s popular splash pad, the top request from nearby residents during community design workshops, joins a half-dozen others in Atlanta.
• Two fountains and three basins aerate stormwater before it enters the pond, creating a healthier habitat. The pools collect stormwater from 160 acres around the park and allow sediment to fall, clearing debris from the street.
• Rock-shaped climbing structures that were made and funded by outdoor clothing company The North Face, after being designed by local children.
• Located on the northwest corner of Cook Park, the playground was designed to be accessible to all ages and abilities. (Fun fact: The theme of the playground is based on nearby Proctor Creek, which flowed almost diagonally across the park site years before Vine City was developed. The creek was channeled and buried long ago, but the color palette and wavy pattern of the playing field pay homage to this.)
• A seven-foot-tall statue of Congressman John Lewis, created by sculptor Gregory Johnson, is the first of many installations the National Monuments Foundation plans to eventually install around the park.

If all of this sounds like the makings of a top-notch urban green space with many important goals, we’re all for it.

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