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{Opinion} | {Photojournalism}
“We aspire to create places where humanity thrives in harmony with nature. Our future depends on it.” – Perkins & Will purpose1.
On December 5th, 2025, a new nature park was opened. We were delighted to show up the following day to check out Riverfront Plaza park in Downtown Jacksonville, Florida. And I can say, out of all the parks we’ve visited, this is one of the most impressive so far!
The designers, Perkins & Will, did a fantastic job of maximizing the small park space into a “living design” -a fun, vibrant, multi-leveled park, where multi-generational family and friends can enjoy easy access to various sections of the park. It’s interwoven with elements of nature and has lots of hands-on activities.
Just the week prior, we’d been on the same strip along the St. John’s River to watch the Jacksonville Light Boat Parade, but the playground was still hidden behind walled-off fencing. So, it was a nice surprise to see what’s been hiding behind it!
The park sits on the previous site of the Jacksonville Landing (or Jax Landing)2, which was the hotspot of the city for events and shopping since the mid-80’s. It was demolished in 2019, following steadily declining business and a mass shooting in 2018. Despite the downcast shadow, the city has come through to revive the spirit of downtown by returning a sense of life, hope and joy to greener spaces.
The opening of the park represents the completion of Phase One of the Riverfront Plaza development plans where Phase Two will introduce a bike trail that connects the park to the Main Street Bridge, a rain garden and a beer garden.3 Phase Two is expected to begin early ’26 and projected to complete in 2027.
Not shown in detailed pictures is the greater expanse of the Riverfront Plaza and the great lawn area along the edge of the river, where the park hosted a free yoga class and other activities.
Please enjoy the rest of the article as the pictures tell [most of] the story!
There are two entrances at the Riverfront Plaza park. This is the tunnel entrance of the park pavilion building (a future cafe), alongside Independent Drive. Inside the tunnel are very convenient bathrooms and water fountains. The sidewalk continues to wrap around the park to the Hogan and Water St. entrance and to the great lawn.
A view of the overall park looking towards the city.
Park view from the upper level.
Children (and adults, if they really want to) can climb inside the wooden tipis that encourage creative physical fitness like crawling under to get in, step-ups, ladders, netting and all of the tipis lead to tube slides.
One of my favorite park features is the climbing rocks. Florida kids don’t get to do much rock climbing of outside of the jetties, so this is a really fun feature. The rocks mimic mountain climbing in nature, but are secure and strategically placed for safety. There’s very little plastic used in park equipment, instead opting for wood, stone and metal structures.
Lots of green spaces with natural wood elements and native plant species make this park beautiful, friendly to small critters, and help kids get closer to nature! A wooden wind chime gives opportunity for making music; there’s a multi-tiered platform for sitting, or for getting on your soapbox! Raised grounds for more exercise and tumbling. The turf is faux grass with springy material underneath, again mimicking nature, but also making it cushioned for safety.
I really love the little hill and so many of the kids did too. It made me realize something so seemingly simple isn’t an experience flatlanders in the city get to have too often either. This park really just lets kids be kids.
A really nice feature of the park is the splash pad. This will be especially cooling in summer (I’m not sure if they’ll continue running water in winter since most other parks don’t).
It’s not just a splash pad, but an educational center on waterworks. Several activities encourage teamwork and understanding of how gravitational forces work to bring water up, around and… lookout overhead if you don’t want to get splashed! It’s a great way for kids to more easily engage with each other and make friends.
Seating and accessibility are impressively abundant and well thought-out. I’ve been to so many parks where I have to ask, “Why isn’t there more seating??” That’s nowhere near the case here. Along with plenty of park benches and amphitheater-style seating near the tunnel entrance, the climbing rocks can also double as seating and of course on the greater lawn, picnic blankets are always welcome.
A railed sidewalk winds through the park, providing easy access for wheel-chairs, walkers and baby strollers. I love that all age groups and types are represented within the park’s layout, blending together in ways that aren’t always possible at other parks.
And the thoughtfulness of the outdoor shower really makes a nice touch -since kids are always needing quick little clean-ups or possibly a full, shower-down.
Caption: Rocky terrain with living landscape.
A little history of the park designers: Perkins & Will is a global design firm that’s won several awards for sustainable design. After winning the design competition for Jacksonville’s plaza, their original submission has had quite a few changes, but the overall goal of sustainable design has remained as they teamed with the local public for feedback on what’s most important to the community.4
“Waterfront parks are a civic superpower. They really do bring a city together—like the neighborhood your city would be if your city were a neighborhood. Holding close to this deceptively simple truth is what won us the national competition to redesign the former site of the Jacksonville Landing…” – Perkins & Will, One Park Jax project comments5
Reminds me of Jacksonville’s informal title, “The Hood”. Looks like being neighborly is still the best thing Jacksonville neighbors can do for each other!
Caption: Natural stones and live plants decorate the park while providing a mini-habitat for butterflies, birds and more
A word form Mayor Donna Deegan, former journalist/news anchor for First Coast News Jacksonville, 3-time cancer survivor and founder of the DONNA Foundation non-profit, she uses her experiences to seek to bring a better quality of life to Jacksonville residents.
On the day of the park ribbon cutting ceremony, she had this to say:
“An important part of having a high quality of life is making sure that Jacksonville stays affordable. Our downtown riverfront park system is providing plenty of free, family fun and there’s something out here for everybody. We’ll continue to program and activate these parks, so that residents can enjoy the St. John’s river without making a dent in their already stretched pocket-books, but more than anything, these parks reflect who we are and what we value as a community. We’re building spaces that bring people together, because a connected city, a unified city is a thriving city. So, today, as we cut this ribbon, we’re not just opening a park, we’re opening the door to a stronger, more vibrant, more unified Jacksonville.” – Mayor Donna Deegan (video below)
Personal Insight: Growing up in and around Jacksonville areas, I’ve always felt there should be more “for the people” outside of big commerce. It’s really great to see some of the positive changes that have happened for the community in the past decade around smaller scale community engagement, including initiatives in city art projects, parks, trails, farmer’s markets and free public events.
Giving the people a place to enjoy freedom when it could have been developed into something more revenue-generating (not that it won’t do that too, but not on scale that it could have), especially in the downtown crowded area, having an open green space to just relax and breathe…is really nice to see.
Keep building from the people up, Jacksonville!
iam:ForeverBlessed
http://www.AngleandPerspective.com
Further Resources:
https://dia.jacksonville.gov/news/jacksonville-debuts-first-phase-of-riverfront-plaza
https://riverfrontplazajax.com/
https://www.jacksonville.gov/idigjax
https://www.shipyardswest.com/
Angle & Perspective 
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