Project Profile: Unity Square

The goal for the Unity Square was clear, but uncommon: Create the city’s living room.

City leaders in Salisbury wanted to transform part of a downtown parking lot into a community gathering space that could host events like the annual Christmas tree lighting and the Maryland Folk Festival, support ongoing activities like seasonal markets and food truck services, and also provide play space and an outdoor refuge just off Main Street.

It was a tall order for the corner of a single parking lot.

The team at Design Collective developed a plan to create a large, oval lawn wrapped around a dancing water feature.

“The fountain is really cool. It has different programs that make the water dance and keep the kids guessing, which makes it an exciting feature. But it also creates this very tranquil place where you can go to eat lunch on workdays,” said Michael Pullano, Landscape Architect.

The design further enhanced the square’s tranquility by preserving one enormous existing tree and adding a bed of native plants to attract butterflies and pollinators.

Designers were eager to make good use of a street running through the property where the city had already placed new pavers across the street. So, the design team “reclaimed the street and extended the paving into the plaza, creating a large, curved paving gesture that organized the space into a cohesive urban open space,” said Brian Reetz, Principal and Landscape Architect.

That design would also support crowds of concert goers attending the Maryland Folk Festival. A stage wil be positioned beside an adjacent garage and hundreds of people can now set up chairs on the decorative pavement and enjoy the music.

Strategic positioning of the fountain and other elements of Unity Square also ensured the space was visible from nearby streets and important vantage points.

“The design considered more than just being in the space. It considered how you approach the space or how you see the space when you’re stopped at an intersection,” Reetz said. “You can see the fountain dance and the backdrop and the kids running around. You might never walk into the square, but it still gives you this warm and fuzzy feeling that the city of Salisbury has this extremely livable downtown.”

Spatial constraints limited the amount of play equipment that could be placed in the square. Designers opted to include a simple splash pad and three landscape mounds connected by tunnels and ‘balance beams.’ That design proved to be surprisingly successful.

“When I went to the grand opening, my heart swelled watching kids play,” Reetz said.

A stream of kids constantly ran through the fountain, bee-lined to the top of the tallest mound, stopped to survey what was happening around them, then bolted back to the fountain.

“What I loved the most was they were creating their own imaginary play,” Reetz said. “The kids were drawn to these little earth mounds in ways we hadn’t imagined. The mound they kept running to the top of is only five and a half feet tall but they treated it like a magic mountain.”