Ribbon Cutting at Ravenwood Park

This weekend we celebrated the opening of Ravenwood Park with Nashville Parks and Mayor John Cooper. Located at a major bend in Stones River just outside Downtown Nashville, Ravenwood Park is one of the city’s newest regional parks. It supports Metro Parks Nashville’s 2017 masterplan, Play to Play, and expands accessibility to parks and greenways for Davidson County. HASTINGS, in collaboration with landscape architects Nelson Byrd Woltz and HDLA, completed the master plan and implementation of the first phase now open to the public!

Ravenwood Park is positioned on 800 acres at the convergence of the Cumberland and Stones River. The natural features of the land – the rolling hills, high bluffs, and limestone shelves – offer a window into the ecological, geological, and cultural characteristics of Middle Tennessee.

At the ribbon-cutting, Mayor John Cooper remarked that Ravenwood Park is sited at “the most beautiful part of Nashville… right here along the Stones River Greenway.” And he thanked Metro Nashville Parks and Recreation for making the park accessible to the public. “So few people ever saw it (Ravenwood Park) before, and now tens of thousands can enjoy it. We will look back to this as a win, as a milestone and early achievement in creating the most successful city in America in the 21st century.”

The master plan prioritizes retention of the natural landscape while providing new accessibility patterns. Visitors travel along trails from the eastern entrance west through the park, over rolling topography, transitioning from sports fields and community gathering spaces to intimate trails that lead to incredible views and to the Stones River Bend.

The park preserves open space, improving ecological health and increasing biodiversity. The design of the pavilions takes cues from the surrounding agrarian community and existing barns located on the property.