New Gateway Park design released, with bigger dog parks and more trees

Arlington has released the final design for a proposed overhaul of Gateway Park, featuring expanded dog parks, more tree cover and a new bridge.

Other elements include two play areas, “social groves” surrounded by natural landscaping and a large lawn with an event pavilion.

“First and foremost, Gateway Park should be a park for the everyday,” a county presentation says. “It should be a park that celebrates nature, supports community events and is safe and connected to nearby neighborhoods and trail networks.”

The new design combines aspects of three possible options that county staff collected feedback on this summer.

According to an engagement summary, respondents tended to prefer everyday use over community events and natural plantings over ornamental plantings. Their favorite proposed features were a wooded walking area, a dog park, garden areas, a “canopy walk” and a lawn.

Additionally, “the new pedestrian bridge was understood to not just be necessary to safely cross from the west to east side of the park, but was thought to also provide an elegant gateway into Rosslyn.”

The proposed design includes two dog parks: an 8,000-square-foot area for large dogs and a 4,500-square-foot space for smaller pups. This is larger than the park’s current dog parks, which have a combined area of ​​10,700 square feet.

The design also calls for two play areas with swings, wobble boards, a slide and climbing features. A smaller space is for children ages 2-5, while a larger area is for ages 5-12.

A 19,000-square-foot lawn, meanwhile, is meant to “function for the everyday, but still be just large enough to continue to support the programming that already exists at the park today.”

Finally, the new design includes substantially more greenery than the park currently has, pairing native hickories, pines, oaks and bald cypress trees with “pollinator meadows” designed to attract butterflies and birds.

Gateway Park dates back to 1984, when the Virginia Dept. of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration agreed to build an urban park as a way to mitigate the impacts of constructing I-66 through Rosslyn.

While Arlington County has maintained the park for decades, it didn’t formally have the right to plan, construct or maintain a park between N. Nash Street and Lynn Street until VDOT signed a land use permit in December 2021. After that happened, funding to redesign the park was approved in the Fiscal Year 2023 Capital Improvement Plan, county spokesperson Jerry Solomon said.

Plans for an overhaul took a leap forward this summer when the Arlington County Board voted to trade public access to Rosslyn’s “View of DC” observation deck for a $14 million investment in the revamped recreation area.

That deal came as part of a package of agreements connected to CoStar Group’s February decision to move from DC to the Central Place tower at 1201 Wilson Blvd in Rosslyn. It’s expected to advance the timeline for Gateway Park upgrades by about eight years.

The County Board is expected to approve a construction bid this winter, and the project is slated to break ground in the summer of 2025.