Situated in Midtown, this two-acre, irregularly shaped park was established in 1985 to complement Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (1982), located opposite West Preston Street. Commissioned by Meyerhoff’s grandson, Richard Pearlstone, to commemorate his father, the park was designed by sculptor and performance artist Scott Burton, who conceived of the site as a total environment, in collaboration with landscape architect James Reed Fulton and architect Robert Goldman. Framed by three linear streets, sidewalks, and a railroad track, it lies immediately south of Mount Royal Station (1896), the southernmost portion of the Maryland Institute College of Art’s campus.
The park is sited atop a pre-existing curvilinear slope that descends toward Mount Royal Station’s brick entry drive. Echoing the contours of the landform, a generous, arced brick promenade is sited at the rise’s crest. Paved with a herringbone pattern, recalling the plaza at Symphony Hall, it is divided by a concrete centerline. The promenade is furnished with twelve minimalist double-sided cast concrete seats aligned with twelve free-standing, lantern stanchions set atop ziggurat brick bases. Three obliquely oriented, concrete linear paths meet the promenade, framing geometric lawn panels which are planted with deciduous trees, including honey locust, oak, and maple, grouped to enhance visual connectivity between the park and symphony hall. At the park’s perimeter, each path is anchored by geometric brick aprons of different sizes, inviting visitors into the park. The southwestern apron includes a square, concrete bench designed by Burton. At his insistence the park was never fenced thus ensuring visual and spatial access and connectivity.
Rehabilitated in 2008, the park is noted as among Burton’s early extant public landscapes.
