Return to the Square: Williams Park’s Next Chapter

Featured image: For generations, Williams Park has served as St. Petersburg’s original city square. Image via Florida Memory.

On a recent Saturday during Localtopia, Williams Park didn’t feel like an afterthought. It felt like a destination.

Families filled the walkways. Food trucks lined the park’s edge. Neighbors lingered beneath 82 shade trees while music drifted from the bandshell. For a few hours, St. Petersburg’s first public space looked exactly like what it was meant to be in 1888: a town square.

That description isn’t accidental. “It was the first platted public space for the city,” said Shaun Drinkard, vice president of the St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership. “It is truly the town square.”

More than a century later, city leaders and downtown stakeholders are working to help the 3.3-acre park reclaim that identity – not through dramatic reinvention, but through thoughtful upgrades and year-round programming designed to bring people back daily.

Building on “Amazing Bones”

Drinkard describes Williams Park as a space with “amazing bones.” The canopy remains intact. The central fountain anchors the plaza. The historic bandshell, designed by the same architect who created the original inverted pyramid pier, will undergo a $3 million renovation beginning this spring.

At the same time, the newly formed Williams Park Partnership, a nonprofit launched by the Downtown Partnership, will invest $800,000 in improvements focused on visibility, lighting, landscaping, and welcoming entrances. But the real shift isn’t just physical. It’s about activation.

Thinking in “Rooms”

Urban park consultant Dan Biederman, known for helping transform New York City’s Bryant Park, is advising on operations and programming.

“When we talk about the park,” Drinkard said, “we talk about it in rooms.”

The bandshell becomes one room suited for concerts and performances. The fountain plaza becomes another – an urban gathering space with tables and chairs. Other corners of the park offer quieter opportunities for games, reading, or small activities.

“These little events draw people,” Biederman said. “A reading room. Games. Art classes. Things that can be there all day.”

The emphasis isn’t on mega-festivals. It’s on daily energy. “It’s the small-scale activities,” Drinkard said. “Classes, arts, children’s activities – those little things that activate the park.”

A Simple Metric: Vibrancy

One idea from Biederman resonated strongly: “In urban spaces, 100 people per acre feels very active,” Drinkard said.

For Williams Park, that translates to about 330 people at any given time – enough to feel lively without overwhelming the space. That steady presence, Biederman said, can change perception over time.

At New York’s Bryant Park in the 1980s, persistent programming gradually replaced neglect and crime. “That’s how we got all the bad uses out,” he said. “There were so many users there.”

Williams Park, he notes, starts with a stronger foundation. “It’s really a very attractive space,” Biederman said. “Nice trees.”

Free, Frequent, and Local

Much of the envisioned programming would be free – fitness classes, children’s activities, games, and arts programming – with only occasional special events generating revenue to sustain operations.

“It’s not about a 20,000-person, three-day festival,” Drinkard said. “It’s about a more intimate experience.”

That scale complements the waterfront parks, which already host major regional events. Instead of competing with Vinoy Park or The Pier, Williams Park could offer something different: a smaller, everyday gathering place.

For residents in nearby towers like the newly built 400 Central, or longtime neighbors in Old Northeast and Crescent Heights, that could mean a simple shift in routine: morning coffee under the trees, a lunchtime break in the plaza, evening music at the bandshell.

“If you have two or three public spaces that are good,” Biederman said, “it makes the town even livelier.”

A New Sense of Arrival

Some changes will be subtle and more symbolic. New gateway elements at each corner of the park will create what Drinkard calls “an elevated experience at the entry,” with planters, signage, and design elements signaling care and intention. Landscaping will be trimmed to improve sightlines. Lighting will be evaluated. Electrical access will be expanded to support flexible programming throughout the park.

The park will remain open during construction, with improvements unfolding in phases through 2026. A full, branded programming schedule is expected to launch in 2027.

Reclaiming the Square

Williams Park has carried a complicated reputation in recent years. But Drinkard believes perception can shift with more consistent activity.

“I hope that even just as a quick passerby,” he said, “you stop and take a second look and say, ‘There’s something cool happening there. Let me go see what it is.’”

More than 50 years ago, presidents spoke in Williams Park. For generations before that, it served as the city’s shared gathering space.

During Localtopia, it briefly felt that way again.

If the current vision succeeds, Williams Park won’t try to outshine the waterfront or become something it isn’t. It will simply return to its original role: a place where the city comes together. St. Petersburg’s town square.