Memorial Park Specific Plan
Cupertino, CA
Memorial Park has been at the heart of community recreation and civic-focused events in Cupertino for many decades. This beloved 22-acre site is the largest park in the city, attracting residents and visitors with its amphitheater, playgrounds, picnic areas, community centers, sports amenities, large lawns, and mature trees. After the system-wide Parks and Recreation Master Plan was adopted in 2020, the City of Cupertino aimed to follow the Plan’s recommendations to improve circulation, infrastructure, and accessibility at this popular community hub and create a comprehensive vision for revitalizing Memorial Park.
GATES led a multidisciplinary team to develop the Memorial Park Specific Plan—a set of recommendations to enhance the park’s unique identity and sense of place while maintaining a balance between the built and natural environments. During a multi-round public outreach process that included virtual and in-person activities, we collected valuable community input about park needs, amenity priorities, and other important topics. We heard the community desired a park design that combined a variety of recreation options, such as pickleball and softball, with expanded opportunities for play, social gathering, and the enjoyment of nature. Using this input along with guidance from the Parks and Recreation Commission and City Council, GATES developed a community-preferred design for the park that enhanced existing features and proposed new amenities to improve the overall visitor experience. The Specific Plan introduced a passive garden walk, nature and all-abilities playgrounds, basketball and pickleball courts, and restrooms, and outlined upgrades to pathways, the softball field, and the amphitheater. Serving as a comprehensive roadmap for stakeholders and decision-makers, the Memorial Park Specific Plan aimed to ensure this beloved and well-known community park remains an active, safe, and accessible public resource well into the future.
Adopted by City Council in 2024
Key Considerations
Creating a Community-Driven PlanOver 3,300 people provided valuable input about their favorite park features, prioritized potential new amenities, and explored other important topics during community outreach events held both in-person and virtually. Three rounds of outreach and data from the 2020 Parks & Recreation Master Plan showed that the community wants Memorial Park to be:easy to get to and move through, include distinctive spaces for social activities, offer a wide variety of engaging recreation options in a nature-oriented setting, and support a healthy, cohesive community in a manner that is uniquely Cupertino.
Environmental consultants then partnered with us to appropriately remove and replace the existing oak trees and preserve the wetland on-site in order to limit conflicts on the existing habitat and conserve these key environmental assets.
RF EDITRF EDITThe project additionally considered police, emergency vehicle (EVA), and vehicular access throughout the site to comply with up-to-date safety standards.
From Ideas to realization
Public outreach events, site assessments, and synthesizing community input
Preliminary concept options and photosimulations help to communicate themes, vision, and design intent
Concept A
After three rounds of public outreach, the final preferred concept was accepted to guide improvements at Memorial Park over the next several years.
Visualizing a future Memorial Park
Photosimulation of a passive garden walk
Visualizing a proposed event plaza
Photosimulation of a new entry plaza for Memorial Park, with seating and shade provided by a tree canopy
The Document
Click the image to view the full plan document