Ritz Park Pavilion

The Ritz Park Pavilion anchors a new gathering space in Charlotte’s historic Washington Heights, a neighborhood established in 1910 and named in honor of Booker T. Washington. The park rises on the site of the former Ritz Theater, which for generations was a haven for the Black community. A place for twenty-five cent movies, legendary concession-stand hot dogs, and above all a safe place to gather, screening films that other Charlotte theaters of the era would not show.

After years as a neglected lot, the site has been reclaimed as a place of dignity and welcome, and the pavilion was designed to honor that history while giving the neighborhood somewhere to come together again.

The design grew directly out of the community it serves. Working with the City of Charlotte Urban Design Center and residents of Washington Heights, I helped lead a series of design workshops to understand what the neighborhood wanted from the space and what was achievable within a very limited budget. Those conversations set the priorities, and the design responded to them, balancing aspiration against cost at every decision.