Parco Centrale

The city of Pescara, and more generally cities overall, are undergoing significant transformation.
The key issue is how to translate the challenges of this new millennium—environmental resource management, energy efficiency, zero land consumption, (conscious) growth, management of mobility interconnections (a decisive factor for social, economic, and cultural exchange and growth), and improving quality of life and services—into concrete territorial projects.

These are crucial themes that already define the roles cities will play in the near future. Infrastructure plays a vital role in raising quality of life, particularly environmental infrastructure, green areas, soft mobility systems, and digital infrastructure.

The “Central Park” project is a new “urban space,” a transitional area between the city center and the regional territory, a gateway that welcomes over 28,000 passengers daily. It is a powerful mobility hub, but more importantly, it plays a central role in shaping the image of a new, ecological, open, and interconnected city aiming to become the regional nerve center and one of the main hubs on the Adriatic.
The concept of the project is to imagine the 110,000 sqm of the central park as a green infrastructure—a sort of equipped ground capable of hosting parking, an intermodal hub, and services that make it a safe and lively space at all times of the day and throughout the week. The term “green infrastructure” in this case, is used because the idea of infrastructure contains that of a park, but also includes a set of services and facilities that make it similar to a computer’s “motherboard”: a functional platform where, like a main board, we can integrate additional cards and devices to expand and enhance its capabilities.

The history of this part of the city is marked by a key date: May 17, 1863, when, in the presence of Prince Umberto (future King Umberto I) and many civil, military, and religious authorities, the Ancona–Pescara railway section was inaugurated. This was a significant moment that initiated the Adriatic Railway connection from Ancona to Pescara, subsequently extended to Otranto in September 1872. Travel times were significantly reduced, and the flow of goods and passengers began.
This moment was crucial to the birth and development of the Pescara we know today. Starting from the Pescara Centrale station, a main axis connects it to the sea: Corso Umberto I. This street quickly became the backbone of the urban fabric of what would become a city of commerce and opportunities for an Abruzzo in great transformation, which will lead Pescara to be the first city in the region.

The Corso Umberto axis hinges on several very important spaces
urban spaces: the railway station (a contemporary gateway to the city), the intersection with Corso Vittorio Emanuele, Piazza Sacro Cuore, Piazza della Rinascita (locally known as “Piazza Salotto,” highlighting its social importance), Piazza and Giardini 1° Maggio, and finally the sea, heralded by the grand fountain “La Nave di Cascella” and Piazza del Mare. This sequence of significant urban elements underscores the central role of this part of the city in building collective identity.

In the eighties an impressive and very important transformation began in the area of ​​the railway station, not only for railway mobility, but for the whole city. This transformation culminated in 1988 with the inauguration of the new railway station. The rail level was raised about eight meters above the city’s grade, and the station was moved roughly 120 meters westward. It now sits at the center of a new platform featuring two buildings, each 230 meters long and 22 meters high.

The repositioning of the new railway deck leaves the old station tracks in the heart of the city, making an area of ​​approximately 130,000 m2 available.
In 2001, the City of Pescara purchased this land from the Metropolis company (owned by Ferrovie dello Stato) at a discounted price of 13 billion old lire. This area is now designated to become a transitional zone between the city center and the regional territory—a new “urban gateway” that daily welcomes more than 28,000 passengers. The railway station alone serves about 10,000 daily users, with additional flows from bus transport: around 1,000 from outside the region and 18,000 from within the municipality and the broader region.

These numbers alone demonstrate the strategic role this site plays in shaping the image of a new, sustainable, open, and interconnected city aspiring to be a regional nerve center and one of the main hubs on the Adriatic. This vision gains even more relevance when considered within the context of the growth of the “Greater Pescara,” which anticipates the merger of three municipalities by 2027, the year of the centenary of the birth of the city.

For almost forty years the city has been questioning itself and investigating possible strategies for transforming the area, without reaching any definitive outcome.
Currently, it is used as a bus terminal and open-air parking lot with around 2,000 parking spaces.

The “Central Park” project is part of this context. It proposes a design solution aimed at addressing the many demands and expectations of civil society for such a complex area.
The project combines these requests with a careful analysis of environmental, social and economic sustainability and above all by projecting everything into a medium and long-term scenario, a scenario that sees the city in profound transformation; just think of the profound transformation of mobility (electric carriers, soft mobility, etc.) or of the commercial and retail sector.

The project redesigns an open space of about 110,000 sqm primarily dedicated to an urban park—a meeting and socializing place that fits into the public space system structured along the Corso Umberto I axis. The park serves as a platform (infrastructure) on which a multitude of functions are layered, operating across different times of day and days of the week. The idea is to conceive the ground of the central park as an equipped base that can host all parking areas serving the city’s pedestrian core and a transport hub where mass public transportation and local transit intersect—on one side with the railway station and on the other with the city’s soft mobility network. This equipped ground allows the open spaces to be used in a flexible way, both as an outdoor amphitheater for large summer events and for commercial and service micro-activities to “protect” the park, a cultural and social hub, a hub for accommodation and services.

CREDITS

• Architectural Design: Giovanni Vaccarini Architetti

• Engineering and Project Management: Proger S.p.A.

• Project Team:
  Giovanni Vaccarini
  Herman Cabonetti (Senior Architect – Project Coordinator)
  Matteo Preite

• Client: Municipality of Pescara

• Location: Pescara, Italy – Area di Risulta