City of Orlando – Honoring Luminaries
“Luminary Green Park at Creative Village is a unique and special gathering space we created for residents, professionals and students that serves as a signature park in downtown for generations to come,” said Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer. “Most exciting is how we posthumously honor individuals as Luminaries at the park for their service to the Parramore-Callahan community. Congratulations to The Collage Companies on 40 years of building in Central Florida and to the team who helped make this vision a reality.”
It was early 2021 when Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and District 5 Commissioner Regina Hill were joined by leadership from The Collage Companies, other members of the Orlando City Council, and its development partner, Creative Village Development, LLC to break ground on Luminary Green Park at Creative Village. Fast Forward to November of 2022 and the city held a grand opening event where more than 100 city employees as well as workers at EA, UCF, Valencia, and other businesses were on hand. For the event, a giant video board affixed to the EA building played footage from its Madden 23 video game, which was released the same month – which enforces the creative technology-forward image of the community.
Creative Village is touted as Orlando’s digital media and education center of the future and the City of Orlando’s 2.3 acre Luminary Green Park will shine a light on some of Orlando’s luminaries. The Collage Companies served as General Contractor for the project working with JCB Construction, Cornerstone Construction, Sentry Electric, Florida Fence Products, Brilliant Manufacturing, and many other subcontractors and vendors.
The unique community space is surrounded by apartments, UCF and Valencia College’s joint downtown campus, and Electronic Arts’ new studio. The parks premium iconic features are the pre-cast concrete “ORLANDO” letters sitting in front of the massive white aluminum trellis. The park boasts a large open lawn space, with meandering concrete paths illuminated with a variety of specialty LED light fixtures. In early 2023, the City of Orlando will unveil one dozen “Luminary Markers” which posthumously honor community trailblazers and neighborhood leaders. The “Luminary Markers”, designed by AOA, a local Winter Park specialty design firm, are constructed of solid aluminum panels etched with a custom design and are internally lit with multiple LED fixtures. The south end of the park hosts a specialty plaza dubbed the “Keystone”. This plaza is designed to replicate the concrete plaza that once graced the old Amway Center that once stood on the parks grounds.