Longleaf Art Park at Watersound Origins

Walking the winding trails of Walton County’s longleaf pine forests, wanderers might look up to find alternating flat and cone-shaped treetops. Those forms tell the story of time, where flat tops are representative of elder pines, and the cone shape identifies a younger tree. 

Historically inherent to coastal plains, longleafs have long been part of Northwest Florida’s parks and trails and, therefore, a focus of conservation and restoration efforts. 

On Tuesday, June 18, The St. Joe Company announced plans for a new 15-acre nature and art park at Watersound Origins. A design of OLI Architecture, the new Longleaf Art Park is planned for opening in 2026 and will be a public amenity. 

“This announcement is very meaningful and exciting to all of us,” said Jennifer Steele, executive director of the Cultural Arts Alliance (CAA). 

Pictured, from left to right: Jennifer Steele, executive director of the Cultural Arts Alliance and Mike Kerrigan, St. Joe’s vice president of marketing and communications. Photo by Paige Aigret

“Plans for the park combine many of the attributes that The St. Joe Company considers essential elements for a healthy and desirable community, which include public access to cultural arts, trails and paths, and green spaces that can serve as community gathering places,” said Mike Kerrigan, St. Joe’s vice president of marketing and communications. 

The art park will be developed as part of St. Joe’s Bay-Walton Sector Plan, a 50-year framework for the company’s land-use plans. The proposal was approved by both counties in 2015. Parks and trails play a large role in this framework. 

Once open, the park, under the management of the CAA, will be home to nature trails twisting through longleaf forests, an outdoor amphitheater for events and concerts, and a Passage of Time Pavilion, where a sculpture by the late artist Richard Serra will be installed. 

Kerrigan said the park’s placement allows potential for expansion and additional art installations, though there are no plans for that at this time. Steele said the park will host nature tours, cultural events and educational programs.

Photo by Paige Aigret

“Longleaf will not only be a home for world-class art,” said Steele. “It will be a park thoughtfully envisioned by OLI Architects and Richard Serra and designed to be a dialogue between the art and the landscape, celebrating its history, our natural surroundings and Passage of Time’s permanent home.”

“We really believe that this project will be like nothing else in Northwest Florida,” Kerrigan added. 

“The creation of Longleaf Art Park marks the beginning of a new cultural era for Walton County,” Steele continued. “And it further establishes the Northwest Florida region as a home and destination for creative excellence. The impact it will have on local artists, residents, students and visitors will be limitless and lasting for generations.”

World-renowned artist Serra passed away in March 2024. The sculpture, titled Passage of Time, is part of the nonprofit Berkowitz Contemporary Foundation’s collection. 

“He is considered to be one of the most significant artists of his generation, and his work is admired for its powerful material quality and exploration of the relationship between the work, the viewer and the site,” Steele said. “Since Serra’s emergence in the mid-1960s, he has radicalized and extended the very definition of sculpture.”

Rendering courtesy of The St. Joe Company

The sculpture’s meandering, parallel arrangement creates a winding passage through the 217-foot length of massive steel plates reaching 13 feet high. Moving through the space created by Serra’s sculpture, viewers are confronted with literal and metaphorical realizations of time and space.  

For several years, the Berkowitz Contemporary Foundation has been working to relocate the 540,000-pound artwork, which has been lying in wait at a storage facility in Miami in recent years. 

“The importance of access to a piece of work as significant and large scale as Passage of Time cannot be overstated,” Steele said. “Nor can the importance of art, especially accessible public art and its role in a thriving community.”

Berkowitz, St. Joe and the CAA will give the sculpture a new home at Longleaf Art Park.