RENDERING VIA CITY OF ORLANDO
The Canopy, a proposed 10-acre public space beneath I- 4 in downtown Orlando, has received final approval from Orlando City Council, clearing the way for construction to begin within 60 days.
The council on Monday approved agreements with the Florida Department of Transportation, which is contributing an additional $3.75 million on top of the $30 million the city’s Downtown Community Redevelopment Agency had already allocated for the project, according to Central Florida Public Media. FDOT still needs to formally sign the agreements though before it’s final-final.
“It’s the culmination, one, of a lot of work,” CRA Executive Director David Barilla told Central Florida Public Media, “but it’s also kind of the final, you know, formal agreement that’s needed for us to go ahead and start construction and bring The Canopy to fruition.”
The Canopy will extend from south of West Church Street to north of West Washington Avenue, between Garland Avenue and South Hughey Avenue. The design includes nearly 300 parking spaces and a ride-share pickup area on the north end. South of Pine Street, plans call for a hub for e-bikes and e-scooters, offices, public restrooms and an event space featuring metal trees and digital elements. Barilla said the entire area will be digitally mapped so it can be activated with colors, sounds and graphics for events.
City leaders said the design was shaped around six principles identified by residents as priorities: connection, safety, community, greenery, mobility and artistic immersion. District 5 Commissioner Shan Rose called the project part of a broader effort to improve east-west connections between Camping World Stadium and downtown Orlando.
“This is our commitment to creating more open space here in downtown Orlando,” Rose said, according to Bay News 9. “True commitment to activating an area, as well as creating parking opportunities that we have missed here in downtown.”
The project has changed substantially since it was first introduced. When the city first discussed the space in 2022, it was known as the “Under-I” project, and early plans called for the return of about 500 parking spaces along with large-scale light projections onto the interstate’s support columns. By February 2024, the city had rebranded the project as The Canopy, cutting the parking plan down to a roughly 150-space temporary pilot zone near Pine Street and Central Boulevard, with construction originally expected to begin in early 2025. The project’s timeline has since shifted further, with the final approval now placing groundbreaking in the fall of 2026.
The current design settles on nearly 300 permanent parking spaces, a middle ground between the project’s original 500-space vision and its scaled-back 2024 pilot phase. The Canopy is one of 14 projects included in Orlando’s Downtown Action Plan, which Barilla said is organized around three goals: making downtown a place for everyone, creating a network of connected smaller parks, and making the area easier to navigate.
City leaders anticipate The Canopy will be completed by the end of 2027.
