Pensacola and the town’s Bruce Beach Revitalization Project have obtained nationwide recognition after each have been named and featured in Condé Nast Traveler’s 2025 Bright Ideas, an annual listing that spotlights the individuals, locations and initiatives tackling journey’s most urgent points with creativity and objective.
Unlike Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards and Gold List, its Bright Ideas listing focuses on extra than simply enjoyable locations to discover. The Bruce Beach Revitalization Project was listed alongside the likes of actions to fund deep ocean analysis initiatives, resorts’ efforts to be extra inclusive for visitors with sensory points and techniques to create sustainable tourism in traditionally important locations.
With its inclusion of Bruce Beach, Traveler’s highlights the numerous efforts Pensacola went by means of to revive waterfront entry and protect an necessary a part of not simply the town’s however Florida’s Black historical past.
What is the Bruce Beach Revitalization Project?
Pensacola’s Bruce Beach Revitalization Project was an $11.8 million endeavor to revive waterfront entry on a 10-acre coastal park in Downtown Pensacola. The seaside is a key web site of Pensacola’s Black historical past.
During segregation, Bruce Beach was the positioning of a Black neighborhood swimming pool, which closed within the Seventies as a consequence of a scarcity of funding. Despite previous efforts to revive the positioning, Bruce Beach was deserted and lay dormant for many years.
Bruce Beach reopened to the general public in 2018 after the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission killed plans to assemble a fish hatchery on the web site after a lawsuit was filed in opposition to the undertaking, sparked by public backlash.
Grassroots efforts to wash up the overgrown seaside occurred shortly after, however the metropolis quickly began plans of its personal to reimagine Bruce Beach. After 4 years of planning, development for the primary part of the undertaking began in 2022.
Phase one in every of Bruce Beach opened to the general public in April 2024. It included a central plaza with a walkway, shade constructions, two public garden areas with seat partitions, a youngsters’s playground and a pedestrian bridge over Washerwoman Creek connecting the park to Community Maritime Park.
The grand opening for the second part was held in November 2024, and included a bluff overlook with panoramic views of Pensacola Bay and the town, a “rock scramble” and terraced sitting areas across the bluff, a everlasting kayak launch, a sand volleyball courtroom and picnic areas.
Where is Bruce Beach positioned?
Bruce Beach is positioned at 601 W. Main St., in downtown Pensacola. It will be present in between Joe Patti’s Seafood and the Blue Wahoos Stadium.
What is the Condé Nast Traveler’s 2025 Bright Ideas in Travel listing
Launched in 2022, Condé Nast Traveler’s Bright Ideas in Travel is an annual listing that acknowledges the gamers, locations and initiatives which are approaching journey’s most urgent points with thoughtfulness and zeal.
The newest listing acknowledges a set of airways, cruise strains, locations, motels and start-ups throughout all seven continents that it claims are revolutionizing the methods we journey—and the journey business itself—for the higher.