The old control tower still stands at the south end. Where jets once throttled up, children now play on the central axis that used to be runway 17/35. The park runs north through the urban parishes of La Concepción, Kennedy, and Cotocollao, bordered by Amazonas Avenue on the west and Galo Plaza and Real Audiencia on the east. Before it had a name, the project was called Parque del Lago. In July 2012 the Metropolitan Council passed ordinance C408 renaming it Bicentennial Park - a reference to the two-hundred-year anniversary of Quito's First Cry of Independence on August 10, 1809, the date that marked the beginning of the end of Spanish rule over the Audience of Quito. The choice was deliberate. The city wanted the symbolism of liberation to attach to ground that had only recently been liberated from aviation.

A few weeks before inauguration, the city installed eight stations of children's games and public gym equipment at the north and south ends - the first proper urban furniture the space had ever seen. Crews planted 2,800 endemic trees. A reflecting pool was built on the eastern side. Temporary sports courts went down on the old landing strip. Cycling and skating paths were laid out where taxiways had been. On opening day, Mayor Augusto Barrera led a caravan of athletes from La Carolina Park, entering Bicentenario symbolically on foot. An estimated 10,000 people arrived in the first few hours. Over the first two days, 299,544 Quiteños visited - more than any other park in city history. They found exhibitions documenting the airport's closure, cycling competitions, social circus performances, and outdoor gymnastics. A runway had become a civic party.

According to Samuel Robalino, the project's first manager, 89 percent of the park area will eventually be green. The plan calls for gradually removing concrete from the edges toward the center, consolidating the full transformation by 2030. In early 2014, additional tree species were planted along the central strip of the old runway: arupo and white arupo, eugenia, guabo, coconut cumbi, phoenix palm, tropical ceiba, jacaranda, loquat. These are the trees meant to turn the runway into something closer to forest. Access roads are being built to integrate the park with surrounding traffic - Amazonas and Real Audiencia avenues will be extended, while Isaac Albéniz Avenue (inaugurated December 2014), Florida, and Fernández Salvador are being consolidated as east-west connectors. The park's temporary infrastructure is being steadily replaced with permanent installations.

The airport left traces. The long axis of the park follows the runway precisely, which gives Bicentenario an unusual shape among urban parks - stretched, directional, geometric in a way that ordinary parks are not. Visitors can sense the scale of a commercial jet's takeoff roll simply by walking end to end. Major events take advantage of this specific geometry. Metallica played here in 2014 and again in 2016. Pope Francis celebrated Mass here in July 2015. Cirque du Soleil brought Corteo in 2015 and Amaluna in 2018. The flat expanse that used to absorb landing gear now absorbs concert crowds. Quito's growth had long since made the central airport untenable. Every low-flying approach was a reminder of that. The park reframes the history: instead of mourning the convenience of an in-city airport, it celebrates the space that convenience occupied for 53 years, and quietly plants trees where tire marks used to sit.