The Memphis River Parks Partnership, a nonprofit organization that stewards, maintains and operates the 250 acres of parkland immediately adjacent to the Mississippi River, recently celebrated the grand reopening of Tom Lee Park. After five years of planning, design and construction, including a significant community engagement process, the new park opens as the centerpiece of the city’s riverfront—and as a national model for inclusive and ecologically restorative urban parks.

In this Q&A, Communications Officer Tracey Pearson spoke with Memphis River Parks Partnership President and CEO Carol Coletta to discuss how the Partnership approached the design of the riverfront, reimaging historic assets within a city and the special role parks play in a vibrant downtown Memphis.

Q: How do you think the body of work taking place at the riverfront could be a model for other civic and public assets in Memphis, or even other cities, looking to reimagine assets in their respective communities?

A: We have built ambitious assets on our riverfront embraced by the broadest cross-section of Memphians. The photos, the videos, the social media … they all feed the imaginations of people elsewhere who begin asking the question, “How do we get that in our city?”

Q: The riverfront is a beloved place for residents. You followed a unique and extensive planning and design process to create a space worthy of this asset. What was most central to the outcome?

A: The work we had done earlier on the conversion of two small parks gave us the opportunity to test different ideas to see how parkgoers would respond. We also had ideas from 4,000+ Memphians who participated in the Memphis Riverfront Concept. We had phenomenal park designers who embraced community input from many sources, including teens from nearby neighborhoods who worked alongside the designers. The final stages of design were completed during COVID, which presented its own set of challenges. Informed by the participation of thousands of Memphians, the park designers – Studio Gang and SCAPE – made a beautiful park that responded impressively to the desires of Memphians. They came to know the community intimately while bringing fresh eyes to the opportunities of the riverfront.

Q: People may see many of the amazing improvements taking place at the riverfront today and think this system of investment and revitalization began recently, some might be surprised to learn that isn’t the case. What was the genesis for what we see taking place at the Memphis riverfront today?

A: The set of improvements started with small scale efforts of Reimaging the Civic Commons, a national initiative funded by Kresge and other foundations to reimagine civic spaces such as parks, libraries, cultural centers and community gathering places as a connected set of assets intended to achieve outcomes beyond their historic purpose. Memphis was one of the original six cities to be included and began the work on the riverfront. After some initial temporary interventions, we had enough momentum to transform and rename two small parks with Confederate associations. These remakes were instant hits, and that gave us momentum to do more.

About the same time and, again, with Kresge support, elected officials and Memphis River Parks board members traveled to three cities, four riverfronts in four days to experience firsthand dramatic change taking place on waterfronts in the U.S. Before they returned to Memphis, they decided to get much more ambitious with the Memphis riverfront. That led to the Memphis Riverfront Concept, a review of 100 years of plans for the riverfront and concepts for the future. That spawned a focus on Tom Lee Park as the next logical project.

We are now on year seven of this current phase of work. And there is much more to do.

Q: The city recently celebrated the opening of the redesigned Tom Lee Park. Can you share some of the new features of the park and what inspired some of the more unique design elements?

A: Tom Lee Park’s landscape and features are inspired by the dynamic rhythm and patterns of the Mississippi River.

The transformed Tom Lee Park is designed to connect Memphians with the river and with each other, to provide new public amenities and support the dynamic ecosystems of the Mississippi.

Architecture and landscape work together to smoothly facilitate the movement of people into and through the park, and to capture—on land the sense of motion and change that the river exemplifies. Sheltering structures made of timber, a river-themed playground and landscape features create exciting destinations for recreation, outdoor education, dining, performances and other activities—elevating them with the living backdrop of the Mississippi. Sculpted topography frames new views of the river, planted with a hardy native plant palette. Beneath the park, a restored soil system underpins a new framework of trees, shrubs, grasses and perennials—including hundreds of oaks that will support a vast array of bird and insect life.

Divided into four distinct zones, architecture and landscape work closely together to welcome visitors to the park, to facilitate movement through the park, to encourage exploration, and to capture – on land – the sense of motion and change that the river exemplifies.

Q: What role does the riverfront play in the vitality of downtown Memphis, more specifically can you speak to its role in the effort to bring people together?

A: Downtowns are, at their core, places that concentrate people and thus bring them together. Otherwise, they don’t work. Parks have a special role to play in that calculation. They add play, peace, solace and nature in ways that are unique to the downtown fabric.

Like many waterfronts, our Mississippi Riverfront is adjacent to downtown. Even in its first few weeks, you can see how people are flocking to the new park, parking throughout downtown, and walking to the park. That means they are passing downtown shops and restaurants along the way, which is important new street traffic for those businesses. Our goal is to define a new River District that creates a new mental map for visitors that joins the riverfront and downtown. That’s critical because historically, the riverfront has been disconnected from downtown by a four-lane street with fast-moving traffic connecting two expressway entrances, a 30-ft tall bluff and lightly used railroad tracks. Further our sidewalk network connecting the riverfront and downtown is badly compromised (and in some cases, missing altogether). We must improve the physical connections while we redefine the mental map.

Q: What role does investment in civic assets play in ensuring equity within a city?

A: I would argue not all investments in civic assets ensure equity. It depends on the location of the assets, their design, what they offer and how they are managed. But certainly, well-designed and maintained spaces that are free and welcoming to all are fundamental to an equitable city. Their promise is that they will attract people across the demographic spectrum to share space joyfully. But that is a very tall order today, with our neighborhoods and schools becoming ever more income segregated. Even kids sports are increasingly segregated into “elite” leagues and non-elite leagues.

Can civic assets overcome this separation? That’s what we work on every single day on the riverfront.

And I can tell you, it is not easy.

Q: There is some divisive history in Memphis and across the country in general, but thinking specifically about assets that fall within the scope of the Memphis River Parks Partnership, can you share how the team went about addressing monuments that may have been reminders of painful historical events?

A: We had two parks on the riverfront with Confederate names (Confederate Park and Jefferson Davis Park), one of which had a statue of Jefferson Davis.

Changing the park names came early and easily. Removing the statue required more work by Mayor Jim Strickland and the then-County Commission Chair Van Turner (now a candidate for city mayor). They managed to create a nonprofit to assume ownership of the park, which allowed the nonprofit to remove the statue. It was a clever and effective move. We continued to maintain the parks and began programming both, in particular Fourth Bluff Park, which the statue had occupied. Art by Hank Willis Thomas was on display for the first three years after the remake, and the park has become the celebrated home to huge Memphis Grizzlies playoff watch parties, attracting a broad cross-section of Memphians. This year, as part of the new Tom Lee Park, we added “A Monument to Listening,” an “anti-monument” by Theaster Gates, supported by the Mellon Foundation.

Q: You once said, “Too many of our civic assets are in tatters— underimagined and underinvested. Yet, we’ve seen what the best of these assets do for communities.” What do you hope a reimagined Memphis Riverfront will do to serve the people of Memphis?

A: That‘s easy.

• Show Memphis as an ambitious city right at our front door. That’s important to stimulate investment of time, talent and money, including by locals.Show Memphians that this is Memphis. Yes, we have challenges. Every city does. But even in the face of challenges, we can do great things.
• Show Memphians how exhilarating it can be to be in the company of strangers who are also their fellow Memphians. When Memphians from all across the city find common ground, that’s where a stronger Memphis begins.
• Provide Memphians a place to play, to rest, to be in nature, to be with one another.