Thursday, September 02, 1999
Riverfront designers may take cue from Louisville
Concepts emphasize easy access
BY LUCY MAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Louisville's Waterfront Park is a popular place for jogging.
(Gary Landers photos)
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LOUISVILLE — Acres of grass stretch from the Ohio River to downtown's skyscrapers. Joggers populate paths along the river's edge. Two squealing boys scoop water in chocolate-smeared hands, trying to catch tiny, shimmering fish.
This is Louisville's Waterfront Park, and it offers a glimpse of what planners hope to create with a $71 million park on Cincinnati's central riverfront.
The first phase of Louisville's $58 million project shares many of the features planned for Cincinnati's waterfront. The two parks have the same landscape architec ture firm, Hargreaves Associates of Cambridge, Mass.
Spread over 55 acres are:
• A 12-acre lawn for people to gather for concerts or picnics.
• A festival area with built-in electric and water hook-ups for vendors to use during large, public festivals.
• A children's play area.
• A wharf.
“In both communities, the overwhelming response from the public was, "We want more river access,'” added George Hargreaves, one of the firm's owners.
“I think the biggest similarity is just how easy it is to access the river and the vari ety of ways you can do that,” said David Prather, a Cincinnati Park Board official overseeing Cincinnati's waterfront park plan. “Our plan includes all those experiences.”
On a recent, sunny morning, Louisville's waterfront park drew dozens of visitors.
Ken and Heidi Schulz of the Louisville suburb of Anchorage brought kids to check out the surrey bike rentals and play in the popular children's area. After a picnic, they made their way back to the wharf.
Great lawn extends over the Ohio River and abuts a harbor area.
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Mr. and Mrs. Schulz watched as their son, Garth, and his buddy, Kevin Yeash, balanced their 4-year-old bellies on the wharf, reaching to try to catch the fish swimming by.
Mrs. Schulz said the park gives her a place to bring out-of-town visitors who want to jog, ride bikes, skate or just sit by the river and catch the breeze as boats and barges go by.
“We're really excited about the baseball park being down here also and having more reasons to come downtown,” Mr. Schulz said, referring to the minor-league ballpark being built south of the park.
Water cannon.
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Then there were the business people. A woman in office attire and white sneakers walking through the park on her lunch hour. A man in a shirt and tie, sitting in the shade, reading a book near a fountain with his black shoes beside him.
Louisville Waterfront Development Corp. President David Karem saw the man reading and smiled.
Watching people enjoy the park, he said, is affirmation of the decade spent taking pretty drawings on paper and making them into this downtown waterfront park.
“The public acceptance of the park has exceeded anything we ever hoped for,” he said. “It's drawing from every sector of the community.”
The first phase of the Louisville park officially opened July 4 with a ribbon cutting, speeches and public events.
Wharf provides space for festivals, a restaurant, a place for boats to tie up.
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Even before that, though, Mr. Karem's agency had opened pieces of the park to give the public a taste of what was to come.
The park's first phase roughly stretches between the George Rogers Clark and John F. Kennedy memorial bridges. Part of the park land is actually built on piers out over the river — something Cincinnati planners are considering.
That first phase cost about $58 million. The money came from a mix of public and private sources.
Cincinnati planners expect funding for the waterfront park here will come from a variety of sources, too, although no funding plan has been drafted.
A second phase for Louisville's park is planned farther east. It is expected to include about 30 acres, cost about $40 million and be completed in 2005.
Part of the first phase of the park is built under the interstate, something that made the final result difficult to visualize.
Mr. Karem said Mr. Hargreaves, the park designer, promised that after moving an interstate ramp, visitors to the park would look past the road and be drawn to the river.
In Louisville, the designers worked around the highway. In Cincinnati, the narrowing of Fort Washington Way is what helps to reconnect downtown with the riverfront.
There are a few other differences:
• The first phase of Louisville's park is about 55 acres. The second phase of the park will add as much as 30 acres. The Cincinnati park plan is for 51 acres.
• Louisville's park is a bit east of the heart of downtown Louisville. Cincinnati's planned park would be just south of downtown's core. A Cincinnati planner calls Cincinnati's park a new “front yard” and Louisville's more of a side yard.
• Louisville's waterfront park is bound by two bridges with riverboat restaurants to the west and industrial development to the east. (The plan is to replace that industrial development with the second phase of the park.) In Louisville, the new minor-league Louisville Slugger Field sits behind the park, closer to downtown and farther from the river.
Cincinnati's park will have the massive new Bengals stadium to the west. To the east will be the new Reds ballpark and the Firstar Center. Immediately north will be the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and a series of garages. Other development — including housing, shops and restaurants — will be proposed for the tops of those garages.
Mr. Hargreaves noted another big difference. Louisville's park has been a catalyst for other, nearby development. In Cincinnati, though, the park has come after the siting of the new stadium and ballpark.
During a tour of the Louisville park, Mr. Karem pointed to ideas that Louisville's park planners took from Cincinnati's established parks and riverfront recreation areas, including unisex bathrooms and a rubberized surface for the children's area.
Cincinnati park planners expect to keep learning from Louisville as they fine-tune plans for the central riverfront park they hope to open in 2005 or 2006.
“Being able to go down and look at Louisville, many other places are able to look at what happens when you reclaim an industrial site on the waterfront,” Mr. Hargreaves said.
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