TAKE ME TO THE RIVER.

The Riverpark began with a conversation, a dialogue, a collective vision that continues today.

The river has always been there. Native American cultures and, later, immigrant pioneers and industrial entrepreneurs all found Chattanooga to be a distinct place, a crossroads where the river valley sweeps through the surrounding mountains. It is hard to imagine life in Chattanooga apart from the Tennessee River. But slowly it happened. Cities, like rivers, are constantly changing.

"We are not unlike most American cities. We turned our back on the riverfront and almost forgot it was there," says Jim Bowen, one of the original participants in the development of the Tennessee Riverpark master plan and vice president of RiverValley Partners, a public-private economic development company. "We drove across it to go to work, but that was about it. Now," jokes Bowen, "you could announce a rock throw down at the river and probably 30,000 people would come down to see it."

This is the story of the Tennessee Riverpark, a series of unique public parks connected by a 22-mile winding greenway along the Tennessee River in Chattanooga. It was born of the cooperative efforts of the city of Chattanooga, Hamilton County, the state of Tennessee, the federal government, area foundations, RiverValley Partners, and private citizens. The Riverpark has become a tangible realization of the connections among the people of a diverse city.

The Riverpark began with a conversation, a dialogue, a collective vision that continues today. Each new development of the Riverpark -- from the freshwater aquarium at Ross's Landing Plaza to the Walnut Street bridge to recently opened Coolidge Park -- has raised the bar on the design standards of the city's built environment and offered a refreshing rediscovery of the natural world. The Tennessee Riverpark is a catalyst with continuing momentum to knit together the community's people, its great built public spaces, and its natural scenic habitat.

In 1995 the Riverpark received the prestigious Honor Award for Urban Design from the American Institute of Architects. A year later, the Riverwalk, the scenic pedestrian pathway connecting the Riverpark's string of diverse parks and playgrounds, was included in A Guide to Great American Public Places along with such national favorites as Times Square, New Orleans' French Quarter, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and New York's Central Park.

The Tennessee Riverpark continues to draw national attention to Chattanooga. In 1999 Walking magazine named the city one of the country's most walkable communities. Family Pun listed Chattanooga one of the country's top 10 family-friendly cities; the Riverwalk received the top listing for outdoor fun: "Our favorite places are beautiful and easy to navigate. They offer a special spirit that can turn an ordinary walk into a memorable learning adventure" (Feb. 1998).

The newest jewel of the Tennessee Riverpark system is Coolidge Park, located on Chattanooga's north shore waterfront. The 6-acre park is named in honor of Charles Coolidge, a World War II Medal of Honor recipient. Coolidge and his wife were special guests at the Grande Celebration, which marked the park's official opening last October. The highlight of their day was a ride on the park's restored Denzel carousel. The three-row carousel, originally built in 1895 for Atlanta's Grant Park, features 52 intricately painted, hand-carved animals created by students of artisan Bud Ellis at Horsin' Around, a year-round carousel animal carving school in Chattanooga.

At the center of the park is an interactive play fountain surrounded by eight water-spouting sculpted animals, which appear to be rising out of a sandy beach. The Walker Pavilion at the park honors former Chattanooga mayor and strong park proponent Robert Kirk Walker and his wife, Joy, a civic activist.

The park, landscaped with various colors and circular patterns of pavers, can be viewed from above on the Walnut Street bridge, a 100-plus-year-old restored pedestrian bridge that spans the Tennessee River, connecting downtown's riverfront with the north shore.

One of the most prized aspects of Coolidge Park is its wide expanse of open lawn, an ellipse of green, down by the riverside.

Located adjacent to the Chattanooga Theatre Center, the nation's longest-running community theater, Coolidge Park also includes a stage for performing arts programs and concerts. Two hopscotch courts are inlaid in the Riverwalk pathway. Designed by Chattanooga sculptor Jim Collins, they complement the bronze dance steps he created for the Frazier Avenue shopping area near the park. In 1994 Chattanooga won the City Livability Award from the U.S. Conference of Mayors for its use of arts in downtown revitalization.

The hopscotch courts are part of the small but signature details important to planners. Children from across the county were involved in crafting the detailed fish mosaic borders that adorn structures along the Riverwalk. "It is important to incorporate whimsy and humor and fun with public art and design along the way," Bowen says. Another example of Chattanooga's attention to detail appears along the original Riverwalk setting. A large fish made of brick and mortar offers a respite to walkers and a spectacular view of the river. The newest addition to what has become "Chattanooga's street furniture" was designed by local artist David Barber. The 10-foot-long fish, titled "Catch of the Day," has found a perfect location near the fishing piers. Barber's work was recognized in a competition sponsored by a partnership among the Chattanooga nonprofit Association for Visual Artists, the Masonry Association of Chattanooga, and General Shale Products.

A Learning Walk

"The Tennessee Riverpark is definitely one of the most popular places in the area for recreation," says Larry Zehnder, deputy administrator of Chattanooga's Parks, Recreation, Art and Culture Department. "The places along the Riverpark offer so many different kinds of activities. You can go rowing, view wildlife, climb the Walnut Wall, bicycle, fish along the riverbank or off a pier, walk, Rollerblade, and learn about the history of the area as you go. We have designed the Riverwalk as a learning walk."

"The idea was to access and enjoy the river in as many locations as possible," explains Bowen. "The Riverwalk is like a necklace along the river. We wanted to create jewels that draw us to the river's edge. The Tennessee Aquarium is our crown jewel, but there are others -- Coolidge Park, the rowing center, the Walnut Street bridge, the wetlands. We have purposefully allowed for each jewel to have its own personality. Each place has its own unique character. Coolidge Park is bright and flashy. Ross's Landing Plaza around the aquarium is more subtle, with artwork scattered throughout the landscape."

Bowen describes the Riverpark as a melting pot where people can come together. This diversity has been most dramatic in the festivals held at the riverbank, such as the seven-day multigenre Riverbend Festival, now in its 15th year. CultureFest '99, with the promise of being an annual event, was held at the new Coolidge Park last year and specifically celebrated the city's cultural diversity in music, dance, art, and food. The daylong Grande Celebration of Coolidge Park, held in October 1999, certainly lived up to its title for the thousands of people who shared the parade, theater, cirque performances, art market, laser show, and fireworks display framed between the Walnut and Market street bridges.

More important than big festival events, according to Zehnder, is the measure of the Riverpark's success by its active daily use of a cross-section of local citizens. This fondness, a feeling that the Riverpark is an extension of one's daily life, has kept the park virtually free of crime, vandalism, and litter, say city park officials. "That was part of the plan from the outset," Bowen adds.

River Vision

Bowen was among the original citizens appointed by Chattanooga and Hamilton County governments to study and define the best use of 600-plus acres on Moccasin Bend, a peninsula at the curve of the Tennessee River near downtown Chattanooga. The Moccasin Bend Task Force citizen committee, chaired by Deaderick Montague, quickly realized that its scope should be expanded to include the 22-mile corridor of riverfront.

The task force made another decision that would have long-term effects on how Chattanooga approaches project planning. The group asked for advice from Chattanooga's citizenry. With help from a nationally recognized land-use design firm, Carr, Lynch and Associates of Cambridge, Mass., the task force sought public input to give breadth and vitality to plans for this long-forgotten asset -- the riverfront.

"That process," Bowen says, "was the most inclusive planning process ever undertaken by this community. We had hundreds of meetings and thousands of people participating."

The Tennessee Riverpark master plan, funded by the city, county, and the Chattanooga-based Lyndhurst Foundation, was completed in March 1985. "Over 1,600 people turned out to see the master plan when it was unveiled in 1985 at the then-new convention center. We had to take down a partitioned wall to accommodate the crowd," Bowen recalls.

The visionary plan advised that the Chattanooga riverfront be developed "under a guiding idea which will bring its banks to life, make it a central point of pride for the city's people, and move it to the forefront of national consciousness." Chattanooga had again returned to its origins -- the Tennessee River. By reconnecting with this great river through a public visioning process, the city had reinvented its local and national images and internal character.

In 1984 the Lyndhurst Foundation funded another public planning process. Vision 2000 helped set new goals for Chattanooga's future. The 20-week process allowed the public to identify 40 goals that became the community's "Commitment Portfolio," which inspired people to bring the plans into action. Both the public and private sectors, together with many community-based agencies, took on the responsibility of accomplishing the consensus goals of the community. Ten years later, at Re-Vision 2000, more than 85 percent of those goals had been met. This attention and focus on the planning and visioning process in project development is now referred to as "the Chattanooga Way."

The first phase of the Riverpark, completed in May 1989, was a great success. The 50-acre riverfront park included five fishing piers, picnic and trail shelters, a large playground, an indoor pavilion, and almost three miles of riverfront and inland trails. Two years later the Tennessee Valley Authority extended the Riverwalk to the base of the Chickamauga Dam. In May 1992 the Ross's Landing Plaza segment, designed to celebrate the community's history, was opened along with the Tennessee Aquarium.

As a direct result of the Vision 2000 public planning session, the historic Walnut Street bridge was saved from the wrecking ball. Restoration was , completed in May 1993, resulting in an award-winning pedestrian bridge under the leadership of architect Garnet Chapin, a native of Chattanooga who also worked on the restoration of the Statue of Liberty. The Walnut Street bridge is the oldest and largest surviving truss bridge in the South and the longest pedestrian bridge in the world.

The Walnut Street bridge has become a signature image, a metaphor for the city's accomplishments. More than symbolic, however, the downtown-north shore link has resulted in tremendous property value increases for nearby neighborhoods and success for the unique Frazier Avenue commercial district.

Images of the Riverpark were rated the highest by citizens during a 1996 comprehensive visual preference survey conducted by the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency, according to Director Ann Coulter. The Futurescape '96 survey was another example of the Chattanooga way of encouraging citizen input or, as Coulter refers to it, "a sustainable political culture of civic engagement." This involvement by citizens is crucial to a city's sustainability and to the process of developing any new project, adds Coulter. "In Chattanooga, our people have become practiced at involvement and planning. People don't forget the experience. More importantly, they come to expect it."

The Power of Partners

The Tennessee Riverpark master plan created a 20-year commitment to use the river as a catalyst for increasing Chattanooga's livability, improving the area's prospects for new investment, and initiating new riverfront development, which would include industry, retail, office space, housing, and attractions.

According to RiverValley Partners, 83 percent of the riverfront and downtown development funding was private. Other funding sources included 6 percent federal, 5 percent from the city, and 3 percent from each the county and the state.

The Tennessee Aquarium, the only such institution devoted to the study of freshwater ecosystems, is the crown jewel of the Riverpark. More than 10 million people have toured the aquarium, making it one of the region's most popular attractions. "The Tennessee Aquarium has turned out to be the catalyst we all hoped it would be," Bowen says. Completed in 1992 at a cost of $45 million, and totally financed by private contributions, the aquarium attracts more than 1.1 million visitors annually and produced over $133 million for the community during its first year of operation.

"We've done a great deal in a short time," says Bowen. "We are blessed as a community to have charitable foundations such as Lyndhurst, Tonya and Benwood, that have allowed us to use private money to make things happen in a relatively short time."

One of Jack Murrah's favorite places in Chattanooga is the Bluff View arts district, a hamlet of shops, cafes, galleries, a sculpture garden, and bed and breakfast inns located near the Hunter Museum of American Art along the Riverpark. Murrah is president of the Lyndhurst Foundation, which has played such a key role in bringing Chattanooga's renaissance to reality. "This is the creation of one family who chose not to go the route of the nonprofit," explains Murrah. "The Porteras [Dr. Charles and Mary] incorporated their interest in sculpture, painting, food, and landscape. They have demonstrated the synergistic power of creating a place where your spirit is elevated. It is a noteworthy generation of commerce, an economic generator for downtown."

The Hunter Museum of American Art and the Bluff View arts district are linked by a pedestrian bridge to the historical Battery Place neighborhood and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. From here it goes by the Manker-Patten tennis center to an archaeologically significant Native American site, a riverside marsh rich in wildlife, and eventually to the Lookout rowing center. For the Battery Place segment, the Tennessee Parks and Recreation Association honored the Riverpark with its Outstanding Project Award.

The Tennessee Riverpark is unique in the public-private partnerships involved in the initial planning and funding of each phase and project. Perhaps even more impressive is the partnership between local governments, which has existed for over a decade to manage the large Riverpark system on a daily basis. Hamilton County Executive Claude Ramsey explains: "By agreement, the city of Chattanooga and Hamilton County share the ongoing, cost of maintenance, security, and programming for these wonderful public places. Fortunately the elected officials in both Chattanooga and Hamilton County realize the critical importance the Riverpark has on improving our local quality of life."

Success Spreads

For Chattanooga, the benefits of the Riverpark and the overall Riverfront development have exceeded expectations.

Two new hotels are being built in the riverfront area this year, and a new minor-league baseball stadium is going up on Hawk Hill, overlooking the aquarium. Bowen estimates that over $450 million has been invested in the riverfront area, the majority of which, he says, is private. "It is getting harder to distinguish between riverfront development and our downtown. The success and positive growth have spread to the central business district."

"Over 150 cities have looked at what Chattanooga has done," says Bill Sudderth, president of Chattanooga Land Company LLC, an urban real estate development and management firm, and immediate past president of RiverValley Partners. Speaking at a recent conference of the American Institute of Architects, which met in Chattanooga to study sustainable design and "green" architecture, Sudderth says, "No two cities are alike. But the underlying concept of how you get people involved -- the design infrastructure -- is something that can be looked at, something that can be learned from."

Creating a Livable City 

Investment in the rebirth of Chattanooga's riverfront and downtown isn't confined to commercial and tourism ventures. The downtown is undergoing its greatest housing boom since World War II. Townhouses, condominiums, apartment rental units, and single-family homes are going up from the riverfront area to the central city to the brownfields of the business district.

Property values in the downtown riverfront district have increased by 141 percent between 1988 and 1999, 26.5 percent between 1995 and 1999, according to RiverValley Partners and the Hamilton County tax assessor's office.

Making the city more livable, says Larry Zehnder, has always been part of the plan. "Why do people leave the city?" he asks. "Well one reason is that they want to have elbow room, a place to recreate that is scenic. Our parks and open green spaces provide this. The Riverpark was planned with input from citizens and for those citizens. Chattanooga is a great place to live. Consequently it is a great place to visit.

"The Riverpark is not just another trail," continues Zehnder. "We have connected destinations -- destination parks along the 'Walk. Our future goals will be to more fully link the Riverpark into our neighborhoods with pedestrian-friendly greenways and bike routes." Recreate 2008, a 10-year master plan for the city's parks, recreation, arts and culture department, began in 1998 and will become more tangible as three new parks and recreation complexes begin development this year, each with plans to connect to the area's comprehensive greenway network.

The Millennium Project 

"Only five more miles to go," Jim Bowen tells the group of people that has been meeting regularly each Thursday for over a decade to guide the Tennessee Riverpark to its completion. Construction is beginning on the five miles of Riverwalk to fill the current gap between the rowing-center area and the original fishing-park location. When this span is completed, the Tennessee Riverwalk will run along the south shoreline in a 10-mile stretch.

Labeled the Millennium Project by local planners, this part of the Riverwalk will connect three unique park sites equal in size to the original phase. The total cost of both the Riverwalk and the three parks is estimated to be around $17 million, says Bowen.

Bowen refers to the new parks as "a poster child for sustainable development. A site once declared dead has been given new life and offers trail users a chance to study the natural habitat and wildlife." These new park sites will add three new points of access to the Tennessee Riverpark system. They will offer lighted parking areas, picnic facilities, trail shelters, children's play areas, and public restrooms.

Construction will begin in the spring on these projects. According to Bowen, their completion will "mark the south shoreline's fulfilled dream."

On the Design Table

Bowen may soon get to ride his bicycle along the 10-mile stretch of Riverwalk from the Tennessee Aquarium at Ross's Landing to the Chickamauga Dam, but the ideas and the possibilities for the project are never to be "finished." The Tennessee Riverpark is constantly evolving, like the river itself.

On the north shore, plans are to have the Riverpark continue from the new Coolidge Park to Moccasin Bend, the unique peninsula that was first looked at by the Moccasin Bend Task Force citizen group more than a decade ago. The Bend is "pending National Park status," according to Bowen's sources. It is considered a special place, even a sacred place by many, with a rich Native American and Civil War history and unique archaeological resources. Preliminary plans call for a visitor center and interactive educational museum with access to a series of low-impact soft trails to historical sites.

There are also plans to eventually connect Rivermont Park and the North Chickamauga Creek and Greenway Farm, an environmental educational campus. Part of the river's north shore, these sections are located farther from downtown in a suburban setting, which borders several industrial sites.

Risks, Challenges and Legacy

"One of the great things the Tennessee Riverpark has done for our elected officials and civic leaders is allow them to become risk takers," says Bowen. "They kick the tires on a project and make sure it is right for the community. But when they see a good project idea, they find a way to do it. This means we are looking to the future. This is a different attitude, a different mindset primed by confidence and success. Years ago, we would spend more money, time, and talent to figure out how and why not to do a worthy project. We now form partnerships and take risks."

And there were challenges along the way, concedes Bowen. "The initial first three miles of Riverwalk went across nine different properties, including the Tennessee Valley Authority, railroads, a community college, and several local businesses. Also 75 five percent of the land was in the river's floodplain and required special design challenges for erosion control and riverbank stabilization. Much of the Riverwalk is on land that would probably not be developed in traditional ways." Bowen says that is part of the sustainable development model. "We used land that was not suitable for industry or other development and created places and experiences for the public good."

"Actually," says Bowen, "building a park is the safest things you can do as a city. Even if all the predictions about the economic impact a park will have don't live up to, expectations, a city is still left with a wonderful green space -- a legacy for future generations."

RELATED ARTICLE: Placemaking 101

Chattanoogan Jim Bowen of RiverValley Partners gets asked for advice regularly on everything from riverfront development to carousel restoration. He speaks to delegations, from Miami to Japan, about Chattanooga's ongoing renaissance, sharing with those groups some of the following ideas for creating great American public places. This is what Jim refers to as his "free, unsolicited advice." Others call it "the Chattanooga way" of doing things.

1. Plan for positive change. Cities are dynamic. They should be reinvested in just like businesses.

2. If you are doing nothing, you are going backward. To be competitive, cities must continually improve.

3. The process is critical to the success of the project. Be inclusive in giving opportunities for project ownership, and you will gain loyal supporters.

4. Plan, design, and build first and foremost for local citizens. Chattanooga is a great place to live. Consequently, it is a great place to visit.

5. Quality should be the goal of planning, design, and construction. If you skimp on quality at any of these critical levels, you dramatically lessen your chances of success.

6. Highlight and enhance the unique qualities of your community. Seek out a niche based on your history or geography. Avoid blindly copying what has worked elsewhere without taking these things into consideration.

7. Avoid the average. Average is average, no matter how well you package it. Excellence shows. Set your standards very high, and go for it.

8. Convince the electorate and the elected that parks and open space are essential services. Picking up garbage, providing police and fire service, and offering an adequate' public education are all essential services provided by local governments. So are special places for exercise, rest, relaxation, and community-building.

9. Form partnerships. With the current demands upon both city and county governments and the private sector, real progress requires that the private and public sectors join forces for progress.

10. When in doubt, break ground! There comes a time when you need to move ahead. There will always be naysayers. Do the necessary homework and then take the necessary risk. Remember, if these projects were easy, they would have already been accomplished.

Freelance writer Laurie Perry Vaughen, a Chattanooga native, lives within a stone's throw of the Tennessee Riverpark, a series of public parks situated along the banks of the Tennessee River. Vaughen refers to the Riverpark as a "great American public place," and a "tangible realization of the connections among the people of a diverse city." Born of public visioning and private partnerships, the park has prompted Chattanoogans to rediscover the beauty -- and potential -- of the natural world that surrounds them (p. 62).