Waterfront Stories

Contributed by the Project for Public Spaces

A waterfront is often the face of a city. However, from old mill towns to former shipping ports, many urban waterfronts no longer connect to the world through their former transportation and economic functions. Without this bustle, cities are increasingly left exposed, challenged to reveal their personality and values in these unused spaces. Increasingly, waterfronts are where cities are forced to stop their treadmill of economic activity, development and transportation infrastructure, and figure out who they are.

     Discovering an identity for a waterfront has not been easy for many cities. In fact, it is here where the debate over the soul of cities is perhaps most magnified. The void left on many urban waterfronts attracts the full array of claims on what a city is about and what it most needs. Some waterfronts are being privatized with one dimensional commercial activity, others with housing. Some are being limited to passive use or structured recreation, and many have been reserved for automobiles. Each of these forces is vying for these underperforming spaces, and each time one particular use is allowed to dominate it degrades a waterfront’s long-term potential. Waterfronts need to not only draw on a dynamic combination of activity to succeed, they must also become greater than the sum of their uses. Here are 5 cities and examples of what is working for them.

Chicago, IL

Lakefront Path

Lake Michigan shoreline running through South shore, Jackson, Burnham, Grant, and Lincoln Park

Lakefront Path is an 18-1/2-mile linear park along Lake Michigan that includes beaches, volleyball courts, playgrounds, baseball diamonds, tennis courts, and soccer fields.

Why It Works

The lakefront is special because it is a prized place shared by all Chicago residents. Although major divides exist between neighborhoods, the path system unites differing ethnic and socioeconomic neighborhoods - such as South shore, Hyde Park, Lincoln Park and Lakeview - serves as both a recreational and transportation resource to them all.

     In riding to a soccer field, a public beach, or to one of the free music festivals downtown, path users make the lakefront into a true public place: somewhere to see and be seen, to rub shoulders with neighbors and strangers alike. On a typical day one can see crowds of people swimming, walking, biking, playing chess at path-side tables, buying food and drinks from vendors, relaxing on rented beach chairs (with umbrellas), or having a meal at an outdoor restaurant overlooking a little league game.

     Easily accessible, with great views of the city's skyline (north, south and west), the bike path widens in the downtown area to include space for outdoor concerts, such as annual blues and jazz fests. Special events, such as road races, running races, and bike events are held along the lakefront path during the spring and summer season.

Pittsburgh, PA

Allegheny Riverfront Park by Rachel Gleeson

Two active park promenades running alongside the Allegheny River, one upland, the other at river level.

    Allegheny Riverfront Park has invigorated two long, narrow spaces pinched between the Allegheny River and major expressways, reviving relationships among the city, its inhabitants, and its river. The lower level brings you to the river’s edge and is planted with native floodplain species that can regenerate themselves after flooding. The upper level promenade is more urbane with spectacular views and with plantings and materials traditionally found in Pittsburgh’s public spaces. The two levels are linked by long ramps that use vines to screen park users from the highway.

     Pittsburgh has long used its rivers for utilitarian purposes, but not until recently has the city fully recognized their recreational possibilities and their importance as natural resources. Before the park was built, the lower level was an inaccessible parking lot and the upper level was a fairly narrow sidewalk next to a major roadway. The most remarkable thing about this park is the way it has completely transformed these two hostile spaces into a welcoming and well-loved public place.

Pittsburgh, PAWhat Makes Allegheny Riverfront Park a Great Place?

Allegheny Riverfront Park is all about circulation and forming strong ties between downtown and the river’s edge. The park is extremely accessible and accommodates people arriving on foot, on bikes, in wheelchairs, and in boats. Special attention has been paid to making the paved spaces feel special - the upper level is comprised of irregular bluestone paving, the lower level is concrete imprinted with plants.

     Funding is now being sought to link the park to Point State Park to the west, and the new convention center to the east, thus forming a continuous recreational space along the river.

     There is abundant seating, positioned to take advantage of the spectacular river views. The trees on the upper level provide shaded spaces to relax in the summer, and the lower level brings you close enough to the river that you can reach down and touch the water. Both levels are great places to bring your lunch.

     Because Allegheny Riverfront Park is so well-suited to routine uses such as jogging, in-line skating, and dog-walking, the park is very active and there is a constant stream of visitors, making the park feel very safe. Although the park is too narrow for much programmed recreation other than boating, even a quick visit will offer a little respite from the city. Long-term uses strengthens park users’ awareness of the river in all of its stages.

     The esplanades are wide enough to accommodate the heavy user ship comfortably, but they are also narrow enough to encourage face to face contact and greetings among fellow park users. The marina fosters camaraderie both among boaters and among those who merely like to look at boats.

History & Background

     Excerpt from the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust website:

     The concept of a riverfront park has existed since 1911 when the Olmsted Brothers, son and nephew of Frederick Law Olmsted, creator (with Calvert Vaux) of New York's Central Park, proposed the creation of two narrow strips of public land - one following the south bank of the Allegheny River and the other running along the north bank of the Monongahela River.

     The proposal lay dormant until the early 1990s when The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's District Plan called for the creation of a riverfront park to border the northern boundary of the Cultural District.

     At that time, the Trust's Public Arts Advisory Committee commissioned a first-time collaboration between artist Ann Hamilton and landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh to create the Allegheny Riverfront Park.

 Cleveland, OH

Edgewater Beach by M. Senerchia

Lakeshore beach, woods and grass fields.

Cleveland, OHAs simple as it gets: sand, water, horizon; grass, trees, trails, picnic tables. A fishing pier, showers, chess tables, grills. Totemic cubes of stone, rip-rap boulders protect the shoreline from erosion and offend aesthetes, but are beloved by children who scramble over them, dogs driven mad by the scent of fish and the odd dropped chicken wing. It's never really empty: there are always runners, bicyclists, bladers, solitary walkers; on a frigid winter evening dogs and their people share the beach with collectors of driftwood; spring has kites, bicycles, bare pale knees in the lunchtime sun. On a sunny summer Sunday all of Cleveland is there, rich, poor, of every age and persuasion, people of dozens of ethnicities cooking, laughing, playing guitar and harmonica, sharing the beach and the grass field and the trails with easy grace, the water full of children and, further out, boats and jet skis; fat, happy women digging their toes into the sand, breezy, unselfconscious (I can say that; I'm one of them). Fall brings rugby, kayakers, truckers stretching their legs (coffee in Styrofoam cups), discreet wine and cheese on lawn chairs on the bluff, sunsets of absurd beauty and persistence, long walks to the far side of the beach where a few teenagers secret a bonfire, a drum circle enchants mermaids of mounded sand left by a local artist.

What Makes Edgewater Beach a Great Place?

      Poor access - by car or through stinking, graffitied tunnels - which makes its year-round popularity all the more astonishing. The new lakefront planning process, promising better access, has galvanized immense public participation, at least by Cleveland standards.

     As you approach, sluiced into a massive parking lot, it looks like nothing. But: leave the car. Approach the water. Take a picnic table under a willow tree. It's fairly clean - as with all great public spaces, users do as much to keep it so as the park staff. The water has good and bad days - some days clear and clean, some days depositing the ice-bound detritus of winter or a fish kill. The dogs dearly love fish kills. There are cops on bicycles and in cars, present but not oppressive.

     Everyone - all the time - everywhere - doing something simple and wonderful. Salsa lessons in the pavilion - and family reunions, and activist meetings. A talented naturalist.

     Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes!

History & Background

     With the addition of a more secluded wild beach park on Whiskey Island, at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, and a bird sanctuary on Dike 14, both to the east, we will have a complete bike trail along the lake, soon to be joined to another set of trails heading south along the canal, through active industrial sites and abandoned ones being reclaimed by nature, to forest and farmland. Also being planned for the Cuyahoga River is a new eco-boathouse.

 Toronto, Ontario

Harbourfront. Lakeshore Boulevard . By Chaitanya Kalevar

The Harbourfront is an easygoing, entertainment-oriented social space for Torontonians and visitors to mingle.

     It has stages for live shows, movie projections and dances and songs. It has food stalls, cool breeze in the summer, and a docks to park your motorboats. It is protected from the furies of Lake Ontario by a chain of islands. The programming reflects the multi-cultures of the most multicultural city in the world, Toronto. Mostly free!

 What Makes Harbourfront a Great Place?

     Accessible by streetcar connected to the best subway system that money can buy. You can walk, jog, bike, skateboard, or park a car.

     No vehicles are allowed on the site itself though parking is nearby. In summer, on weekends you may have to squeeze yourself in. Any garbage is fresh from today's uncivilized. Yesterday's garbage is never in sight. It is safe for all on land, yes do not fall over the dock!

     All ages are welcome. Activities are too varied to mention! One could do pottery, glass blowing and visit an art gallery. Music, dances and laughter is not uncommon! If you are sad, come over today!

     Yes they do show off, meet, mingle with everyone. People come in groups, in singles or couples. But once there, they are all somehow connected!

 Boston, MA

Boston Common and Public Garden

Dating back to 1634, the Common and Public Gardens provide 75 acres of green space in the heart of Boston's densely packed downtown core.

     Both park spaces were the first of their kind in this country and have been centers of public life and civic virtue since their inception. Full of activity, the Common offers some of the city's best people-watching. With its grand sweep down from the majestic State House, the Common provides an uninterrupted view of green expanse, historic city buildings, and people. The parks host concerts, plays and other sorts of gatherings and offers facilities and amenities that support a wide range of more spontaneous uses and activities. The Public Garden is famous for its swan boats and has inviting walks and lovely bridge views.

     While the Common and the Gardens are adjacent (bisected by Charles Street) and serve a unified purpose, the two parks spaces have vastly different characters. The larger, more pastoral Common supports recreational activities and flexible uses, while the Public Garden is devoted to ornamental design. The Common contains walking paths, open green spaces, a "frog pond" with a fountain frequented by children on hot steamy days, play areas, and a war monument. The Garden has a variety of flora and a centrally featured Swan Pond.!