Developing waterfront areas animates cities and stimulates local economies. Beautiful waterfronts attract visitors, new restaurants, retail stores, and recreational facilities, and keep the good times rolling.
What are the visions, problems and solutions in successfully developing a waterfront? How have such projects succeeded or failed? What’s the economic payoff? Construction Equipment Guide (CEG) interviewed people close to the action in several cities for answers.
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, PA, offers a special ingredient: a rich colonial history including a Quaker heritage of a simple life close to nature. Philadelphia was the top seaport in the new nation in the 18th century. Thus, developing its Delaware River and Schuylkill River waterfront areas has been a natural step.
One of the problems along the Delaware, where sailing ships hove-to in earlier times, is that I-95, the main North-South interstate, was cut behind the waterfront area, called Penn’s Landing, back in the 1960s. Numerous 18th century brick homes, including small cottages with large stone fireplaces, fell to the wrecker’s ball. Narrow 18th century flagstone or cobblestone streets were torn up. The interstate, spanned by only a few walkways, continues to be a major barrier blocking easy access to the water.
Philadelphia, however, moved ahead to make Penn’s Landing a tourist magnet.
It purchased the USS Olympia, Admiral Dewey’s flagship, and opened it for tours on the waterfront back in the ’60s. It also purchased a World War II submarine, and likewise opened it for tours. A brick walkway along the Delaware offers river breezes. An outdoor amphitheater for concerts is being rebuilt and enlarged. A Seaport Museum continues to attract visitors.
Much of the Penn’s Landing development took place 30 years ago. The city has since then successfully focused on using the area for family entertainment, including concerts almost every weekend in the summer and numerous ethnic food festivals. The advantages to the economy are obvious in the many visitors to the area.
The city also is converting piers into waterfront luxury apartments.
“Next month we will open the Dockside Residences at Pier 30, a $75-million project of the DePaul Group and Keating Construction with 242 luxury apartments,” said Indira Scott, special projects manager for Penn’s Landing Corp., a quasi-public non-profit corporation. “A new $70-million Hyatt Hotel opened at the waterfront in 2000. We are refurbishing the Moshulu wooden sailing ship and recently completed $25-million in walkways, trees, and landscaping along Columbus Boulevard (which parallels the waterfront).
“We also have three pedestrian bridges over I-95. We’ve spent almost $160 million in the last two years.”
Plans for further improvements also have met their share of frustrations.
Developer Melvin Simon has received several extensions on the agreement that he negotiated with the city in 1997 to provide a family entertainment center for the waterfront. A Please Touch Museum has been planned as an essential part of this center.
Nothing has been done. Simon’s exclusive right to develop Penn’s Landing expires Aug. 26.
Developer Daniel Keating III, who built the new Hyatt, is among those interested in taking over the development. And Simon may yet team up with Steiner & Associates, Columbus, OH, to go ahead with his project after all.
What is Philadelphia’s vision for its Delaware River waterfront? Many ideas have been suggested, including more walkways over the interstate, and even a monorail connecting this area with nearby Independence Hall and the city’s Museum of Art along the Schuylkill.
Another idea is for a Center of the American People — where they came from, settled and what they contributed, including their music and unique heritage. Meanwhile, people, including many families, are having a lot of fun along the water.
Problems and Progress
For much of the 19th century, the South Garden behind Frederick Graaf’s famed waterworks in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park on the Schuylkill shared in the attention that the United States and Europe lavished on this Greek Revival architectural gem.
Today, the garden is a poignant symbol of Philadelphia’s frustrations over the past 50 years in extending the park, established in 1868, further south.
The circular fountain in the center of the site does not operate. Ironically, there’s no water. (Water had flowed by gravity from the city’s reservoir atop the hill, called “Fair Mounte,” above the garden, but the city’s Museum of Art replaced the reservoir in the 1920s and Graaf’s steam-turbine-driven waterworks, which supplied much of the city homes and factories, stopped operating in 1909.)
Graaf’s bust, once enclosed in a glass case on a pedestal, lost its nose years ago and has been removed for possible restoration. No water flows from a red sandstone fountain, set in the base of the hill and forgotten for more than a century. The inscription on the fountain reads: “Peace 1865.”
A statue of a boy fishing, placed on a nearby wall above the Schuylkill in the 20th century, is gone. What happened to it?
“You’ll have to ask Hurricane Floyd,” said Stephanie Craighead, deputy director of planning and development of Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park Commission. “We’ve been looking for it [the statue] but haven’t found it yet. The statue was very heavy; that tells you what kind of water we had.”
Approximately two months ago, Philadelphia completed an asphalt path from the nearby Spring Garden Street Bridge to the garden, waterworks and the main Fairmount Park, which stretches for miles along both sides of the river. The path is a critical connector to a planned Schuylkill River Park along the water to the south which, when completed, would allow residents of center city to walk to the Waterworks and the rest of the older park.
But the new path isn’t open because there’s nothing to connect to the south. The planned Schuylkill River Park, which includes a walking path and recreational areas, hasn’t been started. Though most funding is in place, plans are mired in legal proceedings that began when the city said the apparent low bidder, Buckley and Co, didn’t meet federal and city requirements for hiring minority-owned subcontractors. (Ritter Construction Co., Southampton, PA, a women-owned business enterprise, was certified by the city but not the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.)
When the city re-bid the job and awarded a $6.65-million contract to Rockport Construction Co., Lansdowne, PA, Buckley protested, saying there was a defect in the winner’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program. A Common Pleas judge prohibited the city from awarding the contract. The city then re-bid the job a third time, awarding it again last spring to Rockport.
Buckley again said it found a defect in Rockport’s DBE program (involving American Indian Builders & Suppliers, Livingston, NY). The court has issued a temporary injunction against the award, and the city has appealed.
Another big problem is that a railroad track runs along the site. The city is skirting the liability issues by planning special protected access points.
Despite the problems, there are lots of good things happening along the Schuylkill. The city plans to restore the garden. It will shortly complete the restoration of the waterworks, and a new restaurant there is expected to bring many visitors.
“I would say there has been more progress along the Schuylkill in the last five years than the previous 100 years,” said Louise Turon, acting president and executive director of the Schuylkill River Development Council, a non-profit citizens group. “The city is making a huge investment in the Waterworks, and the new Schuylkill Park will make the city a much more pleasant place to live and work, boosting economic growth just like Boston, Hartford and Memphis. Two new residential projects, have already been built as private developments on both sides of the river.”
And there are visions. The city plans to eventually revive the boat service that once connected locations on the river. It has already built a dock at Fort Mifflin, at the entrance to the Delaware, and plans others at Bartram’s Gardens and the Waterworks.
Camden
Despite urban blight, Camden, NJ, across the Delaware from Philadelphia, is moving steadily ahead with numerous waterfront projects. The exciting prospect is to draw visitors with a “bi-city” approach. The foundations are being built for a Delaware River Aerial Tram, a closed eight-person gondola that will run alongside the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, which connects the two cities. The tram is to open in 2003 or 2004.
Camden is attracting thousands of visitors to the Battleship New Jersey, as well as the New Jersey State Aquarium, which is being enlarged, its Tweeter Center for concerts, and other attractions. It also is redeveloping the former RCA headquarters into high-end apartments.
“We are looking at making two cities into one waterfront,” said My-Link Nguyen, a spokesperson of the Delaware River Port Authority, a public agency that promotes reliable transportation and economic development along the river for both states.
“Success is unity in vision and concept from both states. As the years pass, the vision evolves. We have wonderful resources on both sides of the river. Now everyone agrees we are a premier destination.”
No Blues About Memphis
Large river steamers plied the Mississippi River between Memphis and New Orleans during the 1800s. That was the main business for Memphis then. Now the waterfront is alive again.
Memphis, TN, is nearly half way through completing a 12-mi. river walk along the Mississippi. This includes approximately 5 mi. in front of the downtown area, and 7 mi. around Mud Island offshore.
“We’ve just completed an 18-month process to generate a master plan [for the riverfront],” said Dorchelle Spence, director of communications of the city’s Riverfront Development Corp. “We’re designing Beale Street Landing, a docking facility for large riverboats like the Memphis Queen paddlewheel steamer. We also plan to begin building a Grand Civic Plaza along the river in about 18 months, and a land bridge from downtown to Mud Island. This land mass would provide about five full city blocks for mixed-use development, including residential, retail and office space. It will include an amphitheater overlooking a 150-acre lake where floating barges can present concerts and shows.”
A highway connecting I-55 and I-40 runs parallel to the river, presenting a barrier to accessing the riverfront area. The city is slowing traffic by adding medians, changing widths of lanes to accommodate sidewalks, and upgrading crosswalks and signals.
Benefits to Memphis? “The new riverfront absolutely helps city life,” said Spence. “People love to spend time on the water, whether it’s passive, just sitting on a bench and watching the current, or active, playing sports or jogging. If you can expand the area with restaurants, retail stores and things to do, it also becomes an economic driver.”
The recipe for success? “There definitely needs to be a public-private partnership,” Spence commented. “Government needs the assistance of the community, civic and business leaders and philanthropic dollars to make large-scale changes. It’s challenging. You have to have community support behind you. There are as many opinions as [there are] people. Reaching consensus and maintaining momentum are two huge challenges.”
Bill Young, state director of the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) said Memphis is upbeat. “Every week in May, Memphis throws the largest party in the world,” he said.
Providence
Gondolas ply the waters. Venice? No, Providence, RI, where people boat, walk along the water, eat, shop in the three-level Providence Place Mall, go to the movies — all at the base of the hill.
The state capitol building stands, floodlit at night. The city altered the flow of the Woonasquatucket River and Mossasuck River and opened up previously decked-over areas for development, re-routed train tracks, and provided pedestrian walkways, and built a series of bridges, Venice-style.
During the summer, cauldrons every 300 ft. or so along the waterfront are filled with logs and lit for “Wonderfires” three or four days each week.
“It’s a downtown renaissance,” said Eric Anderson, executive director of the Rhode Island Chapter of the AGC.
“People throng to the waterfront area. It’s pretty jazzy. It took us a while to get our act together but some of the movers and shakers got things going a few years ago and it made a lot of difference.”
San Antonio
Back in the 1950s, San Antonio established its well-known River Walk along the San Antonio River, which winds through the downtown area. A Mecca for restaurants, stores and strolls, it has been extremely successful as a base for commercial growth.
“I think the city has been extremely supportive of the River Walk,” said Doug McMurry, executive director of AGC’s San Antonio Chapter. “I think the biggest ingredient for such success is patience; the other is money.”
With patience anything is possible, and there’s a lot of potential on America’s waterfronts.
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