Riverwalk Trust Supports Riverwalk Park Enhancements
Riverwalk Park
Riverwalk Trust Supports Riverwalk Park Enhancements
Vision for Park is Backed by Immediate Plans for Improvements
This past year, the Riverwalk Trust has been extremely involved with the passage of and now involvement in the Riverwalk District Arts & Entertainment / Public Realm Plan, a major consultant’s study passed by the City of Fort Lauderdale commission this past spring. The name of the study is long, but the concept is simple: how do we make the Riverwalk District a more active, compelling destination for residents and visitors?
What we like about the direction of this plan is the commission’s directive that we develop immediately implementable actions that don’t require huge amounts of capital to jumpstart. We could approach the plan with grandiose ideas for a park redesign, but so many agree that we have a fabulous place in the Riverwalk already. We just need some physical tweaks here and there and much more emphasis on making it an active public space that becomes intertwined with the community’s daily life. In fact, the Riverwalk Trust began this process on a small, grassroots scale this past year with the @ Riverwalk program, offering free community yoga every Saturday at 10 a.m. under the Esplanade Pavilion. It’s been a huge success.
The project team for this study is multidisciplinary with members having expertise in many areas including parks master planning, landscape design, arts and public space programming, public art and media, parks management and operations, and cultural district planning.
Beyer Blinder Belle (BBB), the lead consultant, has eloquently stated, “… the city and specifically the areas surrounding the New River are poised to achieve a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. All of the ingredients are in place: a publicly accessible waterfront; outstanding arts and entertainment destinations; successful retail corridors; a critical mass of Downtown population from recent housing and commercial developments and future development potential. However, while individually successful, these assets are not yet interconnected in a way that causes the Downtown as a whole to match the vibrancy of other successful urban centers.”
With a mission of building a more vibrant community centered around the Riverwalk Park, the Riverwalk Trust will continue to be intricately involved with this study.
