Tom Lee Park makeover – Memphis Flyer

The Carlisle Corporation has made a $1.5 million investment into the first ADA-accessible walkway that connects the bluff in Downtown Memphis to the riverfront at Tom Lee Park.

The path will be named Carlisle Cutbank Bluff in honor of the late Gene Carlisle. According to Memphis River Parks Partnership (MRPP), this is the first time that “commercial development has been connected to the riverfront.”

“The Carlisle Cutbank Bluff represents the partnership’s commitment to easy, equitable access to the new park,” said Tyree Daniels, board chair of MRPP. “This beautiful new feature makes it so much easier and more fun to move between Downtown and the riverfront. It means that visitors will find it much easier to get from upstairs on Main Street down to the river in a more equitable way, and we couldn’t be more excited about this achievement, but also making this available for our community.”

Chance Carlisle, CEO of Carlisle LLC, said, “Two things that really hit home for us was the ability to provide the first of its kind, ADA-accessibility to the park. For the last 40 or 50 years, with the exception of maybe a month or so in May, Tom Lee Park was sort of an afterthought, rather than a signature riverfront. It’s hard to be a great riverfront city without an excellent front door, and what Memphis River Parks has done, and all of the donors, is really give Memphians a park that we can be proud of, for all of Memphis.”

Carlisle said the river plays an important role in the future of Downtown, transitioning from a center for agricultural products and commerce to a “twenty-first century vision of it being about tourism, development, and a high-quality of life.”

He said, “This is what it means to be in Memphis, and to have that be associated with us is wonderful. It’s always been — and Downtown has always been — a neighborhood for everybody. The investments made at the Mobility Center, the investments made at Tom Lee Park, just continue to add to that momentum.”

The bluff includes an ADA-compliant switchback ramp as well as a staircase, two “stone scrambles” for climbing, and new trees and grasses.

Garrett Uithoven of Montgomery Martin Contractors says that the colorizations of the stone are designed to go from cool blues and grays at the bottom, and transition to cream beige and a red-orange at the top to reflect the natural recurring colors in the bluff along the Mississippi River.

“If you cut into the undisturbed bluff at any point along the river around this region, you would get that same color in the dirt and rock that make up the banks of the river,” Uithoven said.

He also says that there are accent lights with uplights that shine on some of the trees, with others shining on the stone faces.

The bluff will open in 2023, the same time that Tom Lee Park will be open to the public. Daniels says that Tom Lee Park is now 50 percent completed.

“Imagine the catalytic effect on Downtown, when Tom Lee Park is complete,” said Penelope Huston of the Downtown Memphis Commission. “To unlock the true power of Downtown, all the individual assets have to be connected, like they are here at the Cutbank Bluff.”

Memphis has been named a best travel destination, or a variation thereof, several times in recent weeks. The website Travel Lemming called Memphis “the next hot Southern city.” Frommer’s Travel Guide put Memphis in its “19 Best Places to visit in 2019.” The Travel Channel said Memphis was the “hottest Southern Destination of 2019.” And TripSavvy, a leading travel site, named Memphis as the best overall travel destination of 2019. Like, in the world. Dang.

They like us. They really like us.

But why? Well, the usual litany gets mentioned in most of these stories: First, there’s the Holy Trinity of Beale Street, barbecue, and blues. Then there’s the National Civil Rights Museum, Graceland, Bass Pro Pyramid, the Peabody, the Memphis Zoo, and, of course, all the music attractions: the Stax Museum, Sun Studio, the Memphis Rock n’ Soul Museum, the Blues Hall of Fame, etc. Also getting some press lately are Crosstown, South Main, Overton Square, Broad Avenue, and Cooper-Young.

Bruce VanWyngarden

Scale model of the new Tom Lee Park

That’s a pretty impressive litany.

But increasingly, these travel stories are also starting to mention the charms of the Mississippi River. Here’s Trip Savvy: “The Mississippi River, the second longest river in North America, forms Memphis’ western border. … There are nearly five miles of parks along the river, which are ideal for outdoor recreation. In addition, riverboat cruises, canoe rentals, and other water activities are available. Visitors can also walk along a scale model of the lower Mississippi River on Mud Island … or cross the Mississippi on the Big River Crossing, a new bridge with walkways and bike trails.” They didn’t even mention our cool, new bridge lights.

And, as you may have heard or read, our Mississippi riverfront is about to get a major makeover, including a massive re-design of Memphis’ front yard — Tom Lee Park. Last year, the Mississippi River Parks Partnership (MRPP) picked Studio Gang, a Chicago-based design firm, and SCAPE, a New York landscape and urban design firm, to lead the redevelopment of the riverfront. This week, they unveiled the plans for Tom Lee Park and set up a nifty scale model of the proposed transformation for public viewing at Beale Street Landing.

I went down to check it out, and, well, it’s pretty transformative, to say the least. The now prairie-like expanse of the mile-long park will soon have small hills, trees, pocket parks, connective gravel paths, a sheltered recreational and concert space, water features, three large fields (called “pools” in the plan), and a nature area with a bird-nesting tower.

When the plan was released, skepticism was rampant and it hit the usual notes: Why use outside developers? What’s wrong with the park now? The plan is too cluttered. How will Music Fest and the barbecue contest work? And what if we get another flood like 2011, when Tom Lee was a couple feet under water, will it all get washed away?

Good questions, especially the last two. So I posed them to George Abbott, director of external affairs for MRPP. He said the plan for Music Fest is to utilize the three large fields for concert stages, and use the sheltered facility as the Blues Tent. As for the barbecue fest, it appears the likeliest scenario may be to put the teams on Riverside Drive.

And what if another flood comes? Abbott said the design firm has had experience creating parks with fluctuating water features nearby, and the park is designed with an awareness of the Mississippi’s flooding potential. How that stops the river from rising, I’m not sure, but presumably the park-scape is designed to weather it.

I’m from Missouri, so I’m as skeptical as they come (Show me!), but I have to say, this park design is pretty impressive, maybe even spectacular. I think the biggest questions will revolve around Memphis in May events. If we get the usual rains for Music Fest, those gravel paths will get a workout, and the “pools” may live up to their name. That said, I really hope MRPP can pull off this ambitious re-imagining of one our seminal public spaces. Call me Pollyanna, but I’m even kind of excited about it.