Shaped from survey responses from over 4,500 Memphians at multiple public events, The Memphis Riverfront Concept proposes to transform six miles and five distinct zones of the historic and culturally significant part of the city.

Many of the Concept’s proposed uses, from an iconic adventure playground to a special outlook where people can listen to live music at sunset, come directly from community members’ suggestions. 

With hopes of increasing the riverfront’s use, vibrancy, and economic potential, the project seeks to foster civic pride, restore natural conditions and the native ecology, and connect various assets along the river. 

The Concept focuses on showing how five zones—the Fourth Bluff, Mud Island, Tom Lee Park, MLK Park, and Greenbelt Park—can leverage their particular strengths to become distinctive places offering activities and experiences that appeal to people of all generations, incomes, races, and backgrounds.

It also suggests a flexible funding model. The Concept’s interventions are designed as a connected series of short-, medium-, and long-term investments. These can add up over time according to available funding and interest—demonstrating how a renewed Memphis Riverfront can not only be inclusive and inspiring, but actionable and realistic as well.