There are immutable facts of life in Memphis, but one that should be self-evident is that the new, award-winning Tom Lee Park on Memphis’ doorstep does not exist except for Carol Coletta.
The lifelong Memphian – born in South Memphis, a local public school graduate, and a University of Memphis alumna – took seven years off from her national platform as a respected expert on cities – on Planetizen’s 100 Most Influential Urbanists list and also on its list of 25 influential women urbanists – to move a moribund riverfront from an idea that had remained unfulfilled for 100 years into today’s transformative reality.
Ms. Coletta stepped down recently as president of Memphis River Parks Partnership, the nonprofit organization charged with the management and operations of the riverfront including implementing the concept plan for the riverfront that was developed by former Mayor Jim Strickland’s special advisory committee. As she returns to her national work, it’s an appropriate time to reflect how much, against all odds, she has accomplished and the legacy park that should set a standard for Memphis’ ambition. 
She leaves the Partnership in a strong position. Acting CEO Art Davis now applies his knowledge and experience to continue the momentum, particularly as the organization celebrates Tom Lee 100 – a year of events observing Mr. Lee’s historic rescue of 32 people from the swift currents of the Mississippi River 100 years ago – and as it opens late this year the Memphis Flyway, the only ADA-accessible observation deck on the Mississippi River. Like the $61 million cost of Tom Lee Park itself, the Flyway’s $10 million cost does not draw any money from the City of Memphis general fund, unlike similar riverfront park projects in other cities that rely on funding from their city governments.
The Bargain That Is Tom Lee Park, December 11, 2023
While Tom Lee Park gets the headlines, it’s worth remembering that Memphis now has a seamless six miles of riverfront with a connected trail and three new parks that culminated with the development of the formerly forlorn 31-acre field overlooking the Mississippi River. Its reinvention befits the city’s most valuable and valued real estate.
Another immutable fact about Memphis: visionaries with bold ideas are regularly berated and attacked: banker Ron Terry and his push for Shelby Farms Park, the coalition campaigning to bring the Grizzlies to Memphis and build FedExForum, Pitt Hyde’s leadership for the expansions of the National Civil Rights Museum, University of Memphis president Bill Hardgrave and renovation of Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium, University of Memphis President M. David Rudd and Leftwich Tennis Center, Jim Strickland and Accelerate Memphis, Barbara Hyde and Memphis Art Museum, Chance Carlisle and Grand Hyatt Hotel, to name only a few.
But there can be no argument that no one has been subjected to the intensity of vilification, misogyny, lies, and threats as Carol Coletta – and all because she set out to give Memphis the riverfront it deserved. It is a testament to her commitment to her hometown that she endured the slings and arrows without replying in kind and that she soldiered on to achieve a plan that aimed high in a city known for aiming low with so many of its civic projects. It is also a testament to a board who shared the vision for a great riverfront and remained steadfast in achieving it.
A great riverfront had been called for in plans and studies after plans and studies dating back to the city’s first comprehensive plan by pioneer urban planner Harland Bartholomew in 1924 who called the riverfront “not merely unattractive but represents a flagrantly unprofitable use of the property.”
It’s like the story about the guy who was losing money on every watermelon he was selling from his wagon. His solution to deal with the loss: buy a bigger wagon. After all, when the nine acres of the riverfront that was Tom Lee Park was expanded to 31 acres in 1991 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, it continued to be a flat, unadorned, boring flatland that failed to even hint at its potential, or as Bartholomew so accurately wrote, a flagrantly unprofitable use of the property.
That is no longer the case today.
Turning Tom Lee Into A Real Park, August 10, 2016
Progress on the riverfront and particularly Tom Lee Park continued even as the misinformation came fast and furious, some of which would have QAnon proud. Some gadflies routinely mangled facts about the riverfront and the Partnership while one opposed anything it did as part of grandstanding to get on television.
Eight years before Carol Coletta agreed to head up the Memphis River Parks Partnership and before the organization was even created, I wrote a blog post in 2010, Turning Tom Lee Into a Park, that began: “Tom Lee Park is the worst riverfront park in the country.” In 2012, I wrote two blog posts in two days, Tom Lee Park Needs A Rescue” and Hints at What Tom Lee Park Could Be.” By 2014, I wrote a post called Now, To Fix Tom Lee Park.
A Decade of Support for a Transformed Tom Lee Park, August 15, 2019
I point out this longstanding support for a higher and better use of Tom Lee Park because of the persistent accusation that my unyielding support for the Partnership on social media and comments in mainstream media was at the behest of Ms. Coletta and because of our friendship, although my blog posts about the potential of the 31 acres in Tom Lee Park date back 14 and a half years to when the Riverfront Development Corporation was in charge.
In April, 2018, the River Parks Partnership was formed and Ms. Coletta was hired as its president/CEO. My support over the subsequent years was intensified and animated by the fact that she and her colleagues at the River Parks Partnership were being harassed and threatened – and even stalked – and armed with the anonymous courage of social media, some people denounced her personally as they defended the old Tom Lee Park’s unimproved acreage as just what Memphis needed.
Put another way, their opinion was tantamount to saying that the unimproved Tom Lee Park was good enough for Memphis. When I wrote Shelby Farms Park: Elevating A City, I pointed out that the Conservancy there acted on a mandate by Barbara Hyde who said their goal shouldn’t be to deliver “a place that was good enough for Memphis” but instead to create one with national significance. And yet, the implication that barren and boring Tom Lee Park should have never been improved was a thread that persisted throughout its development.
In this way, the hailstorm of negativity about the riverfront seemed to stem from the city’s long battle with its own lack of self-worth and self-esteem. It was equally clear that when some said the featureless Tom Lee Park was good enough, the subtext was that it was good enough for majority African American Memphis.
Best-in-class
It would have been easy to give in to this kind of thinking and degrade the bold plans for Tom Lee Park and diminish its creation of its four zones of activity. But working with the best designers in the country – Studio Gang and SCAPE – Ms. Coletta and the Partnership stayed the course, determined to give Memphians the signature park they deserve, particularly the residents of the five high-poverty zip codes that abut downtown.
Because of associating with the best-in-class designers, lighting experts, and artists, Tom Lee Park exceeds all expectations.
The Civic Gateway welcomes visitors from Beale Street and Vance Park at the north end, an Active Core offers space for lively and flexible activities, the Community Batture provides shade and elevated views of the river, and the Habitat Terraces offer a more intimate experience of the natural landscape at the park’s southern end. In addition to providing shelter for larger community events and activities, the Sunset Canopy, which honors Tyre Nichols, offers space for gatherings. Nearby are Point Bar Pavilions, constructed of reclaimed materials, where food and beverage and restrooms are available and the 23,000-square foot playground with colossal, climbable river animals. Cutbank Bluff forms the east entrance to the park with a crucial ADA connection to downtown. It is one of five new and improved entrances that better connect the park to downtown.
Visitors are greeted by new topography, plantings, and paths that frame views of the river, guide them to specific landmarks, and connect them with the park’s outdoor spaces, which range in scale from open lawns for games and cookouts to wooded micro-forests for shaded rest. Throughout the park, after replacing the soil that was concrete-like, native plants provide shade and beauty for people and habitat for wildlife, making the park a resilient and ever-changing place that marks the passage of the seasons—a peaceful spot within the city where Memphians reconnect with each other and nature.
The heroism of the park’s namesake, Tom Lee, an African American river worker, is expressed abstractly through 32 sculptures honed from basalt and each with a unique surface treatment. The sculptures are positioned in a circular configuration to create “a point of reflection.” A 33rd sculpture stands taller than the rest and is polished to have a reflective surface, a nod to Lee’s standout bravery. The sculptures by Theaster Gates were funded by a grant from Mellon Foundation. It was one of the grants for the philanthropy’s anti-monument program that is dedicated to correcting the nation’s lack of diversity in public monuments and memorials.
National Impact and Praise
The final product has drawn positive national attention to Memphis at a time when it has needed it most. The reimagined Tom Lee Park has inspired more than 70 media articles, and the park has been recognized as a national model for sustainability, ecological regeneration, and inclusive placemaking by the SITES rating program.
In addition, it has received numerous awards, including as a Finalist, Fast Company World Changing Ideas Award to Tom Lee Park in Urban Design; American Society of Landscape Architects LaGasse Medal to Carol Coletta, 2024; American Society of Landscape Architects Honor Award for General Design, Tom Lee Park, 2024; Finalist, Architizer A+ Awards, Public Parks and Green Spaces Category, 2024; Honorable Mention, The Architect’s Newspaper Best of Design Awards, Unbuilt – Landscape Category, 2019; Bilbao Metropoli 30’s one of best 100 projects in the world, 2024; and Honor Award, Urban Design, 2025 American Institute of Architects New York, Design Awards.
In the first post about Tom Lee Park on this blog on August 30, 2010, I wrote: “Tom Lee Park is the worst riverfront park in the country. That’s the comment made to Memphis City Council by Riverfront Development Corporation President Benny Lendermon, and surely, this is an RDC statement we can all agree to. Rarely has such prime waterfront public realm real estate been put to such abysmal use in any city. It’s unappealing in its largely barren state and often looks more like cows should be grazing on it than joggers racing through it. The public art looks like a speck in the flatlands, urban design is AWOL and the park programming promised way back when the sliver of land along Riverside Drive was expanded to roughly 30 acres never materialized.”
Fourteen years later, it has been said by a major national media outlet that Tom Lee Park has set a new standard for riverfront parks. There was a time when it was inconceivable that a spectacular Tom Lee Park could be possible, so I, for one, say thanks to Ms. Coletta for aiming high and staying true to the vision.
Author, activist, and lecturer Helen Keller, who lost her sight as a 19 month old, said: “the only worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” Tom Lee Park is evidence that Memphis is no longer blind to the power of a compelling vision. It is a lesson that should hopefully drive key decisions made about the city’s future.
**
Join me at the Smart City Memphis Facebook page and on Instagram where these blog posts are published along with occasional articles, reports, and commentaries that are relevant to Memphis.
