Tom Lee Park: "Come to the River"

Honor Award

General Design

Memphis, Tennessee, United States
SCAPE / Landscape Architecture
Studio Gang
Client: Memphis River Parks Partnership

“

Tom Lee Park is a beautiful, nicely detailed project with a great integration of materials, plantings, and context to create a variety of spaces and unique experiences. It sets a remarkable precedent for inclusivity, social equity, and learning.

”

- 2024 Awards Jury

Project Credits

Kate Orff, FASLA, Principal-in-Charge, SCAPE Landscape Architecture, Co-Design Lead, Landscape Architect

John Donnelly, Technical Principal, SCAPE Landscape Architecture - Co-Design Lead, Landscape Architect

Brad Howe, Design Director, SCAPE Landscape Architecture - Co-Design Lead, Landscape Architect

Will Tietje, Senior Associate, SCAPE Landscape Architecture - Co-Design Lead, Landscape Architect

Studio Gang, Co-Design Lead, Master Planner & Architect

Memphis River Parks Partnership, Client

Montgomery Martin, Contractor

Kimley-Horn, Civil Engineer

Thornton Tomasetti, Structural Engineer

Innovative Engineering Services, M/E/P Engineer

DataBased+, Sustainability Analysis

Randy Burkett Lighting Design, Lighting

Theaster Gates, Artist

James Little, Artist

Monstrum, Playground Designer

Applied Ecological Services, Ecological Consulting

Delta Fountains, Fountain Consultant

Olsson, Soils Consultant

Hines, Irrigation Consultant

Project Statement

Tom Lee Park is a 31-acre riverfront park on the Mississippi River in Memphis. It has been celebrated and cited as a national model for inclusive placemaking and ecological regeneration.

The park is named for Tom Lee, a Black river worker who became a hero after risking his own life to save 32 people from a capsized steamboat in 1925. The design celebrates Lee’s legacy of generosity, while still confronting conversations about justice.

The park sends a warm welcome to its neighbors. Its forms create space for a range of programs that reflect input from thousands of residents: a destination playground, outdoor learning classroom, two art installations, water play features, a hammock grove, and a shelter at its heart.

Project Narrative

Located on a great bluff, Memphis has been defined by its relationship to the Mississippi River for centuries. However, like many American cities, it turned its back on the then-industrial waterfront. For years, Tom Lee Park was an unremarkable swath of compacted turf—at one point, it was even used as a city dump. In a 2017 master plan, Tom Lee Park—Memphis’ most visible and accessible riverfront park—was identified as an opportunity for creating a space where all Memphians could engage with each other and the Mississippi year-round, as a critical link in an emerging system of waterfront parks.

Inclusivity drove every aspect of the design. The park is located between downtown Memphis and some of Tennessee’s poorest zip codes. The redesign was an opportunity to create a shared public space for people across demographics that links to these neighborhoods. Through an intensive public engagement process, the client collected feedback from thousands of Memphians to ensure the park serves as common ground for all residents.

The park is named after Tom Lee, a Memphis hero. Lee’s act of compassion in the segregated South is a source of local pride and inspiration for Memphians—yet it is important to recognize the complex history of discrimination in his story. Tom Lee Park honors Lee’s legacy with a design that is abundant and welcoming, while also acknowledging the full truth of Memphis’ struggle toward equity. In a majority Black city, Tom Lee Park highlights the voices of Memphis’ Black community to enable a sense of belonging in the park for all.

Extending 31 acres along the Mississippi, the new Tom Lee Park signifies a turning point in the city’s relationship to the river. The park is organized into programmatic zones that mimic the dynamic hydrology of the Mississippi River, weaving together circulation and topography into spaces that showcase hardy riparian ecosystems. Beneath the park, a restored soil system underpins a new framework of trees, shrubs, grasses, and perennials. Trees were selected to feature climate-adaptive native species, including hundreds of oaks, to support a vast array of bird and insect life in a wetter, hotter environment.

The park was a true collaboration between landscape architect, architect, and client. Sheltering structures made of timber, a river-themed playground, and landscape features create joyful destinations for recreation, education, performances, and more. The Pollinator Lab features an outdoor classroom for students to study the relationship between plants and insects, accompanied by a curriculum that was developed as part of the design process. At its northern end, the park introduces a new ADA-accessible entrance at Cutbank Bluff, connecting to key public transport and civic spaces.

The client commissioned two Black artists for public art pieces. At the park’s center is a permanent installation titled A Monument to Listening—a series of 32 basalt thrones, representing the 32 lives that Tom Lee saved. This piece is an invitation to hold dialogue about Tom Lee’s legacy and our relation to each other. The second artist’s piece is an adaptation of their 2017 painting Democratic Experiment, transforming a basketball court into a colorful mural underneath Sunset Canopy. The canopy itself is dedicated to Tyre Nichols, a Black man and Memphis native who was fatally assaulted in 2023 by Memphis police. This investment in Black culture and remembrance is a clear signal to all Memphians: you belong here.

Products

  • Furniture
    • Streetlife
    • Fermob USA
    • Columbia Cascade Company
    • Landscape Forms
  • Irrigation
    • Rain Bird
  • Lumber/Decking/Edging
    • Thermory
  • Parks/Recreation Equipment
    • Monstrum
    • NOORD
    • Trekfit
    • Twin Oaks Hammocks
  • Structures
    • Firmitas Timber
    • Masco Metals
    • Guardian Glass
    • NanaWall
    • Virginia Tile Company
  • Water Management/Amenities
    • Join the Pipe
    • Delta Fountains
  • Hardscape
    • Wausau Tile
  • Lighting
    • Luis Poulsen
    • Griven USA
    • Tokistar Lighting
    • HK Lighting
    • B-K Lighting

Plant List

  • Asimina triloba 'Allegheny', Allegheny pawpaw
  • Asimina triloba 'Pennsylvania golden', Pennsylvania golden pawpaw
  • Bouteloua curtipendula, sideoats grama grass
  • Cephalanthus occidentalis, buttonbush
  • Clethra alnifolia, summersweet
  • Corylus americana, American hazelnut
  • Diospyros virginiana, common persimmon
  • Leucothoe, doghobble
  • Liquidambar styraciflua, sweetgum
  • Liriodendron tulipifera, tulip poplar
  • Monarda fistulosa, wild bergamot
  • Penstemon digitalis, foxglove beardtongue
  • Quercus macrocarpa, burr oak
  • Quercus phellos, willow oak
  • Quercus shumardii, Shumard oak