Dubuque, Iowa
In the mid 1990s, Dubuque started planning a riverfront project, prodded by the Dubuque Historical Society, which proposed a $25 million river museum/aquarium. It ended up being a $58 million facility, but the society raised every last dollar, said Dubuque's city manager, Mike Van Milligen.
From there, the vision grew into a $188 million renovation of the riverfront, funded through the city of Dubuque, state and federal government, and private enterprises.
The 90-acre riverfront area in Dubuque includes an amphitheater, plaza, river museum and aquarium and more. Its concrete floodwall was buried and had a riverwalk put on top of it. Connected to that is a Grand River Resort and WaterPark and the Grand River Center, which is a city-owned convention center.
In its first two years, America's River attendance sparked an $18 million increase in Iowa tourism spending.
The city is now planning Phase II of the project, a $225 million investment that would include a Great Rivers Center, a Rivers Research Center and a RiverMax Theater.
Newport, Ky.
Newport on the Levee opened in 2001, developed by Steiner and Associates of Columbus, the same company that laid out the original plans for Pullman Square in Huntington. Pullman's developer, Tim Rollins, was a principal with Steiner, and the Pullman project incorporated several entertainment features similar to Newport, including retail, a theater and large selection of restaurants.
Trails and pedestrian bridges connect the $145 million shopping and entertainment complex on the Ohio River in Newport, Ky., to nearby Covington and Cincinnati.
A trail on top of Newport's floodwall connects with a bridge over the Licking River into the adjacent city of Covington. An old railroad bridge was overhauled for pedestrian use to connect Newport on the Levee and Sawyer Point in Cincinnati, painted purple and dubbed "The Purple People Bridge."
Chattanooga, Tenn.
The banks of the Tennessee River in Chattanooga features an aquarium, children's museum, carousel, theaters, walking paths, pedestrian bridge, pier and other amenities that helped revitalize what had become a dirty, dying downtown.
The return to the river really got going in the early 1990s, with the opening of a freshwater aquarium.
According to the Tennessee Aquarium Web site, Chattanoogans joined together in a community planning process called "Vision 2000," with the downtown's vitality at the heart of the meetings. Meanwhile, a publicly appointed citizen task force was hosting community meetings about how to reclaim the Tennessee Riverfront. A group of architectural students from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville first suggested the idea of an aquarium near the downtown waterfront, and all the ideas came together in the Tennessee Riverpark Master Plan. The 20-year plan called for $750 million of mixed-use development, enhancement and conservation along 22 miles of the Tennessee River corridor as it passed through Chattanooga. It was published in 1985.
After the aquarium opened in 1992, the Chattanooga Visitors Center opened in 1993, followed by the Creative Discovery Museum in 1995 and the IMAX 3D Theater in 1996. In 1993, a renovated bridge opened as a pedestrian-only bridge, and across the river a park with a vintage carousel opened in 1999. A convention center was expanded a block away from a new conference center and hotel. Restaurants, shops and other businesses popped up around it all.
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