The Evansville Regional Economic Partnership and its Boston, Massachusetts-based engineering partner Sasaki have released updated renderings of a long-term vision to overhaul Evansville’s Ohio River shoreline Downtown.
Designs shared Feb. 11 show sports courts and townhouses near Sunset Skatepark and the Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science. Many modifications since the plan’s initial May 2024 release have been driven by flooding patterns. “We’ve always had flooding as part of our design way back to the vision plan,” says Anna Cawrse, principal landscape architect with Sasaki, but subtle changes strive to ensure the riverfront’s major features are protected.
Cawrse says that more detailed information has allowed engineers to tweak designs “by in some cases a couple inches, some cases a few feet.”
Major features of the project have not changed. There’s an accessible playground that would replace Mickey’s Kingdom, plus a splash pad, restaurant building, grand staircase leading to the river’s bank, large grassy plaza at Riverside Drive and Main Street surrounding the relocated Four Freedoms Monument, and winding pedestrian path with an elevated canopy.
Officials say their current top priority is finding dollars to complete construction drawings, a necessary step to start the project and complete it on the shorter end of its expected 10-30 year timeline. Engineering and design estimates will cost roughly $5 million.
“Right now, we’re at 50 percent schematic design. If you look at construction terminology, a schematic design is 30 percent of a full construction document. So, we’re on our way. It just will get more and more detailed (from here),” Cawrse says.
Where will the dollars come from to complete the construction documents and then get shovels in the ground? Officials say they have communicated with foundation sources as well as different levels of government.
Sasaki engineers also have discussed riverfront concepts for Mount Vernon, Indiana’s Sherburne Park, as well as in Newburgh, Indiana. Both are part of the Ohio River Vision Strategic Master Plan, a multi-county initiative to deliver new investment along a 50-mile stretch of the river. Officials say full construction costs are still being estimated by local contractors and engineering consultants.
“This is a transformative regional plan,” says Ashley Diekmann, E-REP’s River Vision Advancement Director. “It will take a lot of collaboration on the local, state, and federal levels, as well as philanthropic investments. So those are the conversations and the collaboration with our community leaders that we continue to have on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis, making sure that we are driving this plan forward.”
