Correction: This story has been updated to include Ben & Jerry's as a tenant at the new Tom Lee Park.

New York-based landscape architect Kate Orff recalls the first time she visited Tom Lee Park. It was late summer 2018, a hot, muggy day — one she could only describe as uncomfortable.

“Even though it was a park it didn’t feel like park,” she said. “It was like a flat pancake.”

Orff, one of TIME's 100 most influential people of 2023, is the founding principal and partner at New York-based SCAPE, the landscape architect and design team behind the renovated Tom Lee Park.

While Memphis in May and its barbecue contest have hogged headlines regarding Tom Lee Park, the reality is Memphis’ marquee riverfront park has had a major glow up.

It's a reminder that change — while not always welcomed — is forever a constant. After nearly four years of planning and three years of construction, Tom Lee Park is ready to open with a brand-new look.

Orff said one of the largest goals for the renovation was accenting the Mississippi River and embracing connectivity between the riverfront and Downtown Memphis.

A big conversation early on in the process, she said, was with Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s administration and City Council regarding entrances to the park. They wanted a park that was reaching in both directions, and the design evolved from there.

“A lot of cities have rivers that were so vital for industrial uses to reclaim them … to bring them back to life with real life… it’s so rewarding to me,” said Jeanne Gang, Studio Gang founding principal and partner.

In 2017 Studio Gang was approached to create a master plan for Memphis’ riverfront. The Chicago-based studio was the primary master planner and architect for the $61 million Tom Lee Park project, with a large portion of the park’s redesign taking inspiration from that initial master plan. (The project's funding was made viable through local, state and federal grants along with an estimated $30 million in private donations.)

Similar to Orff, Gang remembers the first time she traversed the park and thinking, “Where does this thing end?”

The goal was to connect the park and make it welcoming for everyone, she said. That meant reclaiming the riverfront and highlighting the park’s history.

Soil first, amenities second

The first portion of that Orff said was recreating the ground — literally.

Due to generations of previous industrial use, and a brief stint where it was used as a city dump, the subsoil of Tom Lee Park had become what Orff described as “urban.” The natural soil along the riverfront had been depleted and nutrients needed to be restored.

SCAPE and Studio Gang’s planned overhaul required improved, fertile soil that could support the new flora and root systems going into the park. Since construction began on 31-acre Tom Lee Park in late 2020, the park went from having only 50 trees to more than 1,000.

The botany boom isn’t just for show either. The increased number of trees was paramount to creating more oxygen and helping reducing the impacts of “urban heat,” Orff said.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) urban heat islands are created when pavement and buildings replace natural land cover. This causes higher ground temperatures during both daytime and evening hours. The increase in temperature can have a negative impact on quality of life, air quality and surrounding wildlife.

Adding trees and vegetation can help provide more shade, oxygen and combat the lack of moisture and shade caused by city construction such as buildings, roadways, sidewalks and concrete roofs.

“We need more things like this with climate changes,” Gang said.

Of those 1,000 trees, 300 of them are oak species. The rationale was the species role in flood plains and the North American ecosystem. Oaks are a dominate piece of Tennessee’s ecosystem, more adaptable to flood conditions and help support more life than any other species of tree in North America. A single oak tree can support more than 800 species of caterpillar, produce 3 million acorns, and drop more than 700,000 leaves annually, according to studies from entomologist Douglas W. Tallamy.

"So much needed to be done underground," said George Abbott, director of external affairs for Memphis River Parks Partnership, which manages Tom Lee Park. He added that early on in construction the site was a "mud pit" for so long because of the work needed to repair the soil and site's geology.

When Tom Lee Park reopens this Labor Day weekend, the park will have approximately 700 native tree species planted throughout the park’s oak canopy. This includes the pawpaw and sassafras tree, which are the host plants for the zebra swallowtail and spicebush swallowtail butterflies, respectively. (Fun fact: The former is the Tennessee state butterfly.)

While the new vegetation is a noticeable change, the wildlife is a key part in the new park’s mapping.

The 'rooms' of Tom Lee Park

“The park feels like a series of rooms,” Orff said. She added that each section has it own unique role and position within the park.

The park is divided into four zones: the civic gateway (at the Beale Street entrance), the active core, community batture and the habitat terraces.

The core of the park includes the Sunset Canopy, which is dedicated to Tyre Nichols and features artwork from artist, and Memphis native, James Little. Alongside the canopy are permanent concession stands, Point Bar Pavilions. Both structures (the canopy and pavilions) are made of timber. The use of timber as a construction material was inspired by the wooden cranes and logging operations conducted along the river’s shoreline, Gang said.

The Point Bar Pavilion tenants include Ben & Jerry's, Vice & Virtue Coffee and Paper Plate Pavilion.

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Here’s a closer look at how Tom Lee Park is broken down and what each area includes:

Civic Gateway:

• Carlisle Cutbank Bluff

• AutoZone Plaza, a 5,500-square-foot misted plaza

• Visionary Grove, a 4,500-square-foot oak grove with hanging lights

• 71,000-square-foot open lawn area

Active Core:

• 20,000-square-foot Sunset Canopy and First Horizon Sunset Lounge

• River Play playground including river animal structures from Denmark-based Monstrum

• Fitness stations, sitting stations and 100,000-square-foot TVA Central Lawn

Community Batture (area surrounding Tom Lee statue):

• Monument to Listening from artist Theaster Gates

• Heroes Plaza birch forest area and meditative walking paths

• River overlook

Habitat Terraces:

• Buckman outdoor classroom for youth and visitors

• Pollinator labs and sound garden

• Log scramble walkway.

The community batture area surrounding the Tom Lee statue designed by artist David Allan Clark in 2006 will lean more heavily into the city and the park’s history. Tom Lee was a river worker who saved 32 people from drowning in May 1925. Both Orff and Gang said the design teams saw an opportunity to better immortalize the life of Tom Lee and his heroic story more, something they felt was missing from the previous park design.

Part of that was making sure the statue and river could be seen from various vantage points throughout the park, thus the addition of hills and elevated areas throughout.

A riverfront the 'city deserves'

Downtown Memphis Commission President and CEO Paul Young said the reopening of Tom Lee Park is a major milestone for Downtown and will help provide the region with a new economic driver.

“Tom Lee Park now offers the riverfront experience our city deserves, and we cannot wait to welcome residents and visitors alike into Downtown to enjoy it,” he said.

Memphis River Parks Partnership estimates upward of 800,000 visitors annually to the new Tom Lee Park.

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Abbott said the news surrounding the Memphis in May festival and its use of the park has, at times, overshadowed the work done along the riverfront and Tom Lee Park.

"It's a game-changer for all of us," he said. “Think what has happened gets lost with Memphis in May... This is a phenomenal public space that is unlike any in the world.”

He added that the amount of work done since 2018 along Memphis' riverfront is substantial. The riverfront has seen significant changes with renovations at Fourth Bluff Park and Cobblestone Landing; along with the construction of The Landing Residences, the Hyatt Centric and Caption by Hyatt, not just Tom Lee Park. These changes and renovations have not been in isolation, he said. They help work in harmony to connect the riverfront and Front Street with the heart of Downtown along Main Street.

“The reason people want to be Downtown is because it is connected," he said.

When asked about the finished design now in comparison to her first experience at the park, Orff acknowledged there’s a bittersweet sentiment. After being so heavily involved in a transformative project like this as it comes to completion there's a strangeness to handing it off, she said. She added that she's excited about the future of the park and hopes it can help lessen Downtown's urban sprawl.

“Parks connect communities together,” she said. “It is extremely special Memphis has this green space at its river’s edge.”

Neil Strebig is a journalist with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at neil.strebig@commercialappeal.com, 901-426-0679 or via X/Twitter,@neilStrebig. 

Tom Lee Park's opening

Tom Lee Park will open to the public at 11 a.m. Saturday. The grand opening celebration will include a parade beginning at Carlisle Cutbank Bluff, hip hop yoga, live music and a special performance from artist Theaster Gates. For more information on the grand opening celebration, visit Memphis River Parks Partnership's event page.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Tom Lee Park reopens: A look at the Memphis park's transformation