A park for all seasons.

For those who have never had the pleasure of living in a city with a vibrant urban parks system, it's hard to imagine the many uses and benefits that urban parks offer to downtown workers, residents, and visitors. Louisville Waterfront Park is the front door to Kentucky, a playground for people of all ages, and a gathering place for folks from all over the community. It offers a grand view of the river, space for concerts and festivals, quiet places to read a book, picnic spaces for your family and friends. The parks hosts crowds of 350,000 for Thunder Over Louisville, and groups of 25 for family reunions.

The Park is made up of three phases and totals 85 acres. The last phase, Phase III, is currently under construction and is scheduled to be completed in 2011.

Phase I was completed in 1999 and contains broad, open spaces appropriate for large events, as well as smaller spaces intended for family gatherings or enjoying the Ohio River in a secluded setting. The centerpiece of Phase I is the Great Lawn, the park's most distinctive open space. Touching the Ohio and rising gradually over its 14 acres, it ends at Witherspoon Street, connecting the river to the city. Phase I is where the largest waterfront events take place, including Thunder Over Louisville in April and the Fifth Third Waterfront Independence Festival on July 3rd and 4th.

Directly up River Road from Phase I, Phase II has a distinctly different take on what a waterfront park can be. Phase II is a ribbon of medium to small spaces, suitable for picnics, weddings, parties, and events of moderate size. In contrast to Phase I, Phase II is a place where it is possible to feel nature without a reminder that the city is right over your shoulder. Home to Tumbleweed Southwest Grill and the Adventure Playground, Phase II is one of the busiest areas of the park during summer months.

The final phase of the Waterfront Master Plan, Phase III, is still underway. Slated for completion in 2011, Phase III's most notable feature will be the revamped Big 4 Bridge, which will serve as a pedestrian crossing connecting Louisville to Southern Indiana. Also notable in Phase III's design is the Lincoln Memorial at Waterfront Park, which commemorates Abraham Lincoln's lifelong Kentucky connections. When finished, Phase III will connect the first two phases and complete the original vision laid out in the original Waterfront Park Master Plan.

To quote from the Waterfront Master plan: "In broad philosophic strokes, the Master Plan seeks to pull into the 21st century the cultural waterfront heritage of the 18th and 19th centuries, to interpret and restore the ecology of the river as it was before western civilization, and to extend downtown Louisville to the river--and conversely, magnify the presence of the river and extend the river into downtown. In so doing the Waterfront can be come a vessel for public activities, with the natural systems of the Ohio River Valley generating its structure and power. Finally, it is the spirit of the people who will fill this space that adds the most necessary dynamic, that of the natural exuberance of human life."