Columbia considering 6 designers for riverfront park. See their past work
Columbia has a vision to transform a stretch of its waterfront along the Congaree River into a world-class park. Now, the city has narrowed its list of prospective designers to six, one of which will likely plan out what that park looks like and just how ambitious the project might be.
For years, the land between the Blossom and Gervais Street bridges on Columbia’s side of the Congaree River has been untouchable. But now, thanks to a land donation, a river cleanup and a new street project, the plans for an actually accessible riverfront are finally feasible.
Earlier this year, Columbia took its most formal step yet toward developing a park along this stretch of untamed riverfront, asking design firms to rise to the challenge of planning it out. Nearly 20 firms from across the country responded with their qualifications.
Columbia has narrowed that list to six, according to a May 15 city document posted on the city’s procurement website. The firms that made the first cut have some impressive, and expensive, portfolios.
The designers will now work up more detailed sketches of what the Congaree Riverfont could look like, and include specifics like how that work will get done and what it will cost. City Councilman Will Brennan previously told The State that there is no set budget for the work yet but initial suggestions have been floated between $40 and $60 million. The designers vying for the project have shaped hundred-million-dollar developments in major U.S. cities.
The city’s information for contractors lists June as the project’s tentative start date.
Take a look at Columbia’s six favorite firms to design a future “world-class” park on the Congaree Riverfront.
CMG Landscape Architecture
A San Francisco based architecture and urban design firm founded in 2000. Their work includes these major projects:
- The firm is among the designers for the ongoing $6 billion redevelopment of San Francisco’s Treasure Island.
- It also worked on a sweeping re-imagining of Austin, Texas’ South-Central Waterfront on the Colorado River, which for decades was contaminated and unused. Austin has a vision not unlike some in Columbia to put the formerly forgotten site to use, with new trails, buildings and road connections.’
Field Operations, LLC
A New York City design firm with a hand in many high-profile projects:
- They led the design of a $250 million endeavor to build a park atop a historic rail line in Manhattan, called the High Line.
- And a multi-phase overhaul of Chicago’s iconic Navy Pier, upgrading park features and adding a new plaza, fountain and more.
Hargreaves Jones Landscape Architecture
Another New York based firm, Hargreaves Jones formed in 1983 and has worked on projects across the U.S., including several waterfront developments:
- The firm led the design of the $95 million reclamation of Louisville’s Ohio Riverfront that began in the late 1980s. The park project that came from that work has been celebrated as “a model for other post-industrial waterfront cities.”
- It also found success redeveloping 22 acres along the Tennessee River in downtown Chattanooga, Tenn., in the mid-2000s.
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates
Based in Brooklyn and Cambridge, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates formed in 1982 and also has experience with ambitious riverfront projects:
- The firm designed the Brooklyn Bridge Park, a public park on 1.3 miles along New York’s East River, a project that took over 20 years from start to finish.
- More recently, it designed a major new park in Tusla, Oklahoma on 66.5 acres along the Arkansas River, called the Gathering Place. That $465 million project added gardens, playgrounds and more to a formerly blighted site.
MKSK, Inc
MKSK is an Ohio-based firm founded in 1990 that has already done some work in South Carolina:
- The firm is behind the design of Greenville’s $80 million Unity Park, which officially opened in 2022. That project took a long-in-flux site representative of the city’s history of racial segregation and built a 60-acre park with restored wetlands, trails and playground equipment, with the Reedy River as a key feature.
- The firm has also designed a number of waterfront parks in different Ohio cities, like the $44 million re-imagining of 1.4 miles along the Scioto River in downtown Columbus. That project added a pedestrian promenade, fountain, amphitheater and more.
SWA Group
The oldest design firm on the list, SWA Group was founded in 1957 and has a global portfolio, with design work on major projects from China to Louisiana:
- One example is work on the Buffalo Bayou Park in Houston, Texas – a 1.3 mile long park that stretches down a bayou underneath Houston freeways, designed with heavy flooding in mind. The initial cost of that park cost $58 million. The city is now looking at expanding the work with another $310 project (with help from another designer on this list, Michael Van Valkenburgh.)
- The firm recently worked on plans for the overhaul of 100 acres of formerly industrial land in New Jersey’s Jersey City. The plan would add parks, promenades and 8,000 units of housing.
This story was originally published May 20, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
